Engilchek: Serious Soviet Mining and Artifacts

This adit, despite being in very close proximity to the first adit we explored, is markedly different (and I’m not just referring to the absence of creepy experiences)… Of most significance to me, given the freezing weather, is the fact that it was dry until the end. This surprised me given that the nearby adit was wet and that this adit was fairly far down a mountain (water from the melting snow percolates down through the earth). Dry abandoned mines are always appreciated and I do not take such things for granted.
In addition, the construction style of this adit was very different. We had that gallery of woodwork stretching back seemingly forever rather than the sea of concrete stretching back seemingly forever as in the last adit… One possibility that just occurred to me with this difference is that damp wood rots very quickly. So, the miners may have experienced the same wet/dry dynamic that I did and opted for the concrete in the wet adit (the first one we visited) versus wood in the dry adit (this second one). That is just speculation though.
Moving along on the “differences” theme - this second adit also had more artifacts within it as, aside from being dry, it also seemed less ravaged as it is harder to reach than the first adit. Also, the layout of the workings is different (at the least from the part we saw in the first one) as this adit seemed to have more of an exploratory nature and to meander around some more… Normally, these differences would not be noteworthy, but when we see such differences between two adits that were constructed around the same time and in such close proximity to each other, well, it stands out.
Unfortunately, as I mentioned with the prior videos, the clock ran out on this one and I had to leave well before even really scratching the surface at what is within this massive Soviet mine complex. This is very much a site that I would like to return to in the future with more time and equipment. Fortunately, we don’t have to worry about the AML contractors or the Forest Service or BLM closing this one up as much as I’m sure they’d love to get paid to do so!
I hope that you found Engilchek interesting because it was not easy to reach it! And it also really sucked going back down the mountain with a wet leg in the -10 F temperatures...
I would like to thank everyone watching this video (especially the few of you that actually read the descriptions) for helping to make 2019 a great year for TVR Exploring… That you would give me part of your time is a great honor. I will do my best in 2020 to continue treating it with the respect you deserve.
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All of these videos are uploaded in HD, so adjust those settings to ramp up the quality! It really makes a difference.
You can see the gear that I use for mine exploring here: bit.ly/2wqcBDD
And a small gear update here: bit.ly/2p6Jip6
You can see the full TVR Exploring playlist of abandoned mines here: goo.gl/TEKq9L
Thanks for watching!
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Growing up in California’s “Gold Rush Country” made it easy to take all of the history around us for granted. However, abandoned mine sites have a lot working against them - nature, vandals, scrappers and various government agencies… The old prospectors and miners that used to roam our lonely mountains and toil away deep underground are disappearing quickly as well.
These losses finally caught our attention and we felt compelled to make an effort to document as many of the ghost towns and abandoned mines that we could before that colorful niche of our history is gone forever. But, you know what? We enjoy doing it! This is exploring history firsthand - bushwhacking down steep canyons and over rough mountains, figuring out the techniques the miners used and the equipment they worked with, seeing the innovations they came up with, discovering lost mines that no one has been in for a century, wandering through ghost towns where the only sound is the wind... These journeys allow a feeling of connection to a time when the world was a very different place. And I’d love to think that in some small way we are paying tribute to those hardy miners that worked these mines before we were even born.
So, yes, in short, we are adit addicts… I hope you’ll join us on these adventures!
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