Cash & Treasures Jade Contest *Opal cab added*

Hey great idea,Last year I encountered 3 pissed off ranchers 11 rattlesnakes and one mountain loin.I'll see what I can come up with.

Ooo -- I think Rockhobbit, Spike, Pho and I would agree it would have to be the Needle Peak trip from last year. If the drive to the back side of the mountain doesn't kill you, the mountain tries too with loose rock (completely covered in loose lava rock), agave cacti (for those who don't know, an agave cactus can easily rip a hole in a tire), mesquite bushes.... And then there's the heat. The sun just beats down on you - no wind to give you any relief. By the end of it, we were afraid Pho was going to die on the mountain.

And then - you also can't forget the mysterious stranger that showed up in a picture of Spike's. We were just a hop away from the border, so who was that random person on the mountain with us?

Hmmm. Tony, I can't think of anything real dangerous and I got plenty of jade so ya don't need to consider my tame stories. Every where I hunt is lousy with rattlers so I just stay out of their way. Kinda of hard when I'm crawling on my belly beneath the manzanita bushes hunting old poppy jasper holes and I'd really worry if I ran into one of our local wild boars in that situation! It were kinda adventurous digging poppy jasper next to the dead horse carcass in the Stinky Horse Hole. Good thing I used to dive so's I could hold my breath awhile when downwind. Whew, that was one stinky horse for months. Also attracted a lot of predators so's that was interestin too *L*. Funniest adventure, though not for my wife, was when we were hunting plume on the Bishop Ranch in Texas and she sat on a Spanish Bayonet bush while relieving herself and thought she'd been snakebit. Although to be fair, I seem to recall her laughin a bit when I was dancing around trying to get the centipede outta my shirt at the Lambert Ranch digs. Guess it's always funnier when it's the other person *wink*....Mel

Hell, the most adventurous and dangerous, and exhausting rock collecting trip was the time I went to Jade Cove with you!!!!!

Since I am not able to actually go rock hounding, I dont have to worry about driving for miles to get to a hunting area, rattlesnakes, falling rock, weather or any natural disasters. But I do believe the most dangerous time of collecting rocks for me is when I get heavy boxes of rocks in the mail. I have to meet the letter carrier with her bad temper and nasty remarks. For this reason I believe there is nothing more dangerous than a letter carrier with a bad attitude that has to deliver these heavy boxes of rocks.

Most dangerous expedition ... the second trip to my Chrysocolla mine:

After having discovered the vein, and having found-out what it was, my son wanted to go up there with me. So, we drove out there, and his jaw dropped when I pointed-out the mountain peak that we had to reach. He didn't chicken-out, though. We put the packs on and set-out on our journey.

Although the climb is no walk in the park, we were having fun together. Once we reached the top and he saw the Chrysocolla, the expression on his face looked how I felt. So, we started at it with a hammer, chisel, and prybar, and we were having a blast. Every other sentence from both our mouths was, "WOW, look at THIS!.

Well, in all the fun and excitement, I failed to realize that sun had made it's way across the sky, and was just about ready to let the moon take-over his job for a while. OOOPS! Upon realizing my incredibly stupid ignorance, I told Zak he'd better be ready to run, and we tore-off down the mountain ... but it was too late. We didn't even make it 1/4 of the way down the mountain before it was pitch dark.

Although there's no "mountaineering" envolved, the trip up and down this mountain is not some easy little hike, even in broad daylight. There are washes, drop-offs, cacti, slippery shale, etc etc etc. You WILL slip and fall at least a couple dozen times. But then, try it IN THE DARK ... with nothing but a LIGHTER for the occasional light!

Once it got DARK dark, I was REALLY worried, not for me really, but for my son, who was 15 at the time. Well, we slipped, slid, and tumbled down the mountain for what seemed like an eternity. All of a sudden, Zak yelled, "STOP"! He was a few feet behind me, then he walked up to me and "flicked the Bic" ... he just saved me from about a 30 foot fall. And we continued-on...

We seemed to be doing pretty well, considering the circumstances ... until all of a sudden there was nothing under my feet. I fell about 8-10 feet down a wash embankment, and right on a nasty cactus with 1.5-2" long, very thick thorns. Then my head smacked the ground good and hard. The cactus had gotten me in the butt and the right arm, and my head was pounding. Not wanting to worry my son, who I'd already put in a bad, dangerous situation, I hopped up and pretended I was fine.

We continued, and I did my best to keep joking about the situation and not let him know I was in bad shape. My head was spinning, my balance was shot, and my body felt like Jello. Luckily, he was calm and cool through the whole thing.

