Images (111-1488k, .JPG):

• IMG03738 - The first part of the trail, just off the road to Albion Basin.
• IMG03741 - A view across the canyon.  Devil's Castle and Sugarloaf Peak are in the center and center-right of the picture, respectively.
• IMG03742 - A view back toward Twin Lakes Pass.
• IMG03743 - Another view across the canyon.  The Pfiefferhorn is the prominent peak near the middle.
• IMG03747 - Some of the wildflowers on show.  Similar is #3748.
• IMG03749 - Dale, standing atop the steam engine, holding on to the handle.
• IMG03751 - The well-preserved valve seat at the top of the engine.  It would appear to be a bronze or babbitt-like material.
• IMG03752 - The nameplate on the engine frame.  It says "Ames Iron Works, Oswego, NY" (the "NY" is cut off)
• IMG03753 - The main cylinder, control rods, and control valve (mostly hidden by the main cylinder) as well as flywheel of the engine.
• IMG03754 - Dale, enjoying a brief respite atop the engine.  Similar is #3755.
• IMG03759 - Mike, doing a brief eyelid inspection.
• IMG03760 - A view of Germania Pass (and Sugarloaf, on the far left) as the alpenglow starts to creep across the land.
• IMG03761 - Bruce (atop the engine) and Chris, at the mine.
• IMG03762 - Near the ridge that overlooks into Honeycomb Fork.
• IMG03765 - The ridge that separates Honeycomb Fork from Silver Fork.
• IMG03767 - Mike, looking across into Honeycomb Fork.  (Similar is #3766)
• IMG03768 - The obligatory group picture.  L->R:  Clint, Gordon, Dale, Bruce, Mike, Chris and Ron  (Similar is #3770)
  

• The elevation profile of the hike - This shows the ups and downs of the trail. 
  
• A detailed map with the GPS track of the hike (plus surrounding landmarks, 550k)
  

This is the first 2006 Wednesday Night Hike that has ventured into Little Cottonwood canyon.

On this day, we decided to visit the old, rusting engine sitting at the top of the hoist shaft of the Prince of Wales Mine.  This mine sits on a ridge overlooking the top end of the Silver Fork of Big Cottonwood canyon - but, by far, the easiest approach to it is via Grizzly Gulch near the top of Little Cottonwood canyon.  As an added bonus, we knew that there was likely to be a good wildflower show in progress at this time - particularly in light of the very recent rainfall.

One of the problems that we've encountered when "doing" this particular hike is that the "true" trail starting up Grizzly Gulch at the bottom has been somewhat undifferentiated:  Near the bottom of the gulch, there is a morass of old roads, trails, and streambeds:  More than once, we have wandered around in the dark, trying to figure out the best way back to the car - sometimes bushwacking down streambeds to get to the road.  Road and house construction in recent years has further exacerbated the problem.

Last year, decided that we could probably avoid these problems simply by intercepting the trail higher up - namely by intercepting a spur trail that started along the road to the Albion Basin/Cecret Lake.  There was one major problem:  We weren't sure where this spur trail was.

This uncertainty resulted in several groups charging across a steep slope and stumbling around until finally, a well-worn trail was crossed - which we followed.  At the conclusion of last year's hike we followed this trail down to the road and discovered that we'd driven right past it.  Fortunately, we noted, it was very close to a sign that said "Dip" (we wondered how they knew about us...) and one of the reasons why we hadn't seen it is that it angles up the hill to the north and was nearly invisible to someone driving south along the road.

This year, we weren't fooled:  We found the "Dip" sign and the trail and, without incident, we followed it.

Higher up in Grizzly Gulch Chris suggested a side-trip to Twin Lakes Pass:  For whatever reason, the only other person in our group adventurous to go along was Mike, so they set off to the pass, with the intention of traversing along the back side of the Honeycomb Cliffs, hoping to find the route of the old water pipe that went from the pump at the spring, along the ridge, and to the engine at the Prince of Wales Mine.

The rest of the group carried on.  After a pause for taking some pictures (including some of the wildflowers in the area) I proceeded, somewhat behind the rest of the group (sans Chris and Mike of course) along the trail to the mine, only to notice that the rest of the group had taken the "lower" trail while I followed the route of the the water pipe on a higher track - a slightly shorter and more level approach.  About halfway to the mine, Chris called on the radio to say that he and Mike had gotten to Twin Lakes Pass and were beginning the traverse back.

