Forbidden Universe
Paranormal => The Paranormal & Ghost Society => Topic started by: AngelOfThyCosmos on February 12, 2018, 08:40:48 PM
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Every single year I like to open up our years adventures with a awesome project that stands out from the rest. Its important to start off each year great just as you end each year especially if your like me who runs a big time paranormal adventure group. I always say tis' the season a time for ghost towns because the winter is perhaps our season for taking on these ghost towns. I mean with snow capped mountains, no rattle snakes and cooler weather it is rather inviting.
I decided we would begin our new year up near Bridgeport California which is in Mono County near Yosemite and Bodie two areas most of you can relate with us as being very gorgeous but also unique. I love the Mono County area I have worked with a few ghost towns here but we have not done enough and need to start focusing on more adventures here. Considering its only a couple hours drive its fairly easy to go out this way and a part of the eastern sierras that offers beautiful views.
Bridgeport is a quaint cute little cozy historic town just outside of the locations we would be working with. But its also really your gateway up into Lee Vining where you can go up into Yosemite and Bodie one of the most famous ghost towns in the country. Personally this year I plan on taking at least two to three trips out by Bridgeport to do more work. I generally head allot into northern Nevada or California but central California has some nice gems too so we need to bring our viewers adventures from such places.
In this case I would be bringing our viewers three locations Dogtown, The Conway Ranch and Monoville. I had in total about six places we were going to check out but that was overkill since the days up here are short and some areas are simply under to much snow. I never know what I might encounter because I do not live here or there and weather in these mountains changes daily. One day you might get 60 degree weather next day 4' of snow seriously! The eastern sierras near Bridgeport bring loads of snow you can see Yosemite's crags from Bridgeport and they are buried all passes closed and most roads below the eastern sierras inaccessible which are also the location of many ghost towns.
One thing is for sure you never head out in the winter to go up here unless you have blankets, firewood, gas, food, water and other supplies. Bodie was open too which from what I know the place is never open in the winter but this has been a mild season most of the snow is in the sierras anything beyond it has been very dry. So I thought it might be a good chance to do some of the ghost towns below the eastern sierra and historic sites so that we set off to do. It would also be a good time to try out my drone which I found to be harder to maneuver then it looks lol.
I left early in the morning sometimes I leave at 2am to hit the road believe me you have to because the days are short and although I do not mind night time adventuring you wont see nor find these locations in the dark not out in the open desert or mountains. So I left before the sun was up and was not happy with the weather as it said snowstorm for Bridgeport and thunder showers all the way there. When I left that morning it was raining hard and I kept my fingers crossed that the rest of the day would get better weather wise.
Within a couple hours I reached Dogtown yes I brought my dogs they been coming along on my journeys lately. But when I pulled up upon the historic plaques for this gold rush town rain was coming down pretty consistently. No less I had work to do so it was time to mount an expedition around the town site to see what I could find.
Dogtown California
The plaques overlook the creek below where the town once sat. Its not a huge creek canyon maybe a few hundred feet wide but there was allot of flooding going on. In fact its so lush and overgrown here you cant even see where anything historic maybe so I had to slowly drive my truck down to the creek then set off in the rain to hike on foot with my dog.
Dogtown is one of the first gold rush camps on the eastern side of the sierras so you bet your ass this is a top notch historic site. Unfortunately not much remains there are supposedly stone miner shacks but I never found any of them. I found some piles of stones or diggins from when the Chinese mined the creek for a decade but that was about it.
The basin and creek were flooding bad I wanted to cross it to look for the remnants of the town my dog did but I did not because there were sheets of ice, pools of still water and many areas flooded due to the heavy rains as well as warmer temps melted snow off the sierra making the area a bit hard to navigate. Nothing is worst then ice cold wet feet all day and the sun was not up here I was trying to figure out how to cross a river of fast moving water.
I did walk down a few dirt roads seen some open areas where the town once stood. I took my truck down a few roads one of them goes across the creek but was out right now so I could not cross it to get to the other side to check out some stone cabins. But since I pass by Dogtown all the time up near Bridgeport the next time the creek is down ill cross it and get the rest of my photos.
This is a significant place unfortunately because of the bad weather, creek flooding and exhaustion of gold allot of the miners moved up to Monoville which was its sister gold rush town nearby. That is why in the same day I wanted to visit Dogtown then Monoville so we could connect the dots. I am not sure if Dogtown will get its own spot on my site or will put Monoville and Dogtown together since the same man kind of founded both in a sense according to some historians.
