:bigsmile:
I bet you could spend a lot of the day there working/playing with your lights!
Yeah, I could. It's almost an ideal place! You can "play" any time of day! Sun still out? No problem! Full moon out? No problem! Light pollution all around? No problem! :)
-Garry
Do we get pictures now?
Change in coworker doesn't change photo opportunity sorry.
-Garry
Quick update. I did manage to get some photos (luckily I had decided to bring my camera) but just quick shots on "automatic". The two most useful lights were my Skyray king and my Courui (actually used the Courui the most). The Courui could completely light up our target (tripod and all) at about 400 feet. The king was fantastic for lighting up everything around you! I also used my Poppas W-878 (aspheric flood to throw) a lot for area flooding. The FastTech flashlight clamp was fantastic for holding a light at the tripod (once instrument was setup the light would be aimed down the corridor so I could reference where the instrument was.
Pics to be posted tomorrow.
-Garry
Thanks gb. I would of loved to see the expressions on there faces when you switched your lights on.
There was a moment when the mine foreman was giving me a ride back to our truck. He was backing up a few hundred feet across some nasty ruts and trying to light up behind him with his "150 lumen XR-E" type mine cap lamp and then I reached down for my SRK, held it over my shoulder (pointed behind us) and switched it on high. He then said, "Ah, there we go!" Other than that they weren't too interested in my lights (there were two of them with us). I told the one (new guy not with us in 2012) I was a self-proclaimed flashaholic, but he only said he would rather I had been another type of "flashaholic" (type concerning the opposite sex).
-Garry
As promised, here are some quick photos (captions above the associated photo):
My partner "MoJo" setting up (his first time underground):
Another shot of "MoJo" with my Zuesray in the FastTech flashlight clamp (a fantastic thing to have on hand) pointed toward the foresight (the dim light in the background is the foresight target reflecting back):
My stock (+/- 7A on high) SkyRay King on high lighting up a long corridor (nothing to set the light on by a pile on the floor):
Same corridor lit up with my Couriu on high (really stinks that I had to have it on the floor):
MoJo lit up with my headlamp (my custom modded "mule") aimed at him:
Shot looking at an area of standing water (not the main mine pool) with an old timber holding the roof:
Another view at same area:
SkyRay King lighting up a dead end corner where the miners apparently dumped "trash" old explosives crates (wish I would have got a closeup of the writing on the crate):
Same shot, but SkyRay King on low:
I was carrying 5 flashlights on myself at all times. My partner had one of my headlamps, the ZuesRay, and his own 3AAA light on him. Even with a bunch of them on the place still felt SOOO DARK! Yeah, you could light up an area, but there was still so much darkness! For my headlamp I really could have used more throw. I ran it on medium (30% of 1.4A to an XM-L2) and it only lit up maybe 15 feet ahead of me. If I were to keep going underground I would build/mod something a little better suited. Something with a reflector the size of a Convoy S2 on a headlamp would probably work well. Maybe even something with TIR optics that I could swap out various ones and find the perfect beam angle. I can only imagine what it would have been like for miners back in the 1950's when this place was being actively mined!
Sorry I don't have more to share, but I could only grab pics during time my coworker wasn't ready for me (and the foreman weren't around me).
-Garry
Just got the news today that when they drilled from our staked locations on the surface they hit "dead nuts" on the marks on the mine floor they were aiming for! (Client went under to see where the holes poked through and sent us pics.) This is a big "Phew!" 
-Garry
+1
Very nice trip 
(NOTE: Repost from My Bike Lights Thread)
HOLY %$#@!!! Got a rare chance to go back underground at work today and so I decided to take my modded BT40S bike light and new battery pack to test it out. WOW! I actually pulled our site "tour guide" (can't think what to call him - the young guy that took us to our destination wearing a +/- 150 lumen XR-E type miner's cap lamp) over and said, "Hey, you wanna see something that'll make you crap your pants?" Afterwards I then explained how I only have about $35 in that light to get that insane output.
Pics: (Click pics for larger versions. Also ignore traffic cone which only served for my partner to be able to see that location during his setup.)
Here's a pic of my BT40S on "Turbo" (+/- 3.8A):
I'll skip the other modes and just show you "Low":
Another random photo looking the other direction at my coworker using one of my headlamps to get setup to work through a doorway.
Later on I took a photo using an aspheric flashlight (Zuesray +/-1,000 lumens) lighting up that whole wall (slightly different angle but same area as above pic).
-Garry
-
Nice photos and great lights.
Being a flashaholic sure came in handy for that “mission”! You’re so lucky you were able to “tour” it inside!
Thanks gb. That is one amazing looking cave. What was mined in it?
Stone, limestone I believe.
-Garry
Here's a video of us riding the golf cart into the mine for anyone interested. Pretty dark but it's close to reality. You can definitely see our "tour guide's" pencil beam headlamp. My co-worker beside me interrupts during the video asking me how he can get rid of the modes on his Defiant light lol!
-Garry
That headlamp makes it look lika laser pointer in white with an enlarged beam!
Nice photos Garry.
As a trained surveyor who used to specialized in underground surveying (mainly TBM, tunnel and station box) but have never done mining survey, I sure wished I had some of the flashlights available today to make my job much easier then.
Awesome photos. Thank you for sharing. Has to be a pretty cool experience to be down there.
Please put a link to Post 51 and any other photo posts in the OP. Would be nice to easily find these pictures in the future.
Done
-Garry