Sometimes, adventure is sitting right in front of you, hidden in plain sight. And the Hidden in Plain Sight Mine was exactly that; a large adit immediately adjacent to the road, yet completely unseen to the passing eye. The only trace of this remote mine was a few pieces of waste rock next to the road, marking the spot where one could push through the forest and find the mine.
Location | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ontario, Canada | ||||||
Built :: Closed | Status | Difficulty | ||||
Unknown :: Unknown | Abandoned | ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ | ||||
Hazards Risk | Security Risk | AUE Rating | ||||
★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ | ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ | ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ | ||||
Hazard Observations | Security Observations | |||||
Pockets of Bad Air | None Specified |
The Hidden in Plain Sight Mine is one that I had a location for, although the coordinates I had been given were slightly off from the correct location. At least we knew the general location, otherwise Brind and I never would have stood a chance of finding this one, tucked away along an unassuming stretch of road.
The mine itself consisted of the main adit, with a few drifts to add some variety. We also found what might be a flooded winze near the entrance; the low-lying area was covered with timbers, preventing us from getting a good look at it. A good chunk of the adit had some water build-up along the floor, coming from water leaking in through drill holes in the walls. The water coming in was staining the walls black in places, something I haven't seen before while underground.
Unfortunately, the water was also obscuring some decaying organic matter. On our way back out from the end of the adit, about halfway back to the entrance, I caught the unmistakable whiff of hydrogen sulfide in the air. We hadn't detected it on our way in, so we figured that we had stirred up the floor and released it. It vanished as soon as we moved away from the area, but the brief encounter certainly gave us cause for concern. Thankfully, we didn't encounter it anywhere else while underground in the mine.
Another one-and-done mine, the Hidden in Plain Sight Mine made for a good afternoon explore before Brind and I moved on to some of the larger sites we had planned.