Dogtown was a rough place to live the winters were harsh and most of the folks lived in shacks. It was a poor mans gold camp. Today there is plenty of gold still found from the creeks flow which goes right through the center of where the town once stood. As a matter in fact the largest gold nugget in California was discovered here I believe it was bigger then a basketball based on stories I read.
Its not an exciting place you go down this narrow dirt road at an angle down into the canyon which follows the highway. Once you get to the bottom there is a road that crosses the creek then two more roads which split both leading to open areas where at one time the town once stood. There are stone cabins or foundations but I guess they are on the other side of the creek you cant see much because the brush is so thick along the creek and the entire canyon was flooded so I could not even get across.
Well my dog could he swam across and apparently did not give a rats ass lol. On the other hand I was not about to swim with all my gear or be swept down the rapids although at that time I wish I was a dog would have been convenient for me lol. But at least he had fun running around I took some EVP and photos but it was raining hard and without me being able to get to some foundations after 45 minutes of freezing my hands off I decided to put more time into my other locations. I also wanted to see the grave in Dogtown but never found that to so ill have to try to find it on another trip no big deal ill be going past Dogtown this year a few times.
Camps like this led to other towns in the area like Bodie, Masonic, Aurora etc and because these other camps they had more wealth and Dogtown declined. But the earliest miners who came out west begin in Dogtown so its an important location even if only a few piles of rocks remain. I could see on the other side of the creek from the historic plaques piles of rocks perhaps diggins and figured id make one last attempt to get over there.
I took these animal paths down to the creek bed through brush where I encountered deep pools of water with little muddy islands then more creek tributaries. Its pretty wet up there everything is underwater kind of dangerous to cross especially when there is melted ice over some of the patches of water. You had entire trees and brushes underwater so now I know winter is not a good time to explore this place and Spring might be worst when snow off Yosemite melts and pours down into this canyon.It also does not help that the Chinese did some hydraulic mining here thus tearing up the landscape so water kind of settles in these low laying area so if your going to visit you may want to wait till summer just sayin.
I would move on to our next location which was The Historic Conway Ranch its not far from Dogtown minutes perhaps away. Everything is rather close in the area ghost towns, ranches, mines etc which is why its such a great area to explore because there is just so much. The Conway Ranch may not be a ghost town or mine but it had been around for nearly a century and half making it one of the oldest properties in the Mono Basin and region.
The Historic Conway Ranch
When you reach the Mono Lake Basin there is a visit point I definitely stopped there to read the historic plaque which mentions Dogtown and how the diggins were moved to Monoville just a mile beyond the vista point. You have to understand that on this trip I focused on everything that was related to one another so everything was a couple miles away from one another.
When I parked up above Mono Lake I did get out to read the plaques about Monoville and Dogtown. I also was watching the massive winter storm over the sierras to the right of us and the thunder shower over Mono Lake out front. The skies were dark, fog was rolling in, wind was picking up as a matter in fact it started to snow and I was like oh boy here we go lol.
Mono Lake was once part of an ancient sea/ocean its a saline soda lake with high salt content and it does have shrimp in it. The natives been living on the lake for thousands of years and the Conway Ranches farm fields run all the way to the lake short almost so I got to explore a historic scenic ranch that overshadows Mono Lake.
As you drive down into the Mono Basin you will pass by the dirt road to go up to Monoville then once you reach the bottom of the basin you can veer left and take a series of dirt roads one of them leading you to the old Conway - Mattly Ranches. As a matter in fact if you stand on the vista point you can see the historic ranches from it along with Mono Lake, eastern sierra and the entire basin. You know the ranch is right blow you because there are patches of trees in the middle of a massive open area which was used in the 1800's to graze cattle and grow crops.
When you get to the bottom of the basin the road that splits off to the left will take you to a nice high desert area backdropped by a pinion and juniper forest. Then you will begin to see some of the old historic ranch houses which are deplorable but still standing. In my opinion this is a great place to do some paranormal investigating I mean many generations lived on this farm and over the years some had passed away leaving it open to the possibility that maybe the farm is haunted possibly.
The first ranch house we approached could have been part of the Conway families farm or the Mattly Ranch. I do not know because there is nothing that tells me who owned the house but given the fact the Conway Farm in the 1800's was over a thousand acres id assume that its really all the same at least today since the two ranches on this land are abandoned. The thing is that the Conway family did own the property up until the 1980's when the sold the land.
