They call it "ROCKHOUNDING" (lol) Part 1 part 2 et

Tell Santa he shouldn't keep a bunch of rockhounds waiting.

;D


;D Christmas! ROCKS! Now where are my socks?

Oh my fellow mineral lovers. I HAVE to learn that the time to start dealing with christmas is, two years before it arrives.

BACK to our story.
As I recall, we limped out of Wiley Well, with a reeediculous excuse for a "SPARE" holding one corner of the car up. I made sure to get every bit of what that spare had to offer as we tooled on to Blythe. I ain't the one to explain the Blythe part of the trip, as the BIL and I were just a bit more than eye candy for the girls as they demanded satisfaction, and (naturally) they got it.
There were heated phone calls, and at one point it sounded as though we might have to drive 1 1/2 hours into ARIZONA, followed by a tentative huddle to vote where we might go and wait for a replacement vehicle to arrive. But the girls had no desire to sit somewhere with our thumbs "WELL shaded from the sun" as it were.
I did manage to pierce the weird surreal Jim Morrison style mental state as the clock scratched past 2:30, and by 3:00 we were at the edge of town pumping gas into the tank. We were sorta in limbo, wondering if we should call it a day, maybe head for a spot to stop on our way back, BUT, I pointed out that the clocks wrestled with the sun between 5:00 and 5:30, and the road would eat balance of daylight real quick.
Then I believe I heard sis and wifey saying we could haul buns to Wiley Well, it WAS the closest, and we could even try the road to the MINE! We could get rocks if the mine was out of reach, and if we made it, heck it was ten bucks to root through the tailings.

Me: "So whatcha' wanna do?"
Sis: "You think we could get to the mine before dark?"
Me: "Ten Bucks for tailings? You know I can drive, I'll rally the H-E-Double Toothpicks outta' that road, and when I explain to them people what it involved for us to get there, they will probably give us some fire agate just to calm me down!"
Sis: "So we go back and try for the MINE?"
Everyone: "Lets DO IT!"

Thus, for the SECOND time, on that bright blue day, we set out for the Opal Hill Mine! (Third, had we not got a flat, which would have made it second, unless... good grief.)
I HAD to laugh. A single thought kicked me into an enthusiastic and determined rockhound. We were technically on the road well before my 4:30am deadline... At times, the smallest things just tickle the heck out of me. I SAFELY drove like a maniac to Wiley Well road. The girls and I introduced BIL to the disturbing yet highly addictive heavy metal of Rob ZOMBIE! It must have made for an amusing sight, three almost middle aged headbangers rocking hard to the grinder, while the almost middle aged BIL played along, his look of complete I-Don't-Get-It-But-It-Sure-Ain't-Boring-What-Is-NEXT? bouncing off the car interior.
I drove the dirt like Sebastian Loeb, (WRC MASTER Driver) This time there WAS no having to pee, there were simply four determined people, making the all or nothing hail mary. Before the clock could jump into the future and deny us, we got to that turn-off, and we headed EAST! I was about to blaze the AWD for all it was worth, when TRRRRRRRRRRRRRACKadadadadadada the road turned to rock that was like broken tile spilled over a well designed rut system. The Zombie was shut off, but it could not dampen our spirits! Though it DID cause sis to wonder aloud the choice we had made. We went another tenth of a mile, and our first introduction of just how "hardcore" THIS road might be, was provided. It was a rollercoastery turn-and-dive similar to the Milpitas, but somehow more pronounced. And sis was thinking out loud. She began to think this was a bad idea. Since she thought out loud, we were able to grab those thoughts and pat them down to a manageable ball that we sprinkled with chocolate candy and cute kittens.
75 feet later we reached a VERY dubious rutted out turn that even provided two planks of wood "just in case" some rockclown...HOUNDS attempted the road in a sedan. First try, and it found the wheels wonderfully "guided" by the ruts. The tires spun and provided clues, by way of rubber attached to hardpack, as to what direction we were last headed before the offices were alerted of our faliure to return.
That ball we made for sister? She was walking all around the car, tearing it to pieces. Possibly to help with traction, but yeeeaaahhhh, NO. I was drunk with a CAN-DO attitude, and I could literally TASTE fire agate in the air. Back it up for a second go. This time, the BIL and the wife provided VERY specific directions for me to follow, which would get the car through without slide or a slip! Had they been able to sync up on the SAME plan of attack, we would have had GRAVY for the potatoes. My self devised plan, built partly with the multitude of hints from my navigators, and partly with a quick crap-shoot guess that I should "scooch" a few inches to the left, put me pretty much within exACTLY the same rut, tires spinning, car standing defiantly motionless with respect to what could be called forward progress.
I actually heard the yell, "KeeeeerrrrrrrAPPPPS, BOXCARS! New shooter."
Sister sure was getting her excercise, I instinctively looked for bees, cos' she was walking without purpose, arms waving and head shaking. Huh. No bees. Meanwhile, I backed up, looked and said "WELL there's the problem!" I needed a totally different angle and a bit of POWER to carry over the hump! Apparently thats what BIL and the wife were trying to tell me. Through the chorus of "wait a second"/"turn that way"/"You are going to GET STUCK!" I JOUNCED and BOUNCED, I spun various wheels and introduced the AWD system to a whole new way of doing things, I said a prayer and damned the devil, and I came to rest 10 yards up the road.

