At Brownstone if you go left from the closed off adit there is a mostly collapsed building. You climb through the mess and you will be inside the tramway room where the cable would turn and run back down the mountain. At the back of this room about 6 feet off the ground is a ladder that leads up into the mine itself. It's a bit difficult to get onto the structure that the ladder sits on but it can be done. Inside this room is a collapsed ladder system leading 30 feet up to the first portal on the cliff walls. I climbed up ladder systems and was able to get onto the level with the second portal leading out on the cliffs but I did not go to the opening because the bridge system that led to it looked sketchy. From that opening is an ore chute and a ladder system that isn't in very good shape that went up as far as I could see. That probably leads to the final level and exit.
Half of Brownstone mine is dry and the ladders are in good shape. The other half is completely soaked. Two years ago there was so much water that I could not even get into one whole area of the mine but on this low snow year I was able to explore it. The ladders in that section are completely rotted though.
I did indeed find the pipe coming out of the wall. That was a great source to get water from. I camped at the mine itself using the nice fire pit with that rock bench. I had to build a place to set up a tent though so there is at least one now.
