Post by Bluesky78987 on May 15, 2012 23:51:48 GMT -5
This is long, apologies! And picture heavy.
Edited to add: [Please no more comments about how I ought not go alone. This is about rocks! ROCKS!] ;-) Thanks.]
So we escaped LA at around Noon on Saturday (May 12, 2012) and made it out to Gem Hill at about 2. The plan this time was to park in a different spot and explore the area in between two spots I went previously. This time we drove up the second of 3 major turnoffs from "Gem Hill Road" (the east-west dirt road into the area). Drove up the hill as far as we dared. Probably could have gone a lot farther, but the road had a rough spot that I didn't want to take any chances with. After all, we had a big trip planned for Sunday too!
Tried out some improvements to my kit, and they turned out to work superbly. From top to bottom: 1. Brush on lanyard. For brushing the dust off a rock to see what's under there. Previously it kept getting covered up by rocks in my bucket or stuck in my pocket. The lanyard was perfect. 2. Home depot apron. Worked great for quick stashing of small to medium sized rocks, and after the bucket got too heavy. 3. Knee pads! Soo much more pleasant to just crawl around on my knees without having to stand up between every rock. These are the el cheapo ones ($3.99 I think, and they worked fine).
Another thing was I got smaller buckets -- the 2 gallon buckets from the paint section at home depot proved sturdy and the right size -- I could carry them with not too much effort when full (I kept overfilling the bigger buckets previously).
And they reduced the number and severity of "bucket bruises" on the outsides of my thighs! I still got a lot though!
Pet wood in the "parking lot" - a good sign.
Headed up the north slope of the mountain, sort of diagonally across the shoulder. There were a few outcroppings of the seam of greyish/purpleish agate or maybe jasp-agate. I still haven't learned to tell those two apart. Nothing too exciting though.
Ended up on the top of the mountain where there was another seam of that jasp-agate. Need hard rock tools to get big pieces, but there was quite a bit of tumbler sized float.
Then dropped down and around the front (east face) of the hill, which is where the better jasper is. Lots and lots of float, all a nice caramel/orange/red color, and plenty of jasp-agate mixed in. Spent some time picking up a bunch of blackish pieces (maybe a dark purple? we'll see later) and some strawberry colored pieces. Looks like there's a vein of white common opal around there somewhere, lots of little (crumbly) pieces in the float.
Bucket full, headed back to the car. Unfortunately, ended up slightly downhill from the car and had to walk uphill (dang it!).
By then it was about 7pm, and around 90 degrees with a nice breeze. Gem Hill is really pleasant weather-wise this time of year!
Saw zero critters - only a couple of ravens. No snakes, no tarantulas, not even any lizards.
Went on out to Barstow for the night. Ugh. At least the motels are cheap! Nothing but fast food for miles in either direction from the Motel6. At least the a/c worked! The Vons there is hayuuuuuuge though! Holy cow, it's like the size of my Costco! Should have taken a picture, but would have needed a fisheye lens!
Chose Lavic Siding because of the abundance of rather fancy jasper found as float. And was not disappointed! I was particularly interested in Brecciated Jasper, and it was there!
Directions say to turn off I-40 at Hector Road, and get on the National Trails Highway (old Route 66) headed east. It seems the road has not been repaved since approximately 1966 either, as it is quite rough, I had to slow down. But passable for all cars. Avoid this road if you're planning to rollerblade! When the road crosses the tracks, you turn east on a dirt road paralelling the tracks on the south side. Little brown BLM "Road Open" stakes were present in abundance, and reassuring.