Me: "JUMP IN!"

THERE WAS A FEELING OF ACCOMPLISHMENT! The understanding waved about, we were NOT going to be stopped by a couple of ruts! In fact, that was probably the worst this road HAD to offer! POOR SISTER! She got in the car, but she was hanging by a thread. She had a couple chocolates and a picture of a kitty left, and she used them to cover as many sensory systems as she could. But every jounce, (they cannot be counted, as each jounce had from 6 to 9 jouncy bounces included) caused sister to utter a poorly pronounced, or possibly over-enunciated swear. She opened her eyes JUST in time to see the next challenge.
It was a DOOSEY! So much so, it sent her over the edge. She used really colorful adjectives to define how much "NO-WAY" was involved. Enough to cause me to put it in park and scout the obstacle. It was another of nature's professionally produced highly rutted additions to a turn and dive, steep enough that it was a blind drop-in. Part way down, some rock formation poked up like a psychotically designed speedbump. The dive itself kept a nice corkscrew left spiral down to a dried up gulch with a boulder bridge across. Stepping onto those boulders was like walking onto a pile of little teeter-totters. The rocks had that "Cuts rubber like BUTTER!" look, and I questioned our possibly having bit just a BIT more than we wanted to chew. We began to rearrange rocks as the BIL was steadfast in his assertion this would be NO problem. His wife had a really odd note to her voice that I knew as pushing-our-luck hysteria. I pretended the dry air was affecting her throat, possibly from her hyperventilating. I turned back towards the car and noticed a NICE little vertical drop of about 1 1/2 feet, which would be driver's side two feet from, and dropping to, the bottom. Had to jog right quite a bit to miss it. That would keep me on a blind descent except for my side window. Head hanging. Hope my right side callers were spot on.

Me: "I am going to be watching this" (the drop off) "Keep me from getting dangerous on the right!!!"
BIL: "It'll be no problem. You got it! Bring her down."
Me: "SLIGHT nail biter, I want to approach and cross from the left to right"
Bil: "You got it. Just bring er' down."

His confidence, whether B.S. or real mixed with my "can't win if you don't try" reasoning, and I gave the sky a look silently daring the day to go to bed early. I got in the car and smiled. If I got stuck, it was going to be at the entrance to the MINE, and I would fast-talk the owners into towing us out. Heck, from the pictures I seen, there were enough abandon vehicles on the property that you could build a car to... abandon cars. Broken, never to see asphalt, remnants of a one way ride to... LETS just drive. As I crawled down, I thought, "C'mon. This mine would PROBABLY do a much better amount of business, if they didn't frighten and turn back so many people with this road!" Not that we saw ANYONE. But a LOT of rockhounds are not 4x4 enthusiasts, and anyway...no matter.
Well, down and around with a bump and bounce. I missed the drop, got across zipped up the other side and realized, "Oh crap. I have to negotiate this whole gauntlet AGAIN on the way out..." Funny it was occuring to me now... "Hopefully it'll be DARK yeah?" That was a voice I recognized! It was the voice that used to always talk me into banging my head against the wall in front of me cos' THIS TIME there would be a different outcome! I WOULD find different results. Never did work that way, and I had alot of headaches. That velvety voice could talk me into a lot of trouble head banging walls, but I learn eventually.

