1.15.2014

desert infrastructures (4 | 6)

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morning

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19th century mine

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20th century mine

today saw a primary aim of the trip, sneaking into a vast, 10 mile wide, abandoned iron mine complex that generated the initial capital of the kaiser corporate empire. 40 mile backdoors are hard to open unless you have a bicycle.wiki

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nobody comes this way anymore

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sign was sunbaked and illegible, we figure it probably said "welcome" or something similar

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bobby is the blue speck at the lower third intersection of the frame

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it is hard to convey scale here

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at left, the mine continues deep beneath the basin plane. at right, the abandoned gold mine.

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we camouflaged ourselves with painting canvas and got down to it

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new acropolis

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the leach fields were each about a mile wide and 60 feet deep. land art scale.

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21st century mine

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this is one of my best

4 comments:

ben said...

thank you for taking such beautiful photos, i visit frequently and look forward to your posts, both from a photographic and a bicycle perspective.

erik said...

thanks for that, i'm really happy that people appreciate the work in both ways. it's a way of seeing.

Hudson said...

That last photo is really amazing. How in the world do you avoid flats riding in terrain like that?

erik said...

Schwalbes! Big Bens on this one. Thanks for stopping by.