Warning: The road is mostly fine for 2wd cars and SUVs (maybe not low-riders though), except a VERY BAD sandy spot just after the turnoff from the pavement. This was a serious, 40 foot long, very deep sandy patch. The ruts had to be a foot deep. Put the 4Runner in 4WD and built up some momentum and we plowed right through. We were pushing sand though, and I've got a fair amount of clearance. I would not want to attempt this patch in any car with less clearance than a stock 4Runner. Anybody going on the May 26 (?) CFMS trip will want to carpool from this point, or maybe follow National Trails Highway to the next underpass to the east (wherever that is), and head back west on the "frontage" road. Furthermore, the patch is level then crests and becomes downhill -- fine on the way out, but on the way back building up enough momentum to easily get through the sand results in a "fun" ride as you go over the crest of the little hill (!). I need an Evel Knievel sticker for the truck now . . . That said, we made it. Whew.
You then go east a ways, which seems like forever but is probably like 6 miles or something, and turn South on Lavic Road (which I think actually had a sign, can't remember; it was marked on the car's GPS). Just parking the car by the side of the road (0.75 mi or so to the south) was auspicious, as the "parking lot" was covered in pretty little orange and red jasper chips!
Based on good advice from LarryS (who is now my favorite person in the ENTIRE world), walked SW from the car with my trusty SMALL bucket, BIG backpack (with waist belt etc.), hammer, chisel, spray bottle, brush, and lots and lots of water. Should have taken some snacks. Oh well. It was really really hard not to just pick up every piece of red/orange rock I passed!
I kept saying to myself "No!! Keep walking!! It will get better even!" And it did. The further I walked, the bigger the chunks became, and the more "tumblable" the little chunks were (a lot of pretty shards and odd shapes closer to the car). I walked SW for 0.76 miles according to my GPS, where I finally gave up and just scampered around picking up rocks. (Yes, I was still scampering, lots and lots of adrenaline!) The rocks were still getting better at that point -- next time I will go further and see what more there is.
Zounds, look at it!!!! Just sitting there in the dirt!
Managed to pick up a bunch of nice red/orange and yellow/green Brecciated Jasper that has me salivating, some of the red "classic" Lavic with blue stringers (although this was rarer than the Brecciated in the places I went), some "bacon" Jasper (I understand the name now), and some pretty olive colored stuff with mossy looking intrusions. "Pancake" nodules were all over the darn place -- like half inch or inch thick, with clear or bluish agate inside, if anybody likes those - annoyingly irregular in thickness though. I got one or two bits of that and ignored the rest -- now somebody will probably tell me that is the fabled "Mojave Blue Agate" which I just saw listed for like $25 to the 1/4 lb on ebay . . . Anyway, there was lots and lots of material all over the place. I definitely want to go back when it's cooler for a more selective search -- as somebody said before, it's pretty hard to find solid pieces with few to no vugs or fractures, and tumblers that are a decent shape. There were a lot of pretty little mini geode fragments with crystals or druzy in them. Also plenty of very cool "desk rocks" for work - I got one that is solid red. Just red, like chinese laquer red. Wierd.
I also gave in and picked up a whole bunch of flakes -- so many of them are soooo beautiful, smooth and pre-polished with beautiful patterns. I've hatched a plan to use them to make a wind chime or some such -- what can we use those roundish flakes for? They make a pretty glass-like noise when they clink together -- I got a pretty big pile of those -- I might make pendants from some of them if I can wrap them or drill them without them fracturing.
Finally, the backpack was so full I could barely lift it, and the bucket was full and an extra grocery bag was full, AND my apron was full. (This was after I did an on-the-spot winnowing even. There is just beautiful jasper literally under every step you take! Of couse it probably helps if you're a newbie who has never seen brecciation before, but still!) Nowhere left to put any rocks, so I had to head back to the car. Of course my eyes were bigger than my backpack, so the walk back to the car wasn't the most fun I've ever had in my life, but I made it with all of my treasures at 1:15 (started around 8 I guess). And, guess what - after 3 weekends of this, I'm getting upper body muscles! Noticed those this morning. So rockhounding is not only fun, it's GOOD FOR YOU!
