Okay, I'm up, I'm up ... brb, gotta go make the coffee ...
Back ... I hate waiting for that first cup ... grrrr
Needless to say, I slept REAL well last night. Nice 'n' cozy.
Well, about half the pics came out pretty good. The burros at night and the beautiful sunrise didn't come out. Wish I would have taken more pics, but it was a pretty rough coupla days which were very physically demanding for these old bones.
There were 50-60 mph winds yesterday, which I fought all day. On top of the mountains at Sagenite Canyon, I'd say they were close to 100 mph ... winds like I've never experienced before. It pulled the glasses off of my face and sent them flying down the mountain! I had to find them as I'm blind as a bat without them! After about a half hour of fuzzy searching, I found a lens, then using that I found the frames with the other lens still intact. I put them back together, bent them back into shape, and the catastrophe was over ... pretty bad scratch in one lens ... they were new glasses, too! Leaving the area, my truck got stuck in the deep "pea gravel" road, and I had to dig it out ... grrrr.
I had planned on doing more searching in other areas, but the winds made what would have been a fun day miserable. I kept getting knocked down and dirt was constantly being blown into my eyes. The Selenite is in fine dirt, almost like sand, so mining it was terrible. I would have gotten a lot more if it wasn't so windy, but after a while I just said "screw it, that's enough". The salt in that dirt was burning my eyes REAL bad.
I was bummed-out that I didn't find the Celestine. I looked for it both days, to no avail. I had tagged it precisely on Google Earth, and I was pretty sure that I was looking in the right place, but as it turns-out, I just checked GE, and I was just a wee-bit off. Before I go out there next time, I'll print-out a few GE screenshots to make sure I'm looking in exactly the right spot. I SHOULD have done that before this trip ... DUHHH.
Brb ... ahhhh COFFEE! I am SO useless until I have a coupla cups of coffee down my gullet in the morning. Coffee and cigarettes ... Breakfast Of Champions! Hehehehehehe
Just checked the weather site ... it's 29 freakin degrees outside! Hmmm guess I'll go out and unload my truck .... NOT! Y'all gonna have to wait til later today for those pics. I don't
do cold. But in the meantime, without further adieu, I'll shutup and show you some pics!
Here's two pics of "the spring" at the hounding location:
This is a pic of the moon rising on Friday night:
This is the north gate of the military facility, about a mile from the hounding location:
Here are a few shots of the eastern part of Sagenite Canyon:
And this is a shot of the western part of Sagenite Canyon, taken from the road. I didn't go into this part, since the eastern part had already given me more than I'd bargained-for:
Last but not least, these are the Ibex Mountains. I was on my way home, driving down the 22 mile dirt road, saw this, and just had to get this pic for you:
Sorry there aren't pics of my actual hounding, but conditions weren't exactly favorable for shutterbugging. What I've given you are definately the visual highlights of the trip, so you're really not missing much anyway.
I've decided to go ahead and tell you where this location is, although the numerous clues I've given could lead anyone who really wanted to know to it anyway. It's a place called OxWxLxHxOxLxE SxPxRxIxNxG (leave out the Xs). I added the Xs so it won't come-up in searches, so please don't mention it in your replies. Feel free to go there if you want, but please don't tell others about it. Be warned that it's not for the timid. The area is very spread-out, and there's burro dung everywhere. The hiking is all up and down rocky hills and exploration will wear you out real fast. This is about 50 miles from anything resembling civilization, and the chance of seeing another person out there for many days is about zilch. I DO NOT recommend going out there with only one vehicle ... that would be stupid ... hehehe.
I haven't explored the Manganese mines which are in the mountains just north of there yet, since they're now part of Death Valley, which means that even if there's "houndable" (is that a word?) stuff up there,
you can't take it anyway ... although I think there's a good chance that there may be good agate hunting up there. Not that I would DARE take anything from an area that the government has literally STOLEN from the public.
More later ...