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Chat - The Official Las Vegas/Southern Nevada Chat Thread

2M views 42K replies 144 participants last post by  terrasmak 
#1 ·
I figured since the other thread started out as talking about making a club, and what clubs are available, we should have a thread that's just dedicated to setting up trail runs.

The title says it all, and it'll be less cluttered.

So, the 9/18/10 Run to Potato Ridge was a success!

Next item on the schedule is Logandale on 10/23/10 according to McRoberts. Seems like we have a few interested parties! Who all is planning to attend?

If there is anything in the meantime, or someone local wants another rig to ride with them, just post up and see if anyone is available!
 
#11,810 ·
#11,811 ·
This is one of those times I won’t be sharing coordinates, but this area is very close to the Valley of Fire side of the lake. I’ve known about a few mines around the Lake Mead area that were worked before there was a Lake Mead. They are now underwater.

There were eight of us making the dive. I’ve worked with all of them in the Navy and know them to be experienced and competent divers. The ones I haven’t worked with were wives and they were almost as confident underwater.

I didn’t take any of the following pictures. I have a great camera, but it would be useless underwater. Taking great pictures underwater isn’t as easy as it looks. Lots of settings and filters to mess with.
 
#11,812 ·
Here’s some of the equipment used. A typical dive tank is 3 Liters (19 cubic feet). I usually estimate a tank to last around 20 minutes depending on the tank pressure, but 20 minutes is a fair estimate. That time can increase or decrease depending on things like breathing control, temperature and depth.

All of us had a two tank setup on our backs, but since we didn’t know the area or the hazards, everyone carried at least three tanks and some carried up to five. Very cumbersome, but taking into account entry and exit, a two tank setup would limit us to 20 minutes in, 20 minutes out. Can’t really see much in 20 minutes.
 

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#11,813 ·
The alternative is a setup like this. It’s a rebreather system. Completely enclosed. No exhaled bubbles. When you breathe, you only use a tiny portion of oxygen inhaled. Unused oxygen is exhaled and wasted. A rebreather contains and removes the carbon dioxide from exhaled air. That clean air is stored and reused. It still uses tanks, but since there is no waste, this setup can keep a diver underwater for up to eight hours.

From just what you can see in that picture, you’re looking at about $20,000 in gear. Personally, anything I invest in with that kind of value will either be driven or lived in.
 

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#11,814 ·
Here is something we didn’t see when we first found the mine. We thought the only barrier was that wooden door I posted before. Beyond that were welded bars, but with a lot of effort, we were able to get past. The hardest part was fitting and passing everyone’s gear through. All of us had to shed some gear before squeezing through.

That thing attached to the bar that kind of resembles a fish holds string. It was already there when we got to that point.
 

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#11,815 ·
Beyond the gate was a wide incline shaft that brought us down to a depth of 60-70 feet. When that main adit (horizontal shaft) leveled, it opened up and we came across this staging area.

Before we went under, we all agreed to keep our depth within 100 feet to avoid decompression stops during the ascent. We’ll explore the lower levels another day and after we’ve mapped the main levels.

We weren’t finding many artifacts here. It looks like they removed everything but anything made of wood and whatever metals were welded in place.
 

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#11,816 ·
The alternative is a setup like this. It's a rebreather system. Completely enclosed. No exhaled bubbles. When you breathe, you only use a tiny portion of oxygen inhaled. Unused oxygen is exhaled and wasted. A rebreather contains and removes the carbon dioxide from exhaled air. That clean air is stored and recompressed. It still uses tanks, but since there is no waste, this setup can keep a diver underwater for up to eight hours.

From just what you can see in that picture, you're looking at about $20,000 in gear. Personally, anything I invest in with that kind of value will either be driven or lived in.
Cool. Is this the thing that's for sale?
 
#11,817 ·
This is some Wrath of the Titans stuff here. Beyond this wall is the Kraken. It was probably 100 feet tall and about as wide. It was about 8 feet thick. There was almost a foot gap all around the structure and the rock. The only place it touched rock was at the bottom where it stood.

I couldn’t think of any reason miners would build a wall this size and way. As massive as it is, it doesn’t seem thick enough to support the cavern created and since it didn’t even touch enough rock to support, shoring didn’t seem a likely purpose.
 

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#11,818 ·
It took some time to get comfortable in there. When in mines, I’m always in the habit of shining my lights at the floor even if I know I just safely walked it. I found myself still doing that in there even without a chance of falling down a shaft. When we did come to a vertical shaft, I had to remind myself I was swimming before getting too close. Swimming over one, I still had a feeling that I could fall. Kind of like that feeling just as the roller coaster breaks over.

This was one of the best pictures taken. The lighting was just perfect. They brought with them the best equipment money can buy and that includes the cameras.
 

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#11,819 ·
This appeared to be the main drop shaft. We could see this one went down several hundred feet and had at least 5 other levels to explore. As deep as it looked and as long as it would take to explore, we’ll need to come back set up with nitrox to reduce the risk of decompression sickness.

We knew a guy who died by not properly decompressing during a dive. He vomited underwater. The instinct after vomiting is to take a deep breath. He was really too young. Maybe 20 at the most.
 

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#11,820 ·
The best find of the day. Unfortunately, I didn’t see these first and they are going home with someone else. They were found up high on a ledge. Before the mine was flooded, they were probably 8 feet from the floor and couldn’t be seen. For their age, they are in amazing shape. We believed the color was porcelain, not paint. There was a name on the bottom, but it wasn’t clear enough to read. I’ll update if we find more info on the gnome miners.
 

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