Ballarat to Panamint City - Ghost Town - Ooooohhh

This is us setting off for our first 'real' hike. According to the ranger it is a 'toughie' but a 'beauty'! We're off to the ghost town of Panamint City, called the "toughest, rawest, most hard-boiled little hellhole that ever passed for civilised...."!! Yipee, can't wait!! Please note - real backpacking here, provisions and sleeping required for two days. On the menu was banana's, apples, nuts, seeds and raisins, melon and...... homemade chilli con carne!!

Well after four and a half gruelling hours uphill we've arrived and are settling into our cabin for an overnight stay. The cabin is open to all, there's no 'check in' here and the whole place is deserted! So what's the first thing we do, yes get the fire going. The socks are wet from sweat (urghh) after the 7.5 mile trawl up to the city and need drying off so what to use as shoes? As Keith is so resourceful he devised a new form of footwear - it's called the 'paper plate' shoe and is made from, yes, you've guessed it.... a paper plate and of course ya ever useful duck tape!!

Our little overnight refuge. Of course the stove is on full tilt, notice all the smoke coming out the chimney, the fire monster Keith is in his element!

Panamint City boomed in 1874 with a population of 2000 people. They all thought they would make their fortunes mining silver. Not so as the presence of silver was no where near what they had thought and only present in small deposits. In 1876, a flash flood destroyed much of the town, leaving little more than the chimney from the mine's smelter. This place is fascinating, desolate with crumbling stone shacks and some decaying new build from when again people attempted to mine again in the 1980's.

The walk is mainly through a place called Surprise Canyon which was quite a surprise as it's so pretty with quite a lot of greenery, flowers and surprisingly lots of streams.

Crazy Horses - Wahhh Wahhh. Well not quite a horse, what ever it is it looks parched and ready for a cup of tea. So what is the four legged friends real name? This was with three other 'friends' (one young one) and was making THE most strangest sound as we approached - something like a cross between a steam engine and a car horn!! Anyway... we got the message and kept well away.

This pic is for Craig Best - One of the lovely cactus plants on the trail.

Another lovely view!
Notice the smiling face, this is because we're on the way DOWN the day after.

This is the jail house in a little place called Ballarat, another gold mining ghost town at the start of Surprise Canyon. Supposedly the doors were never locked cos the only people that were ever put in there were drunkards and they didn't want to leave until the next morning when they'd sobered up!


Well done B-I-L (young Bob) it was wilde Coyote and the Outsourcer's 6Million LED's was close enough for us!!