San Antonio Ridge - Gold Dollar Mine

scottawr · Post by **scottawr** » Wed May 13, 2015 7:09 pm

On Tuesday morning I started up the Ski hut trail around 10:30 pretty late, but I figured I would still be able to get a decent hike in before sunset. I was trying to make up time the entire time up jogging where the trail let me. Made the summit in less than 2hrs and stopped for all of 30 seconds to take a few pics and move on to west baldy for some solitude as the baldy summit was filling up quick.
At the saddle between baldy and west baldy an older Asian lady fully covered in Everest gear and high elevation goggles warned me that I was headed toward the visitor center and I was going the wrong way. I mentioned my hiking goals were San Antonio ridge toward Iron Mountain, but she insisted I was lost and should go back to the summit.
Anyway I started down the ridge.

The trail down was pretty steep and loose but well marked with carins. Made it down to the san Antonio ridge campsite and the ridge showed off its bumps between me and iron.

I was fighting through the whitethorn when I turned around and saw much elevation I had lost. I was in for a tough end to the day hiking back to the car.

Hiking along the ridge was fantastic! Great views on fish fork, baden powell, and pine mountain ridge. Soon I came to gunsight notch; I admired it and took some recon shots for my next trip up here.

Now I started down either a faint use trail or a goat trail down the slope. I squeezed between yuccas. Jumped whitethorn, and crawled under Manzanita you know fun stuff. Searching for the cables I found the caved in mineshaft first and followed bits of track and wood to the site.

I finally found the cables and followed them up and down the slope but I could not locate the concrete platform where the cabin used to be. Hit my turnaround time of 4pm and decided to zig zag my way up the slope to see if I could find any more relics but I couldn’t.

Scambled my way up the ridge took a short break on the “san Antonio ridge” peak and then started back. The clouds started rolling in and a nice breeze accompanied.

Finally re-summited at around 7pm and for some reason I decided to run down the devils BB to manker instead of just taking the ski hut down. The wind was howling and pretty chilly but the sunset was nice.

Back to the car just before 9pm did something like 24mi 8-9000ft.
But I can’t believe I couldn’t find the cabin foundation… now I gotta go back

full album -https://www.flickr.com/photos/98779591@ ... 0450216253

walker · Post by **walker** » Thu May 14, 2015 1:29 am

Not too shabby. Great job, thanks for the photos. I love the pic of the summit of Iron poking through the clouds with the Front Range summits silhouetted in the background. Looks like some pretty magical cloud conditions on the way back. I love being out on the trail or on summits during the late afternoon light. Great to see that a few objects are still standing back at the mine.

Ze Hiker · Post by **Ze Hiker** » Thu May 14, 2015 8:16 am

Nice! Brutal route too. I know the feeling of missing a piece and having to go back. You should try it from Heaton Flat next time and hit up Baldora / Widco & Eagle Mines as well.

I think the cabin ruins are a bit off from the cables, to the northwest of the lower cable terminus.

scottawr · Post by **scottawr** » Thu May 14, 2015 10:56 am

Walker- the clouds rolling in were great! Definitely helped to climb baldy again with nice views.

Ze- first off thanks! Your trip reports were essential in helping me find it. If/when I go back I think I'll copy your route up from coldwater. I wasn't sure about the route finding on the way up, but now that I have been in the area I think it sounds fun.

Post by **tekewin** » Thu May 14, 2015 12:58 pm

Great photos on a huge trip! Love that view of Iron. Nice work.

The SAR remains somewhere on my to do list, which never seems to get shorter.

AW~ · Post by **AW~** » Thu May 14, 2015 6:02 pm

Travellin in style terrain....look forward to your revisit whenever it may be.

Post by **Uncle Rico** » Fri May 15, 2015 6:59 am

Big day with great pics. Well done.

Post by **Hikin_Jim** » Fri May 15, 2015 11:53 am

2 Hours to W Baldy?

I feel good if I make it to the hut in 2 hours. Or 5 with my daughter.

Seriously, nice job.

HJ

Augie · Post by **Augie** » Fri May 15, 2015 4:00 pm

Nice TR and nice album. How far, in terms of time, is Gunsight Notch from the mine (I've done Baldy to Iron on the ridge but didnt' stop at the mine)?

scottawr · Post by **scottawr** » Fri May 15, 2015 4:50 pm

From gunsight it only really took me about 10-15 down to where I started seeing stuff. Total I'd say I spent about 30-40 minutes total off the ridge. And hour and I probably would have found the mine and had time for snacks and selfies at the cabin foundation.

I had two medium coffees by the time I made it to the mountain I was buzzing pretty hard. I'm temped to fill a 2l bladder with coffee for my next hike see how that works out.

Augie · Post by **Augie** » Fri May 15, 2015 5:20 pm

Thanks.

scottawr · Post by **scottawr** » Sun Jun 14, 2015 11:45 pm

I went back and did pretty much the same hike over again. this time i crossed over gunsight notch but didnt feel up to a full baldy-iron-baldy so i crossed back over gunsight and went to find the rest of the mine.

i did - pics https://www.flickr.com/photos/98779591@ ... 1703287834

Gene · Post by **Gene** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 9:13 am

Thank you so much for posting this.

Lots of changes since this trip:

http://socalhikes.com/2011/06/gold-doll ... in-triple/

Post by **tekewin** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 9:22 am

Congrats on getting Gunsight, both ways no less. That was a strong hike.

The photos are great, too. I've scanned through them once, but I want to go back and look closer at your route. Nice shots of the mine, too.

Sewellymon · Post by **Sewellymon** » Tue Jun 16, 2015 2:04 pm

Right on!

In my youth, hiked out of Coldwater Canyon to the mine 3 or 4 times. Always was a trip to see the slanted cabin.