The farm today is important because twice a year mule deer migrate through here. It also sits along the Walker River so its a place for birds to nest as well and today its used more or less as a fishing camp. But back in the day the Conway's raised livestock and grew crops for the miners in many local boom towns such as Bodie, Monoville, Dogtown, Masonic and Aurora. The miners had to eat therefore eggs, chicken, beef, potatoes, corn etc were a vital food source. Its important that I did this ranch because it has ties to many of the ghost towns we have or done research at if that makes sense.
The Conway's lived a rugged life this was house on the prairie stuff the Mono basin was hit hard with snow in fact it was so bad the children had to ski three miles to school in the winter. But they also offered stage services at the time. Therefore stage coaches on the way up to lets say Bodie or Monoville could stop here for a meal or even to rest there heads for the night. So the ranch became a vital stop for the pioneers on there way to Yerington and Carson City to the Aurora and Bodie Stage line.
There are a couple ranch houses the first one we visited was the largest could have been the Mattly Ranch or part of the main Conway Farm. I know that on site you had the main Conway Ranch then the little Conway Ranch based on my research. I really did not care either way the wicked storm over the sierras, views of Mono Lake and a creepy historic ranch were all the makings of a wonderful exploration. The Conway's did lease the farm a little to so other farmers may have added some things to the land over the years.
The first ranch had a giant corral and some collapsed stables. I did not see a barn my guess is allot of the good stuff has been erased from history. But the main ranch house is fairly large worth checking out. There was allot of trees around the ranch but a few giant cottonwoods had been cut. I also seen a collapsed chicken coop and some other structure that was in pieces near the house. Obviously the farm was allot larger but really the only thing that stood here explorable was the beautiful ranch house.
The ranch house was in bad shape rats nest all over, droppings, two of the rooms had old bed springs in them and in one room the entire upstairs had collapsed. You could see in the rooms different wallpapers and in one of the bedrooms someone made a swing using wiring and a pallet. I was not thinking at the time so I climbed up on the pallet begin to swing and laugh making my kid chuckle. He said dad your crazy and he was right after we realized I almost brought the entire roof down with my fat ass because the beam kept flexing oops. Sometimes the big kid in me comes out what can I say one thing is for sure they built these places to last so I was impressed!
There appeared to be a pantry or wash room, workshop, den and a few bedrooms in the house plus a kitchen. All the floors were original made of wood with giant planks. The stairs were gone leading upstairs and I would not have trusted it anyhow because almost the entire upstairs second story floor had collapsed or was simply gone. You could see up to the sky in certain places standing in the house it was in bad shape but still a historic site worth checking out.
One room had a bookshelf built into a wall with an old sink in it for maybe doing laundry or dishes its hard to know. There was a freezer, stove and kitchen table blocking one of the hallways. Most of the doors were missing and all the windows were gone. Some walls and doors also had holes in it and the stairwell to the back porch was in pieces. I believe the twisted mangled collapsed structure next to the house was some kind of workshop or storage area. But it was in peril as well just sheet metal and pieces of wood everywhere.
My son and the dogs were out in a pasture running around while I did my work. I love seeing my kid be a boy and I love seeing my dogs being free like that. The entire purpose of me taking my family out is so they can get something out of this to. Were so stuck on our laptops, cell phones etc we tend to forget that there is another side to life a world waiting for us to adventure in it ya know? So it was fun watching out the ranch windows my son and dogs run around getting fresh air. Surprisingly the fog on the sierras cleared up and it stopped raining some sun was starting to even break perfect for being here at the time.
There was also in Latin or perhaps Spanish something written on the walls with a date. It was fairly long I read it on video because I was trying to be funny because it sounded like some spell or novel piece lol. The ranch for me was a fun place and the views I mean you could go into any room here and take in the beautiful views. That is the one thing the family who lived here had was nice views but ranching here was tough they worked morning till night because not only had they tend to guest visiting via stage but they had to raise livestock and grow crops.
We then had some hard boiled eggs from my coop, xmas cookies and some mixed berry muffins. In between locations we do break and we always eat good. I bring allot of good eats on my trips trust me so we had a nice picnic on the ranch it was warming up with nice views of the eastern sierra it was nice. Those peaks are huge I mean some are 12k so standing at the ranches pasture looking up your just like wow because you feel so small in the mono basin.
