Globe area to Pinal Peak 05-31-08
Just another Roy D adventure. This time it was going to be just 3 of us. Roy D his neighbor Steve and me. We headed out late for a Roy ride as I arrived at his house at 5:30 AM to load up their quads on my trailer because my trailer holds 3 quads sideways. As we were going through the town of Superior Steve asked Roy if we could stop for breakfast which we did. I was a little surprised Roy didn’t even seem to mind stopping after all it was way past daylight and we weren’t riding yet.
After breakfast we headed towards Globe. We unloaded right at the entrance to the big open pit mines before Globe. Roy has been on this ride a few times but Steve and I had not. Out plan was to take the road on the south side of 60 to a trailhead that heads off into the desert and ending up at Pinal Peak, then loop back.
The mountain views on this ride are outstanding to say the least. You can see for a million miles it seems. Thankfully it was not to hot yet for a desert ride at least not in the morning. The trail was rather smooth as it was mostly ground granite. It was a fun trail with a few mines along the way. There was a few off camber places to make sure you were paying attention but nothing to hard.
As we were about 25 miles into our ride I noticed a doorway built into the side of the mountain. I stopped to look at it and Steve in front of me stopped as well. There was a house to our right up the trail about 50 yards and as I was talking to Steve a guy came out of the house and motioned to us. Steve said to me “where are you going?” I said “to see what he wants”. As it turns out this was a guy Roy had met a couple of years ago. His name is Willy. He said he is a Louisiana Cajun. He lives in the old mining house alone with his dog. Willy was a little strange. At times we didn’t know if he was talking to us or to himself. I guess if you lived back in the desert by yourself you would be a little off as well. Willy wanted to show us an old pick up behind his house. It was a 1941 GMC. He said it had a crank to start it. He also showed us the mine shaft. It was flooded with water so they couldn’t mine it any more, in fact that is where he gets his water from. He pumps it from the mine to a steel tank where it feeds into the house. It always amazes me the characters you run into along the way. Willy also he sees quite a few bears in the area along with mountain lions and a eagle lives in the mountain behind his house. He was fun to talk to but we had riding to do.
From here we went through a bunch of winding trails to the main road that goes to Pinal peak. What a difference. Here we are riding in high desert when all of a sudden you are in tall pines. It was like being in Flagstaff. There was a very cool campground with almost nobody there. There are even toilets.
Just past the campground there are a few houses. Past then you reach the top of the mountain. There are a bunch of towers at the top. We stopped under one of the towers for lunch. The elevation was 7800 feet. It was very cool and there was a steady breeze. I hated to have to head back down the mountain where it would now be hot.
As we made our way back it wasn’t bad until we hit the low point which was about 3000 foot. We didn’t stop for long as it was hot. As we got back to the truck across from the mine it wasn’t bad as it is a little higher in elevation and there was a good breeze. Roy asked if we would like to take the forest service road next to the open pit mine to look at them. Of course we would. As it turns out we were right above the area where their giant trucks were hauling loads from the crusher plant. What a blast to watch load after load of the Monster trucks coming up the mountain and dumping their giant loads.
Here is an explanation of what we were watching from Roy:
Heres a decent explanation of the leaching process that we saw out in
Globe-Miami last weekend.
Oxide ore processing
Oxide ore is most common in open pit operations and once the ore leaves the
pit is placed on a heap leach pad in a large stack or pile. Under the pile
is a pre- constructed impervious liner in order to collect solution. The
heap leach pad is sprayed with a mild sulphuric acid solution so that the
copper can be dissolved. Pads have a series of pipes and hoses dispensing a
diluted sulfuric acid solution to the ore. Copper is dissolved and flows to
a pond at the bottom of the pad where is it collected on the liner. This
process can take several months. The leached solution is pumped to the
Solvent Extraction ("SX") circuit, where the copper is stripped using
organic solutions; the stripped liquid is then returned to the leach pads
for re-use. The strip solution is cleaned using dilute acid and flotation
and is filtered prior to the electro-winning ("EW") phase, where the copper
is plated using electrolysis on cathodes square sheets of copper. This
cathode copper is then transported for sale to end users.
On our way back to the truck I was in the lead and stopped because there was a snake in the middle of the road. It was about 3 & ½ feet long. As I reached for my camera the thing took off like a rocket and climbed a tree about 30 yards in the desert. I swear I couldn’t run as fast as this thing could slither. I went over to the tree to try to get his photo. He was a little camera shy but I got a couple. I couldn’t see him very good and I knew it was a whip snake like I had seen with Grizz once so I grabbed a branch to see if I could get him to move. He did alright as he was out of the tree and off like a rocket. Steve was asking where it was and I said OH MY GOSH HERE IT IS AAAAAAAAA!!!! As I was jumping back. Just kidding I said as it was gone.