Me: "Ain't no wall I can't climb."

I said it low, it sounded tough and Clint Eastwood like. Not the pale rider Clint, but the Fistful of Dollars Clint. At the top of the rise I called for passengers. Sis was going to walk. The wife too.
BIL got in.

Me: "Think she's going to stop the push?"
BIL "Nah. She's just a little worried about getting stuck. Once we get there she'll be fine."

A LITTLE worried. That would mean a nuclear weapon makes a little explosion right?
We drive by the chicks, offering a ride like the guys mama warns about. The wife wavered. declined. We drove to the NEXT challenge. It wasn't that far. It was a variation of what we just tackled. Drop-in, diagonal ruts, boulder bridge, and this one talked! It sounded like the wife.

Wife: "WTF!"
Me: "This one is easy"

Sort of. I did a good job of making it look that way. Now awhile back, when everyone was still getting back in the car, one of the logical jewels I introduced was that this road probably got less attention than the section to the east of the mine. The road, if you continued, went to Palo Verde, or the Blythe side of the mountains. The folks that run the mine probably keep THAT side more drivable. Right? They drive into town for provisions, and they naturally take the more direct route.
Ah, yes, it made so much sense. By now I caught myself praying for that to be the case, just to insure a happy ending drivewise. And now I also wondered if perhaps we should have tried driving in from the east...?

The calvacade of emotion, trepidation and curiosity seemed to become a pinball in all of us. And where was the mine? Good grief!

Everyone got back in the car, and we rolled another 200 or so feet around a hillside. The road ended. It really did NOT just end, but thats what it looked like. We all got out. The road forked, a left, or a right, both with their own unique challenges. To the left, you went to an edge, and the road dropped in somewhere, I don't know, maybe just less than straight down. a jumble across the gulch to an ill defined road that climbed a hill and went right. Totally doable except for the drop, which promised to perch us like a teeter totter, and from the other direction, well, NOPE!

I went to see what the right offered. Oh! Nice. It was now seen to be a three way intersection for the waterways! The road was washed out, but a new trail was being developed that utilized part of the extremely bouldery wash, and even if it WAS less insane than it appeared, the insane was there.


Me: "O.K.! I am going to walk up and see how much further to that mine. This road is just getting out of hand."


And off I went. Probably 75 feet. I saw a flash of blue. I suddenly saw three 4x4 pickups, they were waiting for the lead truck to back up another road, and turn towards our direction. I couldn't really understand how he had gotten 180 degrees off. I did understand something really freekin awesome though, he was turning around with the help of th Opal Hill Mine access road! A chorus of angels sang. the pickup made his turn around, and began heading towards me. His 4x4, a great looking colbalt blue, was undulating across the wash. I figured they were visitors to the mine. Ones who probably arrived just before first light, and had scored TONS of fire agate. I held my hand up, and he stopped.


Me: "Hi! Were you at the mine today?"

4x4 man: "NOPE! We were just running this road"

Me: "You were east of here? HEY hows the road that direction? Passible?

4x4 man: "Depends on what your driving. Most of it is o.k. but our buddy has two wheel drive and we had to pull him over and out of one section when his drive tires got suspended. Need a lot of clearance and four wheel drive. The rest of us made it no sweat. What are you driving?"

Me: "A loaded down subaru, AWD... Has traction control..."


I could hear the passenger in the truck bust out laughing, and heard "No way!"


4x4 guy: "Wow! you made it this far? Well anyway, I don't think you should try it, it's pretty deep, and you won't have enough clearance.

Me: Terrific. The road in was bad enough I was hoping the road east would be more well maintained.

4x4 guy: "It's kinda challenging in places, but that one spot you WILL get stuck!"

Me: "Know if the mine is operating? Thats the whole reason we're out here."

