SEPTEMBER 19, 2002

SEEDSKADEE NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE TO PIONEER TRAILS PICNIC GROUNDS, SWEETWATER COUNTY

Our morning began early and chilly with hard frost on the ground. We were ready to depart the Refuge at 7:00 a.m. with a burnt orange sunrise still on the horizon and the river valley blanketed in misty fog. As with the rainbow and sunset last night the entire Team is out watching the day emerge and trying to take photographs that will capture the beauty of the morning.

Our first adventure of the day is a tour of the OCI (Oriental Chemicals, Inc. South Korean) trona mine. Jeff McClawson, BLM Mining Engineer accompanies us to the mine where we meet our guides/supervisors for the morning, Terry Leigh (geologist), Gary Reese and Pat McGarvey. I am not too sure about this tour as it involves going down 800 feet down into the mine (and I hate both small spaces and being underground.) Dave says that it is up to me if I want to go or not. With everyone else going it seems necessary to just handle the situation and go. We receive a safety review from Terry and are provided with hardhats, lamps, protective toe guards (“clunkers”), plastic goggles, breathing canisters to filter the air, and dust masks. Methane gas is common so no cigarette lighters or matches are allowed in the mine. Even to take flash pictures we would need to check first with our guides who would check hand-held meters before giving us the go-ahead. One big reassurance, at least to me, is that the OCI mine has an exceptional safety record in the industry. Finally, we descend down into the Big Island Mine deposit. And, apparently as we descended you could look down and see a tiny light that was the bottom of the shaft. I did NOT look down.

Trona is one-half sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and one-half calcium carbonate (soda ash.) The deposits in this area are 15 million years old, 90% pure, and produce 90% of the world’s supply of trona. Tona is used primarily as a catalyst for making glass, in soaps and detergents and for baking soda. There are numerous foreign partners involved in the different companies and 30% of the trona is exported.

Once we were down in the mine we loaded into diesel trucks outfitted with bench seats to carry about 10 people. According to Terry we drove three miles down one horizontal shaft to where drilling was taking place. Imagine three miles of dim tunnel about 10 feet tall by 20 feet wide with periodic hanging lights and waypoints marked on the walls with red paint. The air is chilly, has a peculiar odor to it, and at various points is gusty from the air circulation process. The three-mile ride seemed like 20. At the end of the tunnel is this huge drilling machine that chisels the trona off and inserts metal rods into the tunnel roof for stability as it bores the tunnel forward. The boring machine conveys the broken up rock back to a low, wide transport truck that departs with 18 tons of trona about every five minutes. The transport truck dumps the trona into a shallow trough and returns for another load. From the trough a conveyor belt carries the material though rotating metal discs, that beak the trona up further, and on up to the surface for processing. It is an unreal environment with these huge prehistoric looking machines, cables snaking about the stone floor, walls, and roof. Yet, every thing moves with precision and energy. It was a fascinating tour and experience but what a relief to come back up on the elevator, step out into fresh air and see blue sky.

After the mine tour it was back to the Green River for another 10-mile paddle. The past two days on the river were cool and at times overcast and drizzly. Today the sky was clear blue, the sun warm and the breeze light. The afternoon wildlife and scenery included great blue herons, hawks, cottonwoods now turning to fall yellow, brief glimpses of salmon and some huge fish - one at least 3 feet long, deer, one red fox, lots of ducks, and an interesting but rather trashy looking extended bank of old cars.

Our camp tonight is next to the river at the Sweetwater County’s Pioneer Trails Picnic Grounds. Normally this county park is open for day use but as has often happened on our Journey local hosts and agencies have “opened their doors” for us. And, tonight we have this entire wonderful facility for our campground. The park includes a large covered pavilion with tables for at least 400 people. We are using the pavilion as our “tent” for the night.

During dinner we again had Mike Brown with us telling us Green River stories. Mike, who previously worked for both the Forest Service and BLM at the Rock Springs and Green River offices, is now the Public Affairs Officer and Historic Trails Specialist for the BLM Elko, Nevada field office. The only problem with Mike is that his stories are so fascinating that you don’t want them to end and he loves to leave you hanging. From the Journey, dana