Four Uncommon Outdoor Adventures

When you are ready for outdoor adventures, butand climbing assures you that there won't be a
want to try something new, you have to think incrowd). Then you need to get out there and start
new ways. Forget the mountain bike or the paidexploring. I was out the other day swimming in a nice
rafting tour. Here are some low budget interestingpool below a nine-foot waterfall, and in the six times
things you may not have tried.I have been in that canyon, I have never seen
Mine Huntinganother person.
A friend and I have been to Phantom Canyon sixHuckleberry Finn Adventures
times this spring, hiking in the hills and exploringHave you ever thought about building a raft and
narrow gulches. Five of those times we have foundfloating down a river like Huck Finn and Tom
an abandoned mine or two. Most were less thanSawyer? This works best in wide rivers that have
forty feet deep, and a classic hole in the wall. Onelong stretches without rapids. We used to do it on
was discovered by following a trail of beautiful quartzthe Manistee River in Michigan.
boulders uphill for twenty minutes, until we foundOur rafting adventures usually started with parking
where the rocks had been blown apart many yearsthe car downstream from a long wild stretch and
ago. There is a wall of pure quartz there, perhapswalking up the river for a hour or so, taking a
fifteen feet high and twenty wide. I have never seenshortcut that cut past the big loops and bends. We
anything like it.carried snacks and water, a saw and hatchet, and
Some of these are old claims on public lands. We justscraps of rope. By afternoon we had built a raft of
like to poke around, but in recent years treasuredead trees and began the float back to the car.
hunters have been taking metal detectors to theseThat's usually when the real fun started. Here's a tip:
old mines to work over the tailings piles. Occasionalhave long poles for controlling the 1,500-pound pile of
gold nuggets are found inside the rocks there. Tologs and humans you'll be guiding around and under
make this outdoor adventure more profitable andtrees.
adventurous, you need to find the mines that areFishing For Smelt By Hand
five miles or more from any road, like those in theIn Northern Michigan and Wisconsin the smelt run up
San Juan mountains of southwestern Colorado.many streams in the early spring. People love these
How do you find them? We started by going onlinefish because they are easily cleaned and when deep
and searching "mines." We obtained a list of 160fried do not need to be scaled. One night I saw the
mines in Fremont County, Colorado alone. But onlyback of a pickup truck filled with the smelt from one
one of the five we recently found was on the list.small creek. They are caught simply by dipping a net
Just hiking in mining country and keeping your eyesin and scooping them out.
open works too. You can also find old mines notedIt's nice to get outdoors at night (when the smelt
on many topographical maps.run), but for a bit more fun, try catching them by
Searching For Swimming Holeshand. Just lay on the creek bank and hold the
Ask around and you might get directions to hiddenflashlight over the water. When a smelt swims by,
swimming holes. We found a beautiful one a milequickly pin it to the bottom and grab it. I have caught
down a small creek in this way. We also met fifteen40 in a hour using this technique. They made a
other people there, jumping from the cliffs into adecent meal for several of us. This last one isn't the
small pool.most exciting of these outdoor adventures, but it is
If you want to find less populated ones, you need tosatisfying to catch dinner with your own hands.
get a topographical map and start searching. Look forCopyright Steve Gillman. Ready for a Treasure
narrow canyons with year-round streams (hard hikingHunting Adventure?