Cemetery Run / Yankee Hill

[Java]

This day started roughly for us- the map on traildamage.com is wrong, Bald Mountain rd does not go to the west side of Russel Gulch, it goes into Nevadaville and back to Central City parkway. We ended up driving in circles for almost an hour and got to the meeting point after 1:00; Jim and Stephen were gone. We looked up some of the side roads from Russel Gulch, (which is not much of a ghost town at all, kind of boring and everything is private property, you can't explore squat) but couldn't find them. We left there about 2:00 and went to Bald Mountain Cemetery, looked around the cememtery for a few minutes, then went to the Independent Order Of Oddfellows Cemetery, and found them in the parking area. After apologizing (Jim held me while Stephen hit me then they switched) we decided to run Yankee Hill. It was fun, a lot rockier than it was in the spring for sure, there has been a lot of erosion and use and it shows. Still a fun trail, but very bumpy. The biggest challenge was seeing in the late afternoon while heading west, there were some sections I was running blind from sun glare, and on the gnarliest uphill I had to get out and walk first, I couldn't see a thing. We all made it through easily, I had the smallest tires at 33" and only hit my skids a few times, I imagine Jim and Stephen had no issues at all.

So I wouldn't recommend Russel Gulch, it's boring. Bald Mtn Cemetery is worth the drive by itself (sad to see all the children buried there), and Yankee Hill is a fun trail. Bald Mtn Cemetery is on the road to Yankee Hill, great combo.

Here's some pics, I'll post more tommorow.

[Rob]

(Jim held me while Stephen hit me then they switched)

Pics? :lmao:

[Heather]

Those're a coupla morbid pix in the middle, there, Paul!! Glad you weren't beaten up too badly by the other two to enjoy the rest of the day. Sounds like it was fun despite the initial setbacks!

[Java]

Pics? :lmao:

I think they got video. :mad:

[Java]

[QUOTE=DRT GRL;167537]Those're a coupla morbid pix in the middle, there, Paul!!QUOTE]

it's a cemetery, so my options were limited...

[Java]

a few more, the buildings are in Russel Gulch. more baby graves... I guess that is pretty morbid, even for a cemetery. mountain life is tough now, it was tougher then. the last one has the oldest date I could find, 1865.

[Pathrat]

I like the pictures. But then I like walking through cemeteries. The headstones carry history. The Woodsmen of the World monuments scattered throughout the area are pretty impressive.

Glad you guys had fun wheeling on Yankee.

Here are two interesting headstones from New Mexico, right off the main drag in Albequerque. If you can't read it, the person Kate died crossing the Arkansas River.

[Popsgarage]

They sure were a tougher bunch of people back then. Death was much more a part of life in those days, for sure.

[Brody]

Cool! I like old cemeteries, too. The amount of infant deaths is always high especially the farther back you go. Smallpox, flu, hell, even the common cold, nailed a huge number of people and kids were really hard hit. No antibiotics, doctors hard to find...bastards that survived were hard core.....and most of them didn't make it to 40...

Glad that you guys hooked up. Thanks for the pictures and report!

[glacierpaul]

Glad you enjoyed the day and the cemeteries! We love our kids up good after visiting any of the mountain cemeteries, Georgetowns is awesome too. Paul, I have pics next to that tombstone too.

[Michael4rnr]

Sounded like a good day. Cemitaries are cool.

[Java]

Glad that you guys hooked up. Thanks for the pictures and report!

Might have worked out better if I could have reached them, but my wife wrecked the CB on the way too... she closed the window tightly on the antenna cable (I have a magnetic mount that goes on the hood, the cable runs through the passenger window to the dash) and opened the door to use a restroom on 49 / Golden Gate Canyon State Park, and ripped the cable right out of the back of the CB, leaving the plug in place. :thumb: Stephen suggested we trade cell #s prior to the run next time, which is a really good idea.

