After another long drive up through Nevada, I returned to the Silver Reef Mine with Tony, Shawn, and Ashley so that we could explore the upper and lower levels that I skipped over on my initial solo visit. Shawn descended one steeply inclined, curved winze to find tunnels leading to several small, slightly flooded chambers full of old bottles. We all ascended an inclined, 400-foot ladder system in the mine which led to an unbelievably large, vertical stope. In the stope, we found more ladders going upwards for hundreds of feet to unknown heights! Shawn ascended one such ladder and found himself in a remote part of the stope that hadn't seen foot traffic in decades. While there, he found an old, metal ore bucket. It seemed that this part of the mine intersected with a complex, natural cave because we found colorful flowstone formations and crystals in the mine. After spending five hours exploring and documenting the mine, we exited the tunnels and began the long, long drive back down through Nevada and into California to our respective homes.
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