On my mission to walk all the trails around Green Mountain, I found myself hiking up Gold Mountain after having located the Tin Mine again. (for those who do not know, Green and Gold Mountains are on DNR land and are the 2 highest points on the Kitsap Peninsula where I live). 15 or so years have passed since the last time I had been to the mine and it was just as I had remembered. Another mission I was on was to locate School Rock. I believe I found the "trail" if you want to call it that, but it was becoming too much of a bushwhack and I decided to save it for another day.
The trail to the Tin Mine starts off of GM-6 logging road that goes between Green and Gold Mountains. The trail starts right after you pass the big pond on the right. A little stream flows out of the Tin Mine and actually flows on the trail for quite a ways but it is not too hard to keep the feet dry if you exercise a little caution. After finding the Tin Mine, I continued hiking up what I call the Tin Mine trail. The trail follows an old road grade and actually comes out on a logging road up on Gold Mountain at around 1000' according to my altimeter. At this junction you can continue on the trail which heads down to the Gold Creek Trail head from here, or you can walk out to the logging road and walk up Gold Mountain. There is a sign here that says no motorized vehicles beyond this point but it does not look like it stops anyone as I saw numerous motorcycle tracks.
The last time I tried to walk up Gold Mountain, there were multiple signs that said Bremerton Watershed no trespassing. I did not see any of these signs until I was almost all the way to the top this time and they were all warning to stay out of the woods, not to stay off the mountain or off the logging road as I had remembered. I hiked up to the KCPQ TV gate turnoff and took the main logging road past the gate so I could get a good view of Green Mountain. At this point I turned around and walked the couple miles back down to the Tin Mine trail junction and took the steep downhill motorcycle trail that goes down to the Gold Creek Trail head and my car. I'll save the actual summit of Gold Mountain for another day.
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Nice photos. Lots to explore on Green Mountain.
Very cool! I was wondering if you explored some of the abandoned mines out that way? I just moved to the area and found out there’s a lot of cool hikes out here.
Hi Trina. Yeah, I’m kind of chicken when it comes to actually going in those mines. If you are looking for more mines to look into, try the Tubal Cain area or the Copper Creek area over in the Olympics.
A view from the back of the tin mine toward the entry. a creek runs down the middle of this 100 yard deep mine. The ceiling ‘rains’ water and as is evident, there was a fire in the mine at one point in time. Wear high boots for a dry encounter!
I’ve explored many mines on the Olympic Peninsula such as Gregory Mine, Copper Creek Mine, Most recently Crescent Mine, and Tubal Cain Mine. If you’d like to know more about exploring abandoned mines like how to get to them then go to my Crescent Mine trip report http://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8035211.
Thanks for the link. That La Follette Falls looks more interesting to me than these mine shafts. Be careful.
The mine was so interesting that we didn’t capture enough photos of the mine itself. 1,000 feet into the mine there’s a huge pit the size of a tennis court that goes down 50 feet. If you fell in than you would never see daylight again, but it’s really easy to avoid. La Follette Falls was interesting too. If you want directions to the falls I’d be more than happy to give you accurate directions that are pretty simple, it’s relatively easy to find off the Olympic Discovery Trail. You just branch off the trail at the park boundary and hike up a bit, it’s that simple for an incredible waterfall.
If you want to go to a mine that isn’t dangerous and isn’t flooded than click this link on Gregory Mine near Port Angeles.