August 2: Lambert's Mine

The hike from Red Hills to Cypher's mine was surprisingly grueling. First there was a longish ascent to go over the shoulder of Big Red. We used a different trail for the ascent; NOBODY wanted to hike up that ugly ravine under any circumstances. The trails leading from the Red Hills area to Cypher's would have taken us miles out of our way, so we broke protocol by hiking down a series of roads. The roads were, as we had been warned, hot, dusty, and treacherously steep in places. At length we arrived at Cypher's Mine. At this point realized that it had been several days since it had rained and that a brief afternoon shower would have been a welcome relief from the heat. In any event, we had lunch at Cypher's mine. A number of the scouts panned (unsuccessfully) for gold. We then got a tour of the gold mine, complete with a somewhat ham-handed 'emergency in the mine' that required us to turn off our lights and make our way out in the dark. We then made the short (but still hot and dusty) hike to our overnight campsite at Lambert's Mine. We finally made good on a long-standing offer to visit our sister crew from Texas, where they shared the hospitality of their fire. A great time was had by all.