We would move on to the actual Conway Ranch how I know this is there is a plaque which talks about the Conway Ranch and the little Conway Ranch along with what life was like here. I already knew most of it but there was some tidbits I didn't know such as about the massive sheep farm this was all the way up until the 1960's that was leased here and many corrals along with a Basque oven were added.
The ranch house at the second site was not as big it was actually kind of small with a bedroom, kitchen and main den area. I believe this was The Little Conway Ranch based on my research and old photos. I really do not refer to it as little or big since the same family owned the property for a century they all may have lived in different areas on the land.
This ranch was covered in rat droppings so be careful do not breath in the dust or you could die just saying because of bacteria. There is also a hole in the kitchen floor and allot of piles of newer lumber because they are trying to restore the property. But at least this ranch house has some in tact windows and its not collapsing as with the first homestead we explored.
The kitchen had a more modern sink in it while the living room had an old furnace. I can imagine life was simple back then even if you had kids you shared the same sleeping area and if you had to go to the bathroom you went out back and used the outhouse. This homestead was much smaller but its one of the oldest buildings in the Mono basin so its historic in everywhere.
If you walk out behind the house you can visit the Blacksmith shop which has also been restored. Next to it are a bunch of wooden planks from the original blacksmith. The newly rebuilt one is pristine and obviously not finished but inside is an old supply wagon made out of wood and iron that Conway probably used to haul his veggies to these local mining camps. He was able to make the trip to Bodie to drop food off for the miners and boy that must had been a welcoming site if you lived in Bodie because without ranchers like the Conway's you would have starved to death living in the Bodie Hills.
The Conway's owned the first telephone which connected Bodie to the Mono Basin hell Mrs Conway had the first treadle sewing machine and her husband died of the flu back in 1918. Life was hard here people did die on the ranch which is why I also chose to investigate it because when I do my paranormal investigations I try to take into consideration what happened on the land which could lead to a specific haunting. This family gave there lives to live on this land and prior to it for nearly 10 thousand years the Native Americans utilized this rich land which resides on the edge of the north side of Mono Lake.
The area over the years has gotten flash floods which is why it looks the way it does the Basque oven was destroyed in one. So it has a long ways to go before they can stabilize the ranch houses and restore them again. But if the ranch is this deplorable its mainly due to harsh weather here which has not changed in today's times nor the 1800's.
Prior to the Conway's owning the farm a few other families had homesteaded on it building the structures you will see in my photos. Once the Conway's had purchased the land they made a long life here. I mean at one time kids were running around playing, wolves were crossing the ranches open land howling at night and a father and his son probably went fishing in the river nearby. When the 80's rolled around the BLM and County took over the property. I think its great restoration is transpiring here but its not enough allot needs to be done and for now the ranch houses are just overran with rodents.
I also read that Johns first wife died here before he remarried so who knows maybe her ghost haunts the farm to. But this farm had a bit of everything they raised wild captured mustangs, grew crops, grazed cattle, sheep and also had dairy. They grew alfalfa for the animals or rather farmed hey and raised hogs to. When the ranch was leased later in the 1900's The Saldubehere Brothers leased the land for their sheep using the blacksmith shop for a shed. Because the Conway family in the mid 1900's no longer lived on the ranch they just leased it because John had passed away.
So much history here and it was worth exploring it all this is a true wild western farm almost a real house on the prairie it certainly deserves recognition, a spot on our site and some educational content that we can share with the rest of the historical community. These old farms are so very far and few between and the ranches are very important because they are some of the oldest structures in the basin. There was of course allot more like a cold storage house for meat and dairy, larger homestead which I believe is gone, sheds, outbuildings and even a wagon shop. The Conway's had a wagon making business so the blacksmith shop was also vital and it has not changed except for it being restored. But John spent allot of time in there so to investigate these sites where the family spent the most time at like the houses or shop really made it the perfect paranormal investigation.
After leaving the ranch I drove down a lonely road along Mono Lake I was in search of Hector Station which was an old stagecoach stop today in ruins. Man some site gave me the coordinates and I put them in arrived at the location found nothing. I must had spent about 45 minutes trampling through the open desert along the lake and never found it. I cant stand people that give coordinates that are off even if they are off a little bit its easy to miss a set of stone ruins surrounded by a sea of sage brush. No less even though I could not find the station the ride along the lake it scenic as you drive between the lake and beautiful forested high desert hills.
