Well, I'm going to hike down into that gorge.
The trail begins here. This begins the descent down into the gorge to the river. Now down there
is something interesting. See that peninsula I think I pointed out earlier?
There is a tunnel that goes all the way through that from one side to the other.
It was going to be a piping project, but it never was completed. They gave up on it. We should be
able to find a tunnel down there on the peninsula that will take us all the way through to the other
side of the gorge. The first part of this trail here at the top is kind of steep and narrow and
a little sketchy, but I don't think it's going to be that difficult. So right up
here you can see where the trail is going to make a switchback here -- a pretty steep one, I think.
Yes, right here is the turn, and it just keeps going down
and down that way. That's where we're headed.
If you listen carefully, I think you can hear the river. I can hear
it from all the way up here. I don't know if that's coming out in the video or not.
There are two crows or ravens down there flying around.
Look at how narrow and steep the canyon walls get further up there!
I think this spot right down below me is probably the only spot you can get in and out of the canyon
at least in this area. Otherwise the sides are just too steep and too vertical.
I hope you can hear that water. There is a lot of water flowing in the river.
Well, we made it to the peninsula!
We just came from that way up over that that small saddle there and up to the top. So let's
keep on heading down here. That was the hardest part of the hike. That was the most steepest part
with the roughest terrain. This here is pretty simple. It looks like they put metal posts here at
one point. There might have been a chain between the posts to serve as a handrail but that chain is
no longer here. See? There are loops on the middle post for some kind of a chain, rope, or something.
I think that flat area down there is the waste rock pile from the tunnel that goes through this
mountain, so we have to get down there. The trail looks like it is going over this way, though.
I think....
Now it's going straight ahead. I thought it was turning here. Well,
it looks like it does turn to the right and also goes to the left.
I think I'm going to stick with the side that has the posts.
That is probably the main trail. This is probably a branch. It looks like it goes out there.
I don't know where that goes, so I'm going to stick to what looks like the main trail here.
So we'll leave this side of the gorge and head through this tunnel
that goes to the other side!
Wow! This is pretty cool! There are some big timbers up here for support.
There is some graffiti here. I don't know what this says. It says, "Meow. BDH Face."
"Meow" It looks like there's a cat. Someone drew a cat.
Maybe there's a stope cat in here. Or a bobcat. Or a mountain lion. God, I hope not!
This was dug for a large pipe. This wasn't a gold mine or anything like that. This was for a pipe
water project. Wow! Look at that!
Pretty big slabs!
There are some tumbleweeds here.
Wow! Right above me they stuck in some wedges and here's a big timber going across over to there.
I'll say one thing -- it's nice and cool in here. Even though it's November, it's about
75 degrees out there today. Pretty nice! Wow! Check out here in the overhead! It's some kind of
strange rock. I'm not sure what that is but
it's got some sparkles in it. Like I said, I think most of this is volcanic.
Wow! It's like total silence! I can't hear the river. I've been
hearing the river the whole way down through the hike, and even
more so when I got to the bottom of the gorge. Now I don't hear anything.
I'm not sure when this pipe tunnel or tunnel for the pipe was dug. I will have to research that.
I'm thinking maybe in the 1950s or 1960s. I'm not sure.
It looks like they blasted it just like they would do for a mine. Probably a lot of the same
technology was used. I think nowadays they might have more modern techniques like a bore machine
that would just drill a hole straight through the mountain without having to blast it.
This is definitely old-school. Yes, you can see here remnants of blasting holes, I think.
There's a wooden structure out here, too. I don't know what this is, and I don't recall seeing this
in other people's videos. I only saw one video actually.
I don't think a lot of people film this for some reason.
This is some kind of a catch basin or something.
So there's the tunnel we just came out of.
Here's the side of the peninsula, and then on this side they built a concrete wall.
You can see it comes right up to there and goes up to there. Apparently that wooden structure is
a gate. See that center piece? It would go up and down, and that would allow the water to flow into
this pipe to be diverted into the piping system that was never built. That is just like a big
gate. There probably would have been a hoisting mechanism up there at the top.
We'll take a close-up look at that. That's what that was -- a wooden chute gate basically or a
gate. So the water would have flowed in through here. There would have been a pipe here, I guess.
I'm assuming a pipe was here, or maybe a pipe was at the far end at the mouth of the tunnel. The
pipe might've gone across the gorge to that other opening that's gated that I showed you across the
river. There would have been a pipe in there probably. This is pretty cool! This is a lot
of infrastructure that was built but never used. Let's take a close-up look at those wooden slats.
You can tell by all the brush that's pushed down here as well as the scattered timbers here that a
lot more water must have came through here not too long ago. They must have released
more water from the dam that's upstream. You can see over there behind that tree
a bunch of stacked rocks that goes all the way over to that wooden gate where the tunnel is.
So this would have been a diversion channel for the river water, and had they completed that
piping project the water would have been diverted from the river that's behind us
right through here -- right where this tree is -- and over here on the right you can see the gate.
This would have been the channel right here.
So that's the top of the peninsula that we hiked down. We went down the other side and came through
the tunnel to this side, and here's a close-up of that chute gate. I didn't see any markings on
it that were historic. So, yes, that's what that was. They would just raise and lower that to let
the water flow through this opening and through the peninsula to the other side and beyond.
Okay, I just realized something. What I thought was a gate here in the center which would have
gone up and down to control the volume of water going through it is incorrect. This wasn't a gate
because at the top there is no way for the gate in the center to get past
that uppermost cross-timber. So it most likely did not go up and down. If it did go up and down,
it only went up and down less than a foot right there at the top.
So this was just some kind of flow control device, I guess, and never did go up and down.
I'm going to head up this way, and I think there's another trail I can take up this
side of the peninsula. We'll get a different view going up than what we had on the other
side. Check this out! Wow! That looks kind of deep -- maybe three feet or so.
Boy, it would be nice to come down here in the summertime and take a swim in that pool! Look
at that! There are rapids right beyond it there. I'm sure that water is cold as ice.
The water comes from that way. This is really spectacular scenery down in this gorge!
Yes, that's the peninsula. There's the trail we have to take to go up out of here
on this side. That's how we're getting out.
Very peaceful.
This gives you an idea of what would have been down there in the gorge had they completed that
piping project. This pipe is probably at least 12 feet tall, I'm thinking. That's huge! And
that's where it goes back underground. I can hear every so often a sound in there. It must
be the water going through there. It's kind of a strange sound. That's a lot of water being piped
probably for Los Angeles. The pipe goes back underground up there.