do some free climbing when I was a kid but I don't have the strength anymore. This is more of a hike then a climb. Now pretty much all we do is repelling when we get the chance. We hike in, repel some drop and hike out. It's a b$#ch getting old. Back in the day when we were kids we would pull my old jeep up to a silver mine air shaft in the Mojave Desert out by this old ghost town called Calico, which is now an Amusement Park. Then we would repel down the air shaft to where the second tunnel connected. You never stopped at the first because snakes would get trapped in it. They never (never say never) got down deep enough for the second or third. We never got down past the third either because you would have to manually climb back up the rope. We didn't have climbers back then so we used two short sections of line and monkey knots with a boland in them for our feet. Take a step, slide up the knot, take a step, slide up the knot. The county came by 60 years ago and bulldozed most of the mine entrances but couldn't fill up the air shafts. Not so much now but 20 years ago, every so often some dirt rider would find one. Their all fenced now which is probably a good thing, but it spoiled a lot of fun. Damn Do Gooders.