Well another great adventure for the record books. We got to see some new and interesting things as we always do. There is nothing better than being able to get out and see new and interesting people and places with friends.
Read MoreAfter breakfast we headed towards Globe. We unloaded right at the entrance to the big open pit mines before Globe. Roy has been on this ride a few times but Steve and I had not. Out plan was to take the road on the south side of 60 to a trailhead that heads off into the desert and ending up at Pinal Peak, then loop back.
The mountain views on this ride are outstanding to say the least. You can see for a million miles it seems. Thankfully it was not to hot yet for a desert ride at least not in the morning. The trail was rather smooth as it was mostly ground granite. It was a fun trail with a few mines along the way. There was a few off camber places to make sure you were paying attention but nothing to hard.
As we were about 25 miles into our ride I noticed a doorway built into the side of the mountain. I stopped to look at it and Steve in front of me stopped as well. There was a house to our right up the trail about 50 yards and as I was talking to Steve a guy came out of the house and motioned to us. Steve said to me “where are you going?” I said “to see what he wants”. As it turns out this was a guy Roy had met a couple of years ago. His name is Willy. He said he is a Louisiana Cajun. He lives in the old mining house alone with his dog. Willy was a little strange. At times we didn’t know if he was talking to us or to himself. I guess if you lived back in the desert by yourself you would be a little off as well. Willy wanted to show us an old pick up behind his house. It was a 1941 GMC. He said it had a crank to start it. He also showed us the mine shaft. It was flooded with water so they couldn’t mine it any more, in fact that is where he gets his water from. He pumps it from the mine to a steel tank where it feeds into the house. It always amazes me the characters you run into along the way. Willy also he sees quite a few bears in the area along with mountain lions and a eagle lives in the mountain behind his house. He was fun to talk to but we had riding to do.
From here we went through a bunch of winding trails to the main road that goes to Pinal peak. What a difference. Here we are riding in high desert when all of a sudden you are in tall pines. It was like being in Flagstaff. There was a very cool campground with almost nobody there. There are even toilets.
Just past the campground there are a few houses. Past then you reach the top of the mountain. There are a bunch of towers at the top. We stopped under one of the towers for lunch. The elevation was 7800 feet. It was very cool and there was a steady breeze. I hated to have to head back down the mountain where it would now be hot.
As we made our way back it wasn’t bad until we hit the low point which was about 3000 foot. We didn’t stop for long as it was hot. As we got back to the truck across from the mine it wasn’t bad as it is a little higher in elevation and there was a good breeze. Roy asked if we would like to take the forest service road next to the open pit mine to look at them. Of course we would. As it turns out we were right above the area where their giant trucks were hauling loads from the crusher plant. What a blast to watch load after load of the Monster trucks coming up the mountain and dumping their giant loads.
Here is an explanation of what we were watching from Roy:
Heres a decent explanation of the leaching process that we saw out in
Globe-Miami last weekend.
Oxide ore processing
Oxide ore is most common in open pit operations and once the ore leaves the
pit is placed on a heap leach pad in a large stack or pile. Under the pile
is a pre- constructed impervious liner in order to collect solution. The
heap leach pad is sprayed with a mild sulphuric acid solution so that the
copper can be dissolved. Pads have a series of pipes and hoses dispensing a
diluted sulfuric acid solution to the ore. Copper is dissolved and flows to
a pond at the bottom of the pad where is it collected on the liner. This
process can take several months. The leached solution is pumped to the
Solvent Extraction ("SX") circuit, where the copper is stripped using
organic solutions; the stripped liquid is then returned to the leach pads
for re-use. The strip solution is cleaned using dilute acid and flotation
and is filtered prior to the electro-winning ("EW") phase, where the copper
is plated using electrolysis on cathodes square sheets of copper. This
cathode copper is then transported for sale to end users.
On our way back to the truck I was in the lead and stopped because there was a snake in the middle of the road. It was about 3 & ½ feet long. As I reached for my camera the thing took off like a rocket and climbed a tree about 30 yards in the desert. I swear I couldn’t run as fast as this thing could slither. I went over to the tree to try to get his photo. He was a little camera shy but I got a couple. I couldn’t see him very good and I knew it was a whip snake like I had seen with Grizz once so I grabbed a branch to see if I could get him to move. He did alright as he was out of the tree and off like a rocket. Steve was asking where it was and I said OH MY GOSH HERE IT IS AAAAAAAAA!!!! As I was jumping back. Just kidding I said as it was gone.
Well another great adventure for the record books. We got to see some new and interesting things as we always do. There is nothing better than being able to get out and see new and interesting people and places with friends.
