LarryS
freely admits to licking rocks
SoCal desert rats
Member since August 2010
Posts: 781
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Post by LarryS on Jan 15, 2012 10:56:31 GMT -5
Yep, we went back a 3rd time. Couldn't think of a better way of spending our Friday the 13th. I never give up on a site and we enjoy doing a thorough search before giving up. Many of the SoCal sites that are listed as "picked clean" is not true. All you need is a Jeep and just hike in further from where the city slickers aren't able to get to. The "Site G" area of Last Chance Canyon is so vast, it will take years to explore every nook & cranny. It's also prime season for desert rock hounding because there are no rattle snakes for Goober to play with. Temp was 26/65 with a light breeze. We actually found 3 major of yellow, red or the combination of the 2 jasper seams sticking out of the ground. Also explored a remote valley where the whole hillside was jasper and it wasn't even listed in any of the Gem Trail books. If that wasn't enough, we found a whole hill covered in common opal and gray/brown translucent agate. No other rock was around except those. Even the gravel & dirt was ground up opal & agate! It was so weird. Christopher will love this site because he won't have to dig for it. I lost my Estwing rock hammer some where in the hills. My dad gave to me and it's probably older than I am. Think he bought it in the 50's. Last year I lost a nice Canon digital 12mp 20x camera in the desert. I have to stop doing that! Many of these ash/jasper seams can be seen by Google satellite images, which was the clue for us to search certain areas. My hunch worked! Goober made sure no jack rabbits would sneak up and ambush us. When we explored a small valley, we found one hillside covered in jasper. This yellow/red variety is really bright and the colors really pop compared to other SoCal jasper sites. Found lots with white or transparent material in it too. There was a seam of jasper cutting across a now closed dirt road on top of the summit. ATV travel scraped away the ash to expose the hidden jasper. That's when I noticed I lost my rock hammer. Darn! These boulders are solid common opal. The gravel was decomposed opal. Christopher has some smaller pieces of this in his front yard. He needs to rent a crane for this one. This whole area isn't listed in the Gem Trail books either. Just goes to show that you can't believe anything you read and you have to go out and find out for yourself! Here's some samples of LCC material that I just finished. Made 35 of these 30x40mm cabs. Lots of variety out there. It's hard too and takes a great polish which the photo really doesn't show. We also found a area that will make a good base camp for our future visits. Next time we'll take our off road Teardrop trailer and stay for a few days. This whole area has a lot to offer and it sure is a lot of fun to explore. LarryS
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Post by Roller on Jan 15, 2012 11:24:48 GMT -5
i agree ... everywhere i read was picked over .. I have found something at .. thanks for the trip info
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Post by jakesrocks on Jan 15, 2012 11:26:00 GMT -5
You're making me drool again. Sure miss hounding those So Cal hills and desert. If I can ever find my boxes of notes that I kept, ( Pre GPS ), I have lots of off the beaten path locations. An old friend had a WWII Dodge Power Wagon that we used for gettin into the hard to get to places.
Found your rock pic. You left it on top of those 2 rocks.
Don
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LarryS
freely admits to licking rocks
SoCal desert rats
Member since August 2010
Posts: 781
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Post by LarryS on Jan 15, 2012 11:53:47 GMT -5
Hey Don,
Most worthless book I bought is that rock hounding GPS guide, can't remember the name of it because I threw it in the trash. That fool didn't even get out of his chair to search any of the coordinates. He gathered the basic locations off the Internet. Yeah, he's accurate within a mile or two! Someone should sue that joker for fraud. I'm keeping a log of all the exact locations, the real hot spots. They are not in the Gem Trail books.
That picture of my hammer was taken in the morning. It's located somewhere between there and 2 miles away. I took a lot of breaks in between for Goober's sake. Little guy loves it so much out there and he goes nuts with all the scents and is in high gear. His paws take a beating walking over all that sharp jasper and volcanic rock. Try doing it bare footed! I stop frequently by sitting on the ground and let him rest in my lap. We enjoy that because we get a lot of quiet time between ourselves. We do a dog to man mind melt. We enjoy the solitude, piece and quiet. Ah, the fresh air and unlimited views. Then we're off until the next rest period. One thing I'll never forget is when Goober found some fresh coyote poop on the ground. I normally yell at him while on walks to stay away from dog poo because that's how Parvo is transmitted. He looked at me and then peed on it. I did the same. Both of us showed that coyote who's territory this is. You should have seen his tail wagging! When we got back to the Jeep and told Diane what we did, she shook her head. Hey, it's a guy thing and she doesn't understand! One thing I always do is keep a look out for coyotes. 30lb Goober would take off after one and try to eat it!
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Post by jakesrocks on Jan 15, 2012 12:32:53 GMT -5
Yep, them terrors, er Terriers have got no fear. Jake went out into a field of cows just a few days after we got him, and tried to take on the whole herd.
