About 30 minutes later we made the 18 km mark and pulled in to join the others who were packed up and waiting with baited anxious breath for our arrival.  Wondering what could be taking so long, let’s get this show on the road!  Introductions were made and the sense of easy unknown quickly started passing.  As Jordy shook hands and attempted to remember names with his CRAFT disease.  (You know – Can’t Remember A….)  Now with a total of 15 trucks ready to rumble and the quick 30 minute driver meeting things got underway.

Huff’s mine is only a few steps away from the 18KM mark and is a place of beauty.  Beauty in the abandoned nature of what used to be here, shrapnel in the trees from the exploded  power lines, tray upon tray of core sample, lines from the old generators.  If you wander around you can find old bottles, cans and get a good sense of the feel of what lies here and the whispers of the ghosts  as the wind blows gently.  We took a few pictures here with Spooky (a Geocaching thing) and checked on our geocache that is hidden in the area. 

Jordy was allowing me my free time to re-feel the beauty of it without feeling rushed, for this I am eternally grateful.  I love this area, it feels like home, like when I lived out here and we spent time gold mining at Copper Creek and back packing in to the rivers edge where they would tie me to their backs and rappel down the cliff’s.  Rob #4 & Bob (Daddy Style) met up with us here after the huge rush of travelling over from the Sunshine Coast and basked in the amazement of this.  We talked for a bit but again it was time to catch up, we didn’t want to fall too far behind. 

We headed on up the Road to Dicks Cabin, about 20 minutes beyond Huff’s mine.  Dick’s Cabin is an amazing tribute to those that were here before us.  There are 2 memorial markers outside, and the original cabin is still here.  Unfortunately time is taking its toll, as so are people, this is not the place to preach take care of what is around us, but without doing that we will lose access to what we have.

Jordy and I had a personal plan at Dick’s cabin, one that we had salivated over for almost a year, a hike to a geocache that no one had found yet.  We know that it may have been in bad form to leave the group to go on their way for a short while, but it also was the perfect opportunity for us to have alone time for the first time in weeks (no not that way silly).  But time for me to feel like I was at home, with the vista’s and views, the flowers & marmots.  For me to be cooped up in the city with no camping, adventures or stories to write about starts turning me into a hollow shell, it makes me miserable to be stuck in a daily life surrounded by societies expectations of how you should live your life.