Upon arriving at the mine, we began to look closely at the wreckage of the old 40 horsepower steam engine hoist and I pointed out to Dale one particularly little-weathered piece on the engine:  While we aren't certain (hence the question of the day) it appears to be a valve seat (see #3751, above) at the top of the steam reservoir.  Unlike the rest of the engine - which appears to be cast iron - this piece was clearly machined and, after more than a century, was still quite smooth albeit somewhat patinated.  The best guess is that this piece - along with the handle at the top - was likely part of a relief/regulator system and that an appropriately-shaped weight or needle valve piece mated with this surface.  A slight scratching of the patina on this piece revealed that it was clearly a copper-based alloy of some sort - probably bronze or, more likely, babbitt.

After a few more minutes, Chris and Mike arrived, having had little difficulty in the traverse and reported having been able to find the apparent run of water pipe - including extant pieces of the very pipe that had been laid in 1875 to bring water to this engine and the smaller, now half-buried engine at the Wellington Mine farther down the hill near the top of Silver Fork.  After a few more minutes of loitering, we started wandering up to the ridge, just south of the mine, that provided an view into Honeycomb Fork.

Once we'd gathered on this ridge, we enjoyed the setting sun, the nice, cool weather, and posed briefly for the group picture before heading down.  The trip down was, for the most part, uneventful and we arrived at the vehicles just as it was getting too dark to see without flashlights.  Afterwards, the bulk of the group (sans Ron and Chris) met at the TGI Friday's near Cottonwood Mall for the traditional dime lime.

As can be seen from image #3752, this engine was manufactured by the Ames Iron Works of Oswego, New York.  This company operated from at least 1862 into the late 1950's or early 1960's.  At about the time of World War II, with the business in steam power declining, they started to concentrate on other products, notably tanks during the war as well as heavy equipment as well as hot water boilers, etc.

This steam engine was a so-called crossflow fire tube boiler - the "crossflow" part coming from the fact that the "steam" end is on the side opposite the firebox.  As might be expected, the engine was also of the double-acting type (that is, pressure is applied during both directions of the piston's travel.)  If you look carefully at the main piston assembly, you can also see the cross-linking to the control valve - the one that is used to divert hot steam to one side of the piston or the other.  In modern-day heat exchangers, the fire tube boiler has been replaced with other types owing to its tendency to "disassemble" itself rather spectacularly when it did fail.

According to Keller, the engine at the Prince of Wales Mine was rated at 40 horsepower and was on the bottom floor of a two-story building, with the upper story being used for living quarters for the miners.  As a matter of interest, the half-buried engine at the Wellington Mine was 20 horsepower and the one at the pumping station in Grizzly Gulch was just 15 horsepower, with the water pumped from the Grizzly Gulch station being piped first to the Prince of Wales mine and then being gravity-fed to the Wellington Mine.

Keller further states that the Prince of Wales Mine was one of the more productive in the area and was last operated by lessees into the mid 1930's:  He does not make mention about when it was that the building burned down, although that apparently happened sometime between the mid 30's and 1959.  What he does mention that the Prince of Wales Mine does connect with the Wellington Mine as well as the Annie Tunnel located almost directly below the Prince of Wales Mine in Honeycomb Fork) and several others in the area.  Apparently, ore was hoisted up to the surface at the Prince of Wales mine and than transported to Alta along a rail line which, at one time, included a 1800 foot long snowshed to reduce the danger from the frequent snowslides in the area.  Furthermore, Keller also mentions that there are remains of a road that runs from the Wellington tunnel, around the ridge, and descends into Honeycomb Fork - except for the last descent into Honeycomb Fork that has eroded completely.

Check the page about the 2005 visit visit to the Prince of Wales mine for a little bit more info.

Comments:

• If you want one (or more) of these images and wish some sort of adjustment (color, brightness, exposure, etc.) please let me know:  All of these image have been processed in some way.
• These images are in chronological order.
• No-one ever said that all of these images (or any of them) were good.  Some of them may have definite focus/exposure "issues."
• EXIF data is present for most of the images, showing time, date, and precise exposure conditions.  Recent versions of Irfanview will show this in the "View->Image Information->EXIF" tab.  Note that cropping/noise reduction required the use of another program which may have removed some/most of this EXIF data.
• Images suffixed with "h" (if any) are half-size.  This was done for images that were somewhat out of focus (due to misfocus or camera/subject movement associated with long shutter times) or those that required some extra noise reduction and had lost some detail anyway.
• All images taken using a Sigma SD-10 camera and were taken using the 18-50mm zoom lens, except as noted in the EXIF data.

Go to the 2006 Wednesday Night Hike page, or main Wednesday Night Hike index page.

Historical info about the Prince of Wales and related mines was taken from "The Lady in the Ore Bucket" by Charles Keller