Don't get out hounding as much as I'd like to anymore, but I carry my hand held GPS, and take notes at every good find. Maybe they'll help another hound when I'm feeding the worms. When I find my old boxes of notes, I have lots of hand drawn maps with compass bearings and approximate distances.
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Post by Woodyrock on Jan 17, 2012 0:57:36 GMT -5
Larry: You need to get boots for Goober! Our Louie has worn out several pairs. As soon as he has them on, he takes off in full gear, so during snake time he goes 'barefoot' and that keeps him close.
The whole El Paso Mountain is just a rock hound heaven. I really enjoy seeing your trips there. There is a site in the old guide books near Last Chance Canyon named Jasper Hill. You may have refound it. Woody
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LarryS
freely admits to licking rocks
SoCal desert rats
Member since August 2010
Posts: 781
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Post by LarryS on Jan 17, 2012 9:35:44 GMT -5
Hi Woody,
Goober won't allow anybody to touch his paws. The vet has to sedate him in order to trim them. Otherwise dog tennis shoes would be great. We rock hound in the hot summer months but we go to areas where there isn't much vegetation for the snakes to hide. Last Chance has lots of bushes and wouldn't want to take Goober there when it warms up. Goober always stays close to me and obeys on command. But it's not fun keeping an eye out for snakes instead of looking for rocks.
Yes, Site G is also named Jasper Hill. That's where the first 2 seams I found, the source of all the float that's scattered in some spots. The valley with the best jasp-ag seam going through it is between Site G & Dutch Cleanser Mine and isn't in the book. Also they should have named that one location I found Opal Hill. Darn hill is completely made out of common opal. Actually, only 3 miles south are 2 commercial precious opal mines where you pay to dig. The park recently shut them down.
This whole BLM open area is only about 1 1/2 miles wide, between the state park & BLM wilderness. Think it's just a matter of time where one of the two will just swallow up that area by extending their boundaries and closing it off. Seriously, I can spend the next couple years exploring and we'll be doing so. Seems that every location we find, the material quality and uniqueness is kicked up a notch. I'm a jasp-ag freak and I'm in heaven!
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Post by mohs on Jan 17, 2012 10:34:08 GMT -5
Interesting Larry - The Dutch Cleanser Mine? Do you know the back story on that?
I have Delos Toole "Where to Find Arizona Placer Gold" book
There one for California. If you haven't seen it-- I think it be worth getting from the library
Lots of information on other minerals, geologic processes, good info... mostly
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LarryS
freely admits to licking rocks
SoCal desert rats
Member since August 2010
Posts: 781
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Post by LarryS on Jan 17, 2012 11:00:08 GMT -5
Hi Ed,
The Old Dutch Cleanser Mine is where the company gathered all the pumice & other minerals to make the cleanser. I'm sure when Red Rock became a state park, they kicked them out. Lots of gold mines all throughout the area. Think I have just about every rock hound book on CA. Even bought Mary Frances Strong's books when they first came out in the early 70's but never read them until the last couple years. Back in those days I was only interested in exploring old mines, mostly in the Randsburg area. The Yellow Aster mine use to have 54 miles of tunnels. Me & my high school buddies use to push each other in the ore carts and explore all the different levels. Rocks would tinkle from the ceiling as we walked and talk! Lots of cave ins. Yep, we were crazy back then.
We use to use Auto Club county maps for exploring. I bought gem trail books just for the mine & Jeep road information so we could get into the back country. We'd borrow our parents 2 wheel drive cars and tear the crap out of them. We'd disconnect the odometer. Stop by the quarter car wash on the way home and tell our parents we only went to local public campgrounds. We made sure to change the oil in the cars for them so they wouldn't see what the underside of the cars looked like. Everything was scraped up and caved in. Tires would have cactus needles stuck in them. Until one day my dad couldn't figure out why he ran out of gas when the gage showed he had 1/8th of a tank left. He found out the gas tank was crushed in and figured it out after that! Boys will be boys.
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Post by mohs on Jan 17, 2012 11:14:44 GMT -5
Wow that's really cool Larry! Lucky kids!
I'm not sure what's with all these Dutch Mines? 20 Mule Team & Stronger than Dirt ! I'm sure you've heard of the Lost Dutch Oven Mine ? That may be in California?
Thanks for the info! Ed
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spicer m
spending too much on rocks
Member since October 2008
Posts: 337
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Post by spicer m on Jan 17, 2012 22:04:19 GMT -5
Larry Thanks for the tour and pics Mike
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Post by paulshiroma on Jan 23, 2012 0:42:25 GMT -5
Loved how you two showed the coyotes who's boss. Great story, Larry. Loved the photos of the location. Thanks for taking us along! Paul
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rocksinmyhead
off to a rocking start
The rock hounds!