It was hot by then -- 98 or 102, according to the car, and depending on which direction it was facing. Plenty of water is DEFINITELY important, as well as spraying yourself off with the spray bottle frequently and wearing light colored sun protective clothing. As proof of how much water was evaporating, there were salt CRYSTALS lodged in the zinc oxide on my face by the time I got back to the car! (It wasn't sand, I tasted some.) This location had very little breeze this day, unfortunately. There were plenty of trains though, which are nice. No cute Marines in camo driving black jets though . . . alas. I didn't see or hear a single other car from the time I left the pavement until the time I got back on it. And again, no critters. But I did see a lot of burrows this time.
Fallen soldiers:
Samples from the haul:
Advice for next time: Blindfold yourself until you've walked half a mile. Either that, or just pick up whatever you want for the first half mile, then dump it out and start fresh at that point becuase whatever you find from then on is probably better/bigger/more solid! Or, carry a bunch of buckets and just drop them off (mark your GPS) as they fill, then get a lot of exercise later hauling them all back to the car.
Tip if you don't have a compass/gps: SW is toward the pinker mountains. Walk until you've crossed 2 major washes and 1 medium wash, then you're there.
Thataway:
Overall it was a fabulous day, thanks for reading! And thanks to those who gave me so much good advice on where to go! Next Saturday - to Last Chance Canyon. Wanna come?
Question: I need to learn how to take a dainty little chip off the corner of a nice rock to see what's inside before committing to carrying it. With the 14oz rock hammer, I couldn't make that happen though. If I hit it hard enough to make a chip, I had to just smack the hell out of it in a wild swing, and lost all aim whatsoever. Usually I still couldn't even chip them then (yeah yeah yeah, I probably hammer like a girl!). And I couldn't hit the chisel hard enough with the rock hammer to accomplish anything useful either. BUT the crack hammer is HEAVY, so I didn't want to carry that. Any advice? Get a pack mule? I know. Anybody want to apply to be my pack mule? ;-) Seriously, how does one make those little chips? Or does everybody just carry a lot of duds back to within crack hammer radius of the car?
PS - If anybody wants the GPS coords for the "good" area I found, PM me. It might not be as good as other spots, I don't know, I only walked to this one spot and it was good. ;-) I can't opine on degrees of good.
Edited to add: [Please no more comments about how I ought not go alone. This is about rocks! ROCKS!] ;-) Thanks.]
So we escaped LA at around Noon on Saturday (May 12, 2012) and made it out to Gem Hill at about 2. The plan this time was to park in a different spot and explore the area in between two spots I went previously. This time we drove up the second of 3 major turnoffs from "Gem Hill Road" (the east-west dirt road into the area). Drove up the hill as far as we dared. Probably could have gone a lot farther, but the road had a rough spot that I didn't want to take any chances with. After all, we had a big trip planned for Sunday too!
Tried out some improvements to my kit, and they turned out to work superbly. From top to bottom: 1. Brush on lanyard. For brushing the dust off a rock to see what's under there. Previously it kept getting covered up by rocks in my bucket or stuck in my pocket. The lanyard was perfect. 2. Home depot apron. Worked great for quick stashing of small to medium sized rocks, and after the bucket got too heavy. 3. Knee pads! Soo much more pleasant to just crawl around on my knees without having to stand up between every rock. These are the el cheapo ones ($3.99 I think, and they worked fine).
Another thing was I got smaller buckets -- the 2 gallon buckets from the paint section at home depot proved sturdy and the right size -- I could carry them with not too much effort when full (I kept overfilling the bigger buckets previously).
And they reduced the number and severity of "bucket bruises" on the outsides of my thighs! I still got a lot though!
Pet wood in the "parking lot" - a good sign.
Headed up the north slope of the mountain, sort of diagonally across the shoulder. There were a few outcroppings of the seam of greyish/purpleish agate or maybe jasp-agate. I still haven't learned to tell those two apart. Nothing too exciting though.
Ended up on the top of the mountain where there was another seam of that jasp-agate. Need hard rock tools to get big pieces, but there was quite a bit of tumbler sized float.