4x4 guy: "Got NO idea. We were just running the roads, and heading back to camp."

Me: "Good enough. I'll have to move off the trail, so gimmie a minnit to move the car..."


I started back to the car, they began hollering between themselves, and there were three 4x4s in the convoy. I got back to the car and moved it, and as I did, I noticed way up the left fork on the hill was a white pick-up, and some whiskered older desert dog was walkin down the trail. The first two 4x4s waved and slowly drove by. Then the third, a high standing white 4by started to go by, and suprisingly enough, there were two women up front, a kid in the crew cab, a kid in the pick-up bed, and a dog, and I swear it almost looked like a couple of moms might have taken a wrong turn. They went by, then backed up. By now whisker man (who I was thinking was a claim owner) was standing with us, and the women were trying to talk to him over the header noise of the truck. Whisker man was, for all intents and purposes, done walking for now. So the driver gal jumped out and walked over. They hashed out some plan for meeting back at camp, we learned it was whisker man who had gotten stuck, he was scouting other trails, and HE was driving solo. The women gave the "C-YA" and lurched away, whisker man began the trek back to his truck, and I reiterated that the MINE was close enough to walk to. I popped the trunk and hollered,


Me: "Get a bucket, and lets MOVE! We are losing DAYLIGHT!!!"


I didn't bother to wait, but instead made short work of the walk to the mine road.


Me: "LET'S GO!"


"Stragglin' slow pokes!" I mumbled, and I began the climb. Opal Hill is, well... a HILL! Sorta' steep, so I paused here and there, puffed my cigarette, (Remember the wall I spoke of that had my head prints in it?) The straggle gang started up. I got to the first of several trailers that SOMEONE managed to actually drag into this crazy quilt of a canyon.


Me: "HELLO? HEH-LOWWW!!! ANYONE?"


Oh, don't even tell me that nobody is here...


Me: "HULLLLOOOOOWWWWW!"


I continued to the next level. I looked for at least ONE vehicle that was possibly in working order, that would hint at a possible person to go with it. It was obvious that when this area was not happy with ANY kind of mechanical contraption, be it car, ATV, BULLDOZER, school...BUS??? It would SMOTE that vehicle, and by the looks of it, the vehicles getting the smote, were here at the mine. Suddenly I felt a sense of relief that I parked a fraction of a click back up the road. I got to the top and sure enough, this place was just a deserted junkyard.


BIL: "So, this is it huh? Nobody around. What do you think?"

Me: "We busted our asses to get here, I am GOING to ROOT for some AGATE! If I find anything, I'll leave ten bucks at the bus, like the book said!"

BIL: "And so what do we want to look for...?"


I almost, ALMOST screamed, "GUT-DAYMED FIRE AGATE WHAT I BEEN AFTER SINCE..."

but BIL is real good at reading folks. The purple I felt rise above my collar must have been obvious,


BIL: "...Is there a certain color, or..."

Me: "OH! Oh... uh yeah! See these veins?(the digs are riddled with veins of agate) On the ground it'll probably be crumbs, but the veins have white with red, so you want white with what looks to be DARK inside. There are some veins that show some potential, but I didn't bring any tools! Look at THIS!"


I was working a somewhat nice chunk in a vein, and while it was tantalizingly loose, it resisted my attempts to dislodge it. I thought about whacking it with a rock. NO! that would bust it to crumbs. I could cannabalize some junkpile or...


"Tink." "Tink-tink-tink"


It stopped. I asked where sister was, BIL pointed. I went over.


Sis: "The tailings don't look that good..."

Me: "Did...You...Bring...TOOLS?

Sis: "I brought my hatchet/hammer thingy, but..."

Me: "GIMMIE! GIMMIE!"