[Stephen]

I didn't get many pics, but I got a few. Most were in the cemetery, then I looked up some history when we got home. I found some tragic stories including whole family of children lost in one month suspected by anthrax and a husband committed suicide by his wife's grave. The weather was nice and it was a good run with good people.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-LQ6Qmo2KWdg/TqT0I0TCMdI/AAAAAAAAAPk/i0WJDD7uRJs/s912/Russell01.JPG

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-D51IZ24E6uQ/TqTz82yw75I/AAAAAAAAAPk/MjBHBOsgQi8/s576/Russell03.jpg

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-Lz_t1bKLFY4/TqT0Q3_2jSI/AAAAAAAAAPk/kvBnkoivKMA/s912/Russell04.JPG

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-KjyRItq0nzk/TqT0Jc4auxI/AAAAAAAAAPk/fkWN68BMcOg/s912/Russell02.JPG

[Cr33p3r]

If you go down to lower Russel Gulch there is some old mining equipment still down there like the pic below, now that I got the truck lifted and bigger tires I am going to go down it again next spring and see how far I can make it past the big rock drop off.

[Jackie]

The child graves always give me the "willys". I can't imagine out-living my kids. That would just be WRONG!

[Brad]

We have been to those cemeteries, very cool. My favorite old cemetery is up by crystal mine. Tucked away in the woods. Found some of the coolest sayings on the headstones back there.
Thanks for the pics and report! :thumb:

[Chris]

Nice to see Barb and I aren't the only ones that visit cemeteries, we stop at any old one we run across.

I find it more educational about what mountain life was like than anything else. A lot of these graves are the people who created the trails we get the privilege of using today.

[Pathrat]

Us too Chris. As I have noticed before, I like your thinking.

It is nice to have see other people like visiting older cemeteries, if just to confirm I am not creepy for liking this activity.

[Cr33p3r]

We check them out too, Val won't walk thru them at night tho, I want to one of these nights with my camera.

[Heather]

You're definitely not alone. There's something comforting and home-y (?) about the old cemetaries. Plus I have a fondness (though not much knowledge - just a heart-tug kind of thing) for anything pre-50s/60s. When my friend Coco and I were up there after a run (with Java and Errinjan and others, can't remember the trail), some of the graves/tombstones were amazing in that they clearly had family that cared very much about them then - and in some cases, still do. I can't imagine how cool that must be. The history that can be gleaned, as others have mentioned, is soooo cool. Could easily spend a whole day taking it all in and appreciating it.

[Pathrat]

You're definitely not alone. There's something comforting and home-y (?) about the old cemetaries. Plus I have a fondness (though not much knowledge - just a heart-tug kind of thing) for anything pre-50s/60s.

This means that 1) You need a babysitter so we can go to to Rockabillies for some good live (free) thumping honkeytonk, roots and rockabilly and 2) there should be another cemetery run.

[Java]

My wife and I are heading back up there this weekend, but I'm not posting it again, based on last week's fiasco we're not dragging anyone else down with us. We want to go in via Upper Apex / Apex Valley rd and check out the cemeteries we didn't get to see last weekend, they look to be basic dirt roads but I'm hoping for some snow on them. We'll see...

[Jackie]

This means that 1) You need a babysitter so we can go to to Rockabillies for some good live (free) thumping honkeytonk, roots and rockabilly
Ha ha! I'll be glad to have Skyler over to play with Annika. "Baby-sitter problem" ...solved!

[SCRubicon]

Thanks for the pics. I'm fascinated with older cemeteries. Walking through them is not weird at all. Back in the day it was common for families to have picnics in the cemetery to remember their loved ones and celebrate life.

[SCRubicon]

My wife and I are heading back up there this weekend, but I'm not posting it again, based on last week's fiasco we're not dragging anyone else down with us. We want to go in via Upper Apex / Apex Valley rd and check out the cemeteries we didn't get to see last weekend, they look to be basic dirt roads but I'm hoping for some snow on them. We'll see...

(if you're going up to this one and have not been before) The back side of the Knights of Pythias cemetery can get a little drifty with snow at times.

[glacierpaul]

(if you're going up to this one and have not been before) The back side of the Knights of Pythias cemetery can get a little drifty with snow at times.
X2 great heads up!

[Java]

do you mean the road behind it (Upper Apex?), or the cemetery itself?

[SCRubicon]

do you mean the road behind it (Upper Apex?), or the cemetery itself?

The cemetery.