Then dropped down and around the front (east face) of the hill, which is where the better jasper is. Lots and lots of float, all a nice caramel/orange/red color, and plenty of jasp-agate mixed in. Spent some time picking up a bunch of blackish pieces (maybe a dark purple? we'll see later) and some strawberry colored pieces. Looks like there's a vein of white common opal around there somewhere, lots of little (crumbly) pieces in the float.
Bucket full, headed back to the car. Unfortunately, ended up slightly downhill from the car and had to walk uphill (dang it!).
By then it was about 7pm, and around 90 degrees with a nice breeze. Gem Hill is really pleasant weather-wise this time of year!
Saw zero critters - only a couple of ravens. No snakes, no tarantulas, not even any lizards.
Went on out to Barstow for the night. Ugh. At least the motels are cheap! Nothing but fast food for miles in either direction from the Motel6. At least the a/c worked! The Vons there is hayuuuuuuge though! Holy cow, it's like the size of my Costco! Should have taken a picture, but would have needed a fisheye lens!
Chose Lavic Siding because of the abundance of rather fancy jasper found as float. And was not disappointed! I was particularly interested in Brecciated Jasper, and it was there!
Directions say to turn off I-40 at Hector Road, and get on the National Trails Highway (old Route 66) headed east. It seems the road has not been repaved since approximately 1966 either, as it is quite rough, I had to slow down. But passable for all cars. Avoid this road if you're planning to rollerblade! When the road crosses the tracks, you turn east on a dirt road paralelling the tracks on the south side. Little brown BLM "Road Open" stakes were present in abundance, and reassuring.
Warning: The road is mostly fine for 2wd cars and SUVs (maybe not low-riders though), except a VERY BAD sandy spot just after the turnoff from the pavement. This was a serious, 40 foot long, very deep sandy patch. The ruts had to be a foot deep. Put the 4Runner in 4WD and built up some momentum and we plowed right through. We were pushing sand though, and I've got a fair amount of clearance. I would not want to attempt this patch in any car with less clearance than a stock 4Runner. Anybody going on the May 26 (?) CFMS trip will want to carpool from this point, or maybe follow National Trails Highway to the next underpass to the east (wherever that is), and head back west on the "frontage" road. Furthermore, the patch is level then crests and becomes downhill -- fine on the way out, but on the way back building up enough momentum to easily get through the sand results in a "fun" ride as you go over the crest of the little hill (!). I need an Evel Knievel sticker for the truck now . . . That said, we made it. Whew.
You then go east a ways, which seems like forever but is probably like 6 miles or something, and turn South on Lavic Road (which I think actually had a sign, can't remember; it was marked on the car's GPS). Just parking the car by the side of the road (0.75 mi or so to the south) was auspicious, as the "parking lot" was covered in pretty little orange and red jasper chips!
Based on good advice from LarryS (who is now my favorite person in the ENTIRE world), walked SW from the car with my trusty SMALL bucket, BIG backpack (with waist belt etc.), hammer, chisel, spray bottle, brush, and lots and lots of water. Should have taken some snacks. Oh well. It was really really hard not to just pick up every piece of red/orange rock I passed!
I kept saying to myself "No!! Keep walking!! It will get better even!" And it did. The further I walked, the bigger the chunks became, and the more "tumblable" the little chunks were (a lot of pretty shards and odd shapes closer to the car). I walked SW for 0.76 miles according to my GPS, where I finally gave up and just scampered around picking up rocks. (Yes, I was still scampering, lots and lots of adrenaline!) The rocks were still getting better at that point -- next time I will go further and see what more there is.
Zounds, look at it!!!! Just sitting there in the dirt!
