One of the things I have wanted to do all summer was to take the Mascot Mine Tour in Hedley and today was the day. Our friends Rienk and Lona joined us and off we went.
From Hedley we took a little tour bus up the mountain, past the Nickel Plate Mine(where my dad used to work) along a very narrow road with steep sides down to a little turnaround where we disembarked.
After a short 10 minute walk down a trail we came out over the stairs that would lead us to the mine buildings. How many stairs? One way 589 and then another 70 steps but here we go.
When we got to the main mine buildings our legs felt like rubber, whew.
Below is the bunkhouse for the junior men, one day they would like to make a bed and breakfast here.
This the cookhouse and rec hall, they say the pies that came out of these kitchens were to die for.
You can see how steep the mountainside is and the buildings just hung to the mountainside.
Ron is standing at the end of the ore car rail, it is a long ways down after that.
Here is the entrance to the underground mine, they say there are 86 miles of tunnels in the mountain, we went in and it is very dark.
On our way up, Rienk and Lona are tackling the stairs, already the buildings looks so small as does Hedley in the background.
Our guide talked a lot about the Nickel Plate Mine, even how the miners would ride down on the broom, which pleased me as that is just what my dad did. It was an excellent tour and it is so nice to see it being preserved.
On our way down we stopped at the look out and our guide pointed out a Female Heritage Rock, we were not sure how the women got up there but I guess they did.
Here is the road we took up and the beautiful valley below.
And we got lucky to see some wildlife.
Dinner at the Hitching Post in downtown Hedley finished our day and a great one it was.
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