A Mine is a terrible thing to Waste

(not exploring)

Two weekends ago Heather and I celebrated our third year wedding anniversary by hiking in the North Cascades National Park up and over Cascade Pass to Horseshoe Basin. It was an exceptionally beautiful day-perfect weather-great trails-and a fantastic corner of a fantastic park to explore. One of the highlights was following the old road now rocky trail into waterfall saturated Horseshoe Basin to the old Black Warrior Mine. The Mine is in pretty good shape for an old mine and was in use (somewhat) into the 1950s. It would have been a tough place to make a living but quite a nice view! While we scouted around the talus beneath the mine, I stumbled upon a penny. Its date was 2006-the year we were married. Dear Abby refer to these events as pennies from heaven-the oft happenstance event of discovering a penny bearing a significant date reminding you of a loved one, anniversary or event. Yeah- I know a 2006 penny is no big find. But on a scree slope-off trail in a remote basin on that particular day? Sounds like a penny from heaven to me! And if the one cent piece wasn't minted in heaven-God sure did a good job creating the props for that wonderful day!