Member since January 2012
Posts: 20
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Post by rocksinmyhead on Jan 29, 2012 18:21:04 GMT -5
You all are a lot of fun! I love reading the trip stories especially, makes me realize I'm not that nuts after all...or at least I have company, lol! My two friends and I set out to Mule Canyon in the El Paso Mts a few weekends ago. Thought we'd find a couple spots using the descriptions and gps locations, hahaha, once again it was a wild goosechase. BUT! At one point on a flat, wide open washy kind of road my friend Priscilla yelled, 'Mark, stop the car!' He's asks 'Why?' Her reply, 'Because I SAID so!' She had seen a nice flat piece of stone that caught her fancy just alongside the car, so we stopped. That's all it took for me to get out and see what all this stuff was that we were driving on. I pocketed a handful of broken purple glass that was really cool and within a minute the three of us were 'assuming the position' and wandering away from the vehicle, picking up lots of black agate, some nice chalcedony and other stuff that I'll show you in photos, nice jasper and such. Of course we had to go back to the vehicle to grab our picks, buckets and backpacks because our pockets were full and our pants threatened to fall down! Then I found what I thought was the 'motherload' of the day, omg, it's something? It's 'botryoidal' (I had just learned that word). I bent down to pick it up and screamed like a girl...I am a girl! It was 'squishy'. OMG, what a goof ball I am! Anyone know what it is?? So, after calling to each other a thousand times, 'hey, check THIS out!', we agreed to go search for the spot we came to find and it only took up another 30 minutes to get back to the car Off we go and we see the mine tailings we were looking for and the gps looks KINDA close (oh, later we realized we were NOwhere near the place) so we get out and find some borax, ulexite and such. Then we had lunch and since the day was getting late, we considered heading back....but wait, what's around the NEXT bend? Come on, Mark, please?? Oh, ya that's right....the FLAT TIRE was around the next corner!! Well, while Mark changed the tire after we pulled everything out of the back to get the jack, Priscilla and I went rockhounding, of course! In the end it was a good delay because the campground that you drive through to get to the back country had been FULL of off roader/target shooting campers with toy haulers (it was the holiday weekend) and by the time we got down and out, they had all hit the highway. A really fun day and we'll definitely head back, now that we found out where we had PLANNED to go, lol. Like any trip, sometimes the unexpected is the best! Some of the treasures from the day....feel free to tell me what they are And this is the same shown standing on end... Close up! Thanks for reading my story, hope you liked the photos!! Cheers, Diane
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Post by paulshiroma on Feb 1, 2012 9:48:34 GMT -5
Larry - you are crazy, man ... haunting old mines like that! LOL. Of course, thinking back, it's a wonder any of us lived past childhood!
Paul
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catskillrocks
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since July 2008
Posts: 1,270
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Post by catskillrocks on Feb 2, 2012 16:37:43 GMT -5
Larry, first off, I really appreciate you taking us along on your field trips. The pictures are a plus & the narrative is engaging! Thanks. As far as the "squishy" stone, I would venture a guess that it is a succulent with a common name of "Living Stones". Here is a link: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LithopsIf not, maybe someone else will chime in. Don
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rocksinmyhead
off to a rocking start
The rock hounds!
Member since January 2012
Posts: 20
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Post by rocksinmyhead on Feb 4, 2012 0:52:56 GMT -5
Thanks, Don, I think you may be right about the 'living stones'! It would certainly fit...I was sure they were stones, what a shock when I tried to pick it up, felt like flesh Diane
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Post by mohs on Feb 4, 2012 9:49:59 GMT -5
Ha Ha 'Stop the Car' Rocks!
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Feb 10, 2012 17:05:31 GMT -5
I dont think it is Lithops as this Genus is South African in origin.
I believe what that plant is, is the blossoms of some wildflower just before bloom. One can see the stems between the "botroids".
I have a biologist buddy. He'll help us ink the identification of that lovely plant.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Feb 12, 2012 12:28:29 GMT -5
I sent this image to a friend of a friend who sent it to a friend! lol Anyway's thru this convoluted path we have a definite identification of the botroidal bush. Have a positive ID for you from a specialist in desert flora, Richard Montijo, of the SGMRC Board.
Oh yes! Psathyrotes ramosissima desert velvet, Asteraceae.
That's an Asa Gray plant.
Also, search on-line: turtleback/desert velvet:
www.calflora.net/recentfieldtrips/clarkvalley09.html Clark Valley/Palm Canyon March 2009 Page One
Enjoy!
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rocksinmyhead
off to a rocking start
The rock hounds!
Member since January 2012
Posts: 20
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Post by rocksinmyhead on Feb 13, 2012 10:46:43 GMT -5
Thank you, Shotgunner!! You nailed it! Desert Velvet, what a great name. Mine may have been a slightly different species as it was not as fuzzy and you couldn't see distinct 'lobes'. They were all kinda squeezed together, like cauliflower. In any case, I would LOVE to see them in bloom....I've been wanting to go back anyway.
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