What started as a long-weekend trip 8 years ago has become an annual trip to explore the abandoned mines of northern Ontario. This year, we spent a week checking out sites along Lake Superior's north shore.

I bought a proper off-road vehicle specifically for these trips, and there's always a lot of fun driving involved.

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When we reached this old mine near a ghost town, I sent Archer to check it out on his own, because it had always been frozen over when I had visited it in the past (it's not uncommon to have ice year-round in a lot of these mines). When he came back and told me that all the ice had melted, I reluctantly climbed the steep hill to join him at the adit, but really wasn't expecting much. Boy, was I wrong.

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Overlanding off in the middle of nowhere always provides such beautiful sights; even when the weather is terrible.

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Although almost everything we explored was underground, we did stop off at one ghost town in the area.

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This last site was our main goal for this trip. We had visited the mine 4 times in the past, but never really found our way underground into the bulk of the workings. This year we finally succeeded, and the scale of the place blew our minds.

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12. A stick of dynamite just laying around


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17. A flyover of the processing ruins at the site


And finally, a gorgeous sunset over Lake Superior

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Awesome explore! Would love to see more pics.... The You Tube link is dead.

Posted by Mr. Bitey Awesome explore! Would love to see more pics.... The You Tube link is dead.

Whoops, accidentally set it to private instead of unlisted. Thanks for the head's up. It should be good now!

What a week it was! Hoping to get through my photos this weekend and get them uploaded.

First off, any explore that involves off-roading is a big thumbs up right away in my books LOL

Pic 10 really shows the scale of how large the place was...spelunking requires more gonads than I ever will possess so it's nice to view such places from comfort of my PC

Looks like a great day was spent...thanks for the share !!

This is gangster as shit

Love this post...wow! Must have been an amazing experience...and that stick of dynamite..what?! Any history or more pics of the ghost town church?

Epic.

Posted by leafloving4x4gal First off, any explore that involves off-roading is a big thumbs up right away in my books LOL

For me too! Getting there is half the adventure

Posted by Theninjalobster This is gangster as shit

Danke!

Posted by fortress Love this post...wow! Must have been an amazing experience...and that stick of dynamite..what?! Any history or more pics of the ghost town church?

Sadly the inside of the church was completely gutted, so I didn't bother with any more photos in there

Posted by rob.i.am Epic.

Thanks, Rob!

Obligatory mines are dangerous, I'm not responsible if you get hurt or die doing this, etc.


And here we go!

Mine #1

This one has two entrances, with the lower one flooded to at least waist height. We're not equipped for that yet, so it's on the list to come back to.

The upper entrance, however...

1. A rather uneasy entrance


2. And thwarted by the water...


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Mine #2

This is the one near the ghost town. Never been here before personally, and wasn't expecting much based on Brind's comments about ice. How wrong I was.

4. So, I nearly walked into the winze due to the murky water, not putting two and two together that the ore bucket was for a winze...


5. The murky water did not like being disturbed. Stirring it up caused semi-bad pockets of air to surface


6. Collapsed raises are no obstacle!




Mine #3

I've only been here twice before; the first time we found a stope but couldn't get in, and the second time we got into the top ledge of that stope. This time we found an adit which connects into the massive stope area.

Even then, we've only scratched the surface at this mine, since it also connects into a capped shaft at the main facilities, and we never did find the shaft when we were down there.

7. I wish the rope was in better condition so we could actually go up. As it was... no.


8. Breccia everywhere!


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10. Those are some impressive balls


11. Even more breccia!


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13. This doesn't even being to capture the scale of the stope. It tries, but fails to succeed


14. "Is that... dynamite?"


15. It's August, and the ice was still at least two inches thick in the majority of places.


16. The flooded decline is so tempting...

www.uer.ca says:

The post has been liked!

Almost makes me want to visit a mine. Almost.

Awesome work guys!

Superb post!

Outstanding!

LIGHT THE DYNAMITE! LIGHT IT, LIGHT IT, LIGHT IT, LIIIIIIIIIGHT IT!


cool gallery

This looks like an amazing trip! Good call on the new car - it looks like it came in handy, and the XTerra is just a beautiful thing!

If you're planning on doing next year's trip around those parts again, let me know. I may be able to share a few places for you to check out...