I could see there was a few other ranches near the Conway Ranch boy what a view and life here. It must be really nice to live in the basin with the beautiful views, lake nearby, good fishing in the Walker River and all this history. I could retire at a place like this with a smile on my face to tell you the truth. But after not finding Hector Station the day was moving past us fast so it was time to began my ascension up to Monoville which is a ghost town just above The Conway Ranch. Only a couple miles away if you want to me to be precise so history definitely lurks around every corner here and while I had fun offroading down the muddy dirt roads of the Conway Ranch it was time to finish off the day strong up in Monoville.
Monoville California
I heard about this ghost town six to seven years ago never knew how to find it or where it was. Its so easy to pass the road going into this town because its up near the Vista Point around a corner high up above the basin on some cliffs. The road is not labeled its just a narrow little dirt path you turn onto that goes up into Rattlesnake Gulch which my GPS tried to tell me it was down near the Conway Ranch. Yes its true the gulch starts there but the ghost town is in the wash/canyon towards the top above the basin not at the bottom of it.
I may join Dogtown and Monoville together on our website because they were releavtivly close and were sister mining camps but the difference is Monoville was more of a town while Dogtown was merely a small camp full of transient miners that had no post office or even really any stable services. Its hard to believe that these ghost towns I go to barely exist if it were not for folks like us who help preserve these locations what would be left to know about or see? You look at some ghost towns that had thousands and can clearly see they been reduced to a few bean cans and miner shacks. I am sure that Monoville in a decade or so will cease to even exist in its current condition.
There is a bunch of dirt roads in the gulch you can get confused a little but these were part of the Mono Diggins before the town grew further up into the canyon.As a matter in fact this road is very narrow, edges cliffs and you cant see the ghost town till you go deeper into the canyon driving through a wooded area or at least area full of dense brush. I almost thought nothing was back here ending up turning around grrrr.
But what I can tell you is this is a beautiful canyon full of rock formations, crags, spires that look like a cathedral, a creek, some trees and hills. The views behind me of the Mono Basin and Lake were also very scenic and the eastern sierras covered in snow. When the road had gotten very narrow the brush was almost touching the sides of my truck. I parked walked around found a miners shack hidden in dense brush all collapsed. I knew this was Monoville so I got back in and parked at the crossroads in town which opens up to an area where there are multiple sites you can explore.
We grabbed our packs I could have driven down these old roads but instead I parked at the bottom of the hill then hiked right up into the ghost town on foot with our backpacks loaded with food, drinks and supplies. This is a great place to hike and there is some cool places you can stop along the way to check out. This town was large it had a post office, hotels, saloons and about 1000 people lived here from about 1859 all the way up until the 1880's really. But on my way up to the first homestead where the road splits we found a large stone foundation with walls that was pretty cool.
The miners here would pick away the rock in the gulch some would dry pan up below Conway Summit which also overshadows The Conway Ranch. While Dogtown attracted most miners because of its accessibility Monoville was more about the miners who wanted to go further out on their own and maybe strike it rich. You could take the stage right over the gulch and go out to Bodie. Bodie actually breathed some of the last air near Monoville you see he was in town picking up supplies and left only to be hit with a storm which ended up causing him to free to death. The storms around Bodie and Monoville will kill you I mean they can get 8' of snow in one storm up here which is why most prospectors didn't stick around.
Despite that factor when Aurora, Bodie, Masonic etc grew Mono kind of died because miners moved onto to other camps. So when I roamed this ghost town I was surprised that their was not more to see because at the time it was one of the biggest towns in the Mono Basin area. Dogtown was just a small camp most miners came here to make it or break it though. I could not find the conduit in town which was constructed to divert water from Virginia Creek to aid in hydraulic mining which also took place. The canal was referred to as the Mono Ditch and at the time was the only project of this kind in the country. But see everything here is so overgrown its a lush canyon and during its hey day most of that brush would have been cleared as in today's times it has consumed everything including one of the miners shacks I found made out of wood with bookshelves built into the wall.
The town was scattered throughout the gulch you can see diggins all over from which mining had been done. Hundreds of feet of open area with piles of stones it was unbelievable to say the least at how much mining had been done here for so little gold. At one time Tim N Machin the Lieutenant Governor of California also lived here so this was not a no name town but it was not the richest of towns either. The name was derived from Mono Lake which you could see from the town site through the canyon. Unlike Dogtown water was an issue here but the snow also was to luckily for us there was no snow here but a storm was hovering over the sierras and it was coming so my time here was rather limited sorry folks. You do not want to get caught in storms here you can die Bodie did after all.