Managed to pick up a bunch of nice red/orange and yellow/green Brecciated Jasper that has me salivating, some of the red "classic" Lavic with blue stringers (although this was rarer than the Brecciated in the places I went), some "bacon" Jasper (I understand the name now), and some pretty olive colored stuff with mossy looking intrusions. "Pancake" nodules were all over the darn place -- like half inch or inch thick, with clear or bluish agate inside, if anybody likes those - annoyingly irregular in thickness though. I got one or two bits of that and ignored the rest -- now somebody will probably tell me that is the fabled "Mojave Blue Agate" which I just saw listed for like $25 to the 1/4 lb on ebay . . . Anyway, there was lots and lots of material all over the place. I definitely want to go back when it's cooler for a more selective search -- as somebody said before, it's pretty hard to find solid pieces with few to no vugs or fractures, and tumblers that are a decent shape. There were a lot of pretty little mini geode fragments with crystals or druzy in them. Also plenty of very cool "desk rocks" for work - I got one that is solid red. Just red, like chinese laquer red. Wierd.
I also gave in and picked up a whole bunch of flakes -- so many of them are soooo beautiful, smooth and pre-polished with beautiful patterns. I've hatched a plan to use them to make a wind chime or some such -- what can we use those roundish flakes for? They make a pretty glass-like noise when they clink together -- I got a pretty big pile of those -- I might make pendants from some of them if I can wrap them or drill them without them fracturing.
Finally, the backpack was so full I could barely lift it, and the bucket was full and an extra grocery bag was full, AND my apron was full. (This was after I did an on-the-spot winnowing even. There is just beautiful jasper literally under every step you take! Of couse it probably helps if you're a newbie who has never seen brecciation before, but still!) Nowhere left to put any rocks, so I had to head back to the car. Of course my eyes were bigger than my backpack, so the walk back to the car wasn't the most fun I've ever had in my life, but I made it with all of my treasures at 1:15 (started around 8 I guess). And, guess what - after 3 weekends of this, I'm getting upper body muscles! Noticed those this morning. So rockhounding is not only fun, it's GOOD FOR YOU!
It was hot by then -- 98 or 102, according to the car, and depending on which direction it was facing. Plenty of water is DEFINITELY important, as well as spraying yourself off with the spray bottle frequently and wearing light colored sun protective clothing. As proof of how much water was evaporating, there were salt CRYSTALS lodged in the zinc oxide on my face by the time I got back to the car! (It wasn't sand, I tasted some.) This location had very little breeze this day, unfortunately. There were plenty of trains though, which are nice. No cute Marines in camo driving black jets though . . . alas. I didn't see or hear a single other car from the time I left the pavement until the time I got back on it. And again, no critters. But I did see a lot of burrows this time.
Fallen soldiers:
Samples from the haul:
Advice for next time: Blindfold yourself until you've walked half a mile. Either that, or just pick up whatever you want for the first half mile, then dump it out and start fresh at that point becuase whatever you find from then on is probably better/bigger/more solid! Or, carry a bunch of buckets and just drop them off (mark your GPS) as they fill, then get a lot of exercise later hauling them all back to the car.
Tip if you don't have a compass/gps: SW is toward the pinker mountains. Walk until you've crossed 2 major washes and 1 medium wash, then you're there.
Thataway:
Overall it was a fabulous day, thanks for reading! And thanks to those who gave me so much good advice on where to go! Next Saturday - to Last Chance Canyon. Wanna come?
Question: I need to learn how to take a dainty little chip off the corner of a nice rock to see what's inside before committing to carrying it. With the 14oz rock hammer, I couldn't make that happen though. If I hit it hard enough to make a chip, I had to just smack the hell out of it in a wild swing, and lost all aim whatsoever. Usually I still couldn't even chip them then (yeah yeah yeah, I probably hammer like a girl!). And I couldn't hit the chisel hard enough with the rock hammer to accomplish anything useful either. BUT the crack hammer is HEAVY, so I didn't want to carry that. Any advice? Get a pack mule? I know. Anybody want to apply to be my pack mule? ;-) Seriously, how does one make those little chips? Or does everybody just carry a lot of duds back to within crack hammer radius of the car?
PS - If anybody wants the GPS coords for the "good" area I found, PM me. It might not be as good as other spots, I don't know, I only walked to this one spot and it was good. ;-) I can't opine on degrees of good.