Early Morning Musings

 This past week has been one that truly wasn't a very good one. I suffer from Restless Leg Syndrome and when mixed with the damage to my spine, can make make sleeping damn near impossible. I take 3 different drugs to counter the effects of all the problems and when I run out of one, it makes for a very painful night of attempted sleep. This past week was hell. I ran out of one of the pills and needless to say, my night life was ugly. Friday night I got my refill and life went back to as normal as it can get. Knowing I was going to sleep good again, I had my arm twisted into another Jeep trip to Indian Springs. Who could say no to such a great offer? After the last disaster out there,(see the last previous entry) I was more than ready to return and continue the exploration of The Indian Springs area. There are 3 trails that lead to areas away from the main canyon itself. The first was one that took you over the top of the mountain and down to the other side of the range. We did that trail last year on our first visit to the area. Yesterdays trip was to explore the other two roads. First up was the trail that leads south from the main road. We followed it til it got too narrow for Old Yellow and we had to turn around. We found the remains of a mining camp on this trail and of course we had to explore them. Above you can see what is left of some sort of building. 

 I really have no idea what it was but I am guessing that it was a good size cabin. If you look at the 1st foto, you can see some type of work bench under the tree just of of the Jeep. The pile suggests it was a good size cabin and I really wonder if there is a foto of it somewhere of when it was still standing. During our meanderings of the site, we ran across Leonard. His mingling with humans must be zero to barely, because he let us get to within inches of him and he didn't move. He was quite large for a common lizard of Utah and I would guesstimate him to be close to 10 inches long. 

 Leonard was soaking up the sun on the door to the pile of rubble in the foto above. This mess of lumber was the old outhouse for the cabin. It has collapsed like the cabin it served and judging by the debris in the hole in the ground, it has been down a long time. I wonder what could be found by digging out the hole it once covered? Yes that sounds gross but its a known fact that back in those days you dropped just about any type of garbage down the hole. Plus, I have heard of coins being found that more than likely had fallen out of the users pocket. Who knows what you could find in this one?

 What type of blog entry would this be without a foto of my trusted partner. We had to stop in Brigham City for a minor repair on the trip down. I was getting a nasty vibration from the tires so I figured I had better get them balanced before we continued on. Wow, they were not even close to being balanced Our tire technician quickly did the job and from there on out, it was smooth sailing. Old Yellow drives like new again. I like it! Now, back to our story.

Across the road and down in the area that I believe was once a small stream, we encountered the cold house for the cabin. These buildings were your basic refrigerators of the time. They are built into the sides of hills and were the best solution to keeping things cool as possible for the time period. Some even used ice to help lower the temps, but I am 99.673% certain that this one didn't. My reasoning? Ice used to cool this type of cool house has to come from ponds or lakes that completely freeze in the area. At one time, could there have been a pond nearby? Possibly, but I saw no evidence of one in the area. Could I be wrong? Yup I could, but I'm sticking to my no ice theory until I am proven wrong. 
Road 3 went north and appeared to go over the top of that canyon to the other side. I didn't follow it to its end due to the fact I was running out of places to turn around. Backing down steep trails with large drop offs isn't my favorite thing to do. All in all, it was a great trip. We will return again someday and try to get up to a couple of mines we spotted. When that will be is unknown. Its time to move down the range and see what other cool things we can find. Jeep on my friends!