I made my way on foot higher up in the canyon where we came across a homestead its the largest structure standing in the town today all made of wood. But it has no doors, windows and it is in peril. There was a few chairs inside like others use the place to hang out at and a backroom with a partial dirt floor. Some of the wood planks were also missing and entire logs had been used to hold up some of the roof inside the home. Like most ghost towns this one had been overran with rodents there was a couple giant rats nest and droppings all over. Not sure id want to hang out in the cabin but I did a walk through took some photos and EVP.
Further beyond the homestead is a second miners cabin built into the hillside with a stone foundation and the other half of it made of wood. There was an outhouse next to it and it had a nice front porch you could sit on. We actually had lunch on the porch ate subs and drank some Pepsi it was nice. I stopped here to smoke some bud and relax a little because afterall we hiked on foot to get up here. These hills are steep in town a good workout for sure.This cabin was missing part of its exhaust pipe for a wood stove it also was locked up and there was allot of writing on the walls from other ghost towns writing messages to the homesteader who once lived here.
I climbed up a hill found a second outhouse and a massive open area with dozens of piles of rocks this had to be some diggins from the miners. I did not see much from the top of the hill but the rock formations are unbelievable they surround the entire canyon and town site. My son and I took a narrow trail through brush where it followed this creek. It was so overgrown you could not even see where we were at till we came up to this old locked up mine. Since there was a wall missing to the entrance of it I climbed right down into the mine and it went about 50' back into this chamber where you could tell someone had been digging perhaps gold mining. I do not visit ghost towns to seek out gold or riches my gold is the history being able to show people what was if that makes sense!
After we left the mine he hiked up to the top of the canyon my knee and ankle are in bad shape need an operation soon. So he went on without me wish I could have went because he got to stand up on the rock spires at the top of the canyon and told me the old wagon road just keeps on going which means that these wagon roads probably went off to other nearby towns like Bodie for example. My son was trying to find us some caves and I could see there being allot of them there is thousands of rocky outcrops everywhere which means caves or mines could be found anywhere around here. But this was not a tunnel mining town they basically just tore up the sides of the gulch picking at rocks looking for gold and this was the next big thing after Dogtown was discovered.
On my way back in some brush I found a pile of bean cans and glass bottles all broken. This must had been the towns dump pile for garbage. You could tell that some hermits probably lived up here trying a hand in small mining in the 1900's. We headed back down then zipped up another road which dead ended and overlooked this massive pit with thousands of piles of rocks. Those diggins my son found a stone wall at but that was about it the rest was all rocks that the miners dug up looking for gold and probably cut away from the gulches cliffs.
We came back down pushing through brush where we found an old wooden miner cabin. It was so overgrown I have a feeling there is more to see in the brush but you cant see it nor get to it so its a pain because I know this town has more then what we were seeing. There is a road you can take through the brush that if you jump over crevice and go around a small pond you can go up to a third area with hundreds of rock formations. When you get to the top there is this flat area which has hundreds of piles of rocks and its high up so it looks down at the town site below. Their are allot of piles of rock and diggins but not allot of structures in Monoville perhaps about five or six that is it. I seen other peoples photos and it looks like what I seen most folks have to since its a well visited ghost town.
I did try out my new drone at the main structure in the ghost town. I am still trying to figure out how to use it because the battery life is only good for about 10 to 15 minutes. For some reason I could not get it to fly higher then 6' off the ground at times it would turn off and I would have to reprogram the drone because it would lose connection which is not good because if I fly it and it ends up losing connection it could get stuck up in a tree or on a cliff lol. Sadly it had gotten so windy and started snowing that by the time I got my drone to start going up the wind blew it into a bush and the battery was dying on the drone. I was so mad I must had sworn for ten minutes straight like a sailor lost at sea lol.
I did get some film but it was not very good because I could not keep the drone at a steady altitude. I will have to take it to the park near me and work with it more. Because in the future I want to start flying my drone at some of these ghost towns filming the footage from above then I can upload it to youtube for our ghost town enthusiast. That is if I can fly it straight and get it to work my first flight I did okay with but this was my second one and it just went haywire perhaps something was wrong with the main controlling causing it to do flips hard to know could have been weak batteries or poor signal between controls and the drone itself. I wont know till I give it a test near the field near my house where there are no trees or brush. I almost lost it in the gulch at one point when it flew at an angle into a tree and well I get a bit scared that I could lose hundreds of dollars due to it ending up on the roof of some miners shack or up in a tree lol. My son was like dad I am not going on the roof to get it if you lose control lol so yeah thanks son that is because the roof was almost collapsing and I do not carry ladders with me on ghost town trips even though I own one haha.