Finally, we got to the bottom, and we were walking out of the big wash, when my legs just gave-out. I just told Zak that I needed a little rest, but when I tried to stand up after the short break, my legs just wouldn't cooperate. Down I went. I finally had to confess that I was hurt pretty badly. He said, "Don't worry Dad. We're almost there. It's just walking from now on, so let's just hang here for a while."

So we sat there for a bit and talked about the incredible experience we'd just had. After a bit, I felt like I could probably continue, but when I got up, Zak grabbed my pack, and refused to let me put it on. We had to walk about another 1/2 - 3/4 of a mile to get to the truck, and he carried my pack as well as his.

We finally got to the truck, and both let-out an AHHHHHHHHHH when our butts hit the seats. We looked at each other with huge grins on our faces and talked about what a GREAT time we'd had, all the way home.

Well, we got home about 9:30, and my girlfriend had been worried sick. When I came through the door, she said "OH S**T", and helped me to the bedroom where she proceeded to remove the cactus thorns, clean all the wounds with peroxide, and bandage me up.

Zak? He was fine. Hungry, thirsty, a bit tired, but none the worse for wear. Me? I was laid-up for a couple days. That cactus tore me up pretty bad, and I had a nasty gash in my head.

Here's the kicker ... through all of that, neither of us thought of emptying the rock from our packs to make it down the mountain easier! We had carried over 60 pounds of Chrysocolla down! One of those pieces, about a 10-pounder, is right outside my front door, by the birdbath, to remind us of the trip.

Very interesting contest Tony! Sorry i'm not able to enter a story not even close to your underwater adventures or to the other posts.

Adrian

Here's my story. Not so adventurous compared to the others, but the best one I have.

In mid-June 2007 I went for rockhounding into an area pretty known for agates, but where one can also be found pet wood. The wood of that area is black/dark grey, because it was "in-carbonized" before its petrification. So it's not very good looking, but still the wooden patterns are quite visible.

The really BIG surprise of the day was a HUGE stump, which was lying in the water waiting for me to pick it




I was not able to be very happy when i found it, because in the moment I've seen it I also realized I have no chance to carry it to the car (it was a distance of about 2 km between the car and the stump, and about half of the distance had trails near the riverbed, the other half of the road is right through the riverbed)
So I begun to think (or even talk to myself) - what should I do? Should I try to roll it by myself? I was able to roll it just once, and realized that was impossible. So I went into the village, and asked someone if he has a horse to help me to carry it. He asked me how big it is, I told him and he saids - "no horse is necessary, my cart will do it" and pointed to his hi-tech tool. So we went back with the cart





We arrived at the place where I left the stump




and managed to load the monster into the sturdy cart
.

It took one and a half hours to bring the stump to the car and three man to lift it into the trunk. I asked the men who helped me how heavy do they think it is, and they told it's about 130 ... 150 kilos. I agree with them.

The stump still sits untouched in my balcony, and I don't think I'm gonna polish it very soon. It has its own charm just as it is.

Thanks for looking and reading,

Adrian

Hey now, Sheri! I was just following the leader!

But yeah, the agave were everywhere. I slid more times then I care to think because of the loose footing. One of the times I went completely flat, well, as flat as you can get with a pack full of rocks on your back, I turned around after standing to realize my pack is all that had saved me from LAYING on an agave. And I still think I was smart not to follow you and Trey back the way you went. Just so everyone knows, it was down a 60-70% grade hill of loose rock (each-step-buried-your-feet kind of loose rock), back up the other side (also just as steep), down another one, back up...and repeat about three times.

So we (FINALLY) get back to the truck and start the drive out. Through one of the numerous dry streambed crossings (about 4 feet deep, steep incline on sides, and only 6 feet across which makes for a very interesting drive) my bumper decides it didn't like where it was positioned...and thinks against my tire is a better place for it. Not a problem, unless I wanted to turn my steering wheel either way.

So, we're out in the middle of nowhere - literally no where. We're not even on a road, just traveling across the desert, dodging mesquite and agave, jumping stream beds with a scary regularity... And I can only go straight with my bumper rubbing hard on my tire. We're also the tail end of the pack, as Spike was having to drive Pho's truck and it was his first time in 4WD.

And in the end, it turns out the only reason we even went as far as we did around the mountain was because I never hesitated when traveling through some really rough territory on the way out there. I (dumbly) assumed our guide wouldn't take us somewhere we couldn't handle and followed happily along. He said he just kept going because he was certain we (Pho and I were the drivers) would have said something if we were ever unsure. And Pho kept going because he wasn't going to let a little girl outdrive him! LOL!

So I guess technically, I'm the reason for everyone's misadventures out there. Trey's later comment to me was he was surprised we let him go out there. We were the first crew that didn't scream and holler at the first streambed. I told him I was just too stupid to realize I should have been screaming and hollering!