All in all the weather was no longer holding up so it was time to head for Bridgeport get some dinner and get warmed up. Lucky for me my truck has awesome heated seats, good working Bose speakers, nice heat, tinted windows and its a beautiful ride to take to ghost towns. So I got in warmed up then made the 12 mile trek out of the Mono basin back up to Bridgeport. The ride through the gulch is gorgeous as you descend onto Mono Lake what a gorgeous little gem. But we were hitting snow the storms had arrived and we were simply out of time.
When I arrived in Bridgeport we went to Rhinos Bar and Grille its such a cool place full of sports memorabilia, good eats and pool tables. Nobody was here we had the restaurant to ourselves so I ordered hot coffee, chicken wings and a miners hot sandwich smothered in cheese and slice beef with some fries. The service was great the waitress was awesome she was on top of things, friendly, always filled my coffee and had a nice sense of humor. I love Bridgeport such a friendly little town and because its near Bodie you get allot of explorers and adventurers who come to the Rhino for a hot meal. Its so historic here the views of Yosemite's crags all covered in snow makes it a great place to visit especially with all the history in town.
Its a small town but there is a lake in town and some other sites of interest. After dinner I was able to briefly stop at the old Bridgeport Historic Courthouse which is definitely worth a gander. They still had Christmas lights and holiday decor all over the place surrounding it. I am sure this courthouse probably has a ghost story or two its an amazing three story historical wood structure. There was also a poor farm or asylum plaque I passed by near a field but nothing stands there anymore but I am sure there are bodies buried here because most poor farms were also graveyards because the people that were patients at such a place often died and did not have any family nor money so they ended up being buried in a field in an unmarked grave. The courthouse dates back to 1880 its hard to say if lynching's took place here but the cannon was pretty cool and it was near Rhinos so I got to at least walk around right before sundown.
I have taken a bit of interest in Bridgeport's history I may have to get a room here so one weekend I can revisit Bodie maybe check out Aurora and do some other ghost towns in the area. I have a ghost town at around 12k but there is snow almost up there all year around but eventually I plan on doing it. I also have an Irish Ghost town and a few other places really close to Bridgeport that we will eventually be doing including one mining camp at 11k which is high up in the national forest. This area is great for adventure but there are ghost stories, bigfoot, the legend of Penelope which should make you shit yourself and allot of history up in these mountains. I am not even begin to touch the tip of the iceberg we will have many more projects to do up in Mono County and around Bridgeport. Mono County is gorgeous a mix of national forest and high desert, beautiful snowcapped peaks, lakes, streams, ghost towns etc what is there not to love folks?
I have done research up at Bodie, Masonic, Bennetteville and the Chemung Mill out here but that is about it. We still have a dozen other places our group needs to work with so I will be back. I only live a couple hours away as a matter in fact it took me like 90 minutes to get home so I do not live that far away which makes it an awesome area to go back to in the near future. Unfortunately a couple days after we left the area its now under 5' of snow so it looks like I at least got out here just in time to visit Monoville at least because now its buried under snow which is why it became abandoned because it was just to much for the miners who came here to make so very little yet endure so very much.
On a sad note my dog has not been doing well lately he is only eight and an American Bulldog mix. I take him on my bigfoot jaunts allot and lately ghost towning. But he is having pain in his hips and joints so this last ghost town trip killed him nearly. It took him three days to recover from the pain had to give him tramadol and everything so sad. I had to even pick him up put him in my truck. Its good for him to exercise around I mean he needs it but even a little hike around Monoville he suffers from. He use to hike miles with me now even a few hundred feet tires him out and so he slept the entire ride home. Its hard to know if ill be able to continue to bring my boy out with me on future trips. I love having my firearm, dog and family on my side when I ghost town I just hate the idea that my dog Rascal is getting arthritis. I made a nice comfortable bed in the back area of my truck for him but ill tell you what he was bushed for three days after it is good that he is fully recovered but its hard to know if he will be able to come out again for another trip and that makes me sad.
Peace,
Lord Rick
PGS Founder