There was no mistaking it I was DEMANDING! Sis indicated her bucket. I went and worked the chunk out. It was maybe an inch by 2-3 inches, nothing obvious, white lacey swirls giving way to a darkish red. I suddenly felt guilty as sin. I had just raped a claim. I didn't like the feeling one damn bit! I had let my greedy selfish voice talk me into working the host rock with tools with what justification? The fact that our group was concentrated FAIL from the moment we turned onto Wiley Well road? The day was playing over in my mind. We had no God-Given right to be here. We were actually trespassing, claim raping, and probably some other stuff I couldn't think of. My ONLY saving moment was THE BOOK. There is a book on Wiley's Well, the Hauser beds, and the surrounding areas. The author escapes me at the moment, but it is a GPS book. The disjointed nature and redundancy of the book, plus the scattered GPS co-ordinates (Opal Hill Mine wound us up at desert bee central) and apparent incorrect longs and lats... ANYway, he writes about the mine, and states "If you arrive at the mine and nobody is there, leave HALF the fee at the bus, and go ahead and dig" I dug in my pocket for some bills. I also scrounged a few more lacey white chunks of agate. The sun was now heavy and it began falling faster. In steep canyons and mountain ravines, sunset technically "happens" as early as 2:30 in the afternoon. I was not sure how much sun we had left, but I could tell it would be gone before we could get out, and THAT also made me uncomfortable. We turned to go. Down by the bus, the money was tucked, a note was left, and now I began to herd everyone back to the car. I took the wife's bucket. Heavy, I looked inside. Red rhyolite, with swiss cheese holes. It looked like junk rock! "Honey...!" I gave up.


Me: "Lets BUST A MOVE! That road won't be any easier going out, and I don't want to drive it in the dark."


Everyone hustled a bit faster. I was getting tired! We tossed everything into the back, jumped in and turned her around. The drive out was SOMEhow without incident. I could only theorize that maybe cos' we were traveling more or less downhill, making for less "climb" overall, but nobody got out to guide me through, and I pretty much didn't really pause to let them. I slowly approached the obstacles, and drove them. My biggest fear was another flat tire, and I expected or imagined that happening every 20 feet, LITERALLY! the sun was GONE by our 2/3rds of the Opal Mine road. The rest would be in the dark. The biggest problem with dark desert? No real definition of road. There were two moments when I COMPLETELY lost where the road was, one of them I had to back up and get back on. There were audible exclamations to dieties, and a little more swearing, and finally the broken tile/ruts that said we were going to be within REACH should anything go south on us, and Wiley Well road appeared like a dusty savior. This is how dark that desert got. At the broken tile section, the headlights were on but they lit a pitiful amount of road. I clicked some brights, and the dark just sucked it up. You could not tell the brights were even on.

I wasted no time getting our butts down the highway, we got to our own vehicle, switched the load, double checked, (This time I remembered to get the disc from the cd player) gassed the subie up. The wife douched the inside with cologne to cover any residual cigarette/BEE repellant odors. This caused the rental to smell as though we had hauled "Auntie Wilma" around all day. Everyone has an aunt Wilma, she is the aunt who's cologne arrives 5 min.s before she does. As pretty or expensive as that "OH! De Toilet" might be, it is as bad as an egg fart when huge concentrations are crammed into your nose.


None of the Opal Hill samples had that hypnotic bubbly color, BUT the wife and her RHYOLITE? Not even sure if it is, to be honest, however, when cut, there was all sorts of blue agate inclusion! The girls brought home some nice geodic wonder, and the chalcedony chunk, plus the incredible lacey swirled agate, and the 50 or so lbs from the "park and whizz" biffy runs stifled any real complaint about the day. As we talked and went over all the things that happened, it just got funnier and funnier, until the prize of the day was realizing what it MUST have looked like, and the girls almost piddled when I graphically described how it would have appeared to anyone cresting one of the hills and seeing us through binoculars (or better still a video camera). I also learned something about me that I liked. That is a greater understanding of what is really important while rockhounding. Just being together, and even though future rock excursions will undoubtedly try my patience, (because, you know, the wife and sister are ALWAYS... oh heck! IN ROCKHOUND GIRL mode) I got what I get from every trip besides rocks, I also get a lesson or two about myself. Long drives give me time to digest much of the wonderful unexpected,(hindsight is 20/20) and all the other things which reveal themselves in unique fashion. Seemingly, oddly enough, more readily whenever ROCKHOUNDING!


Veiw the obsession!

Wonderful story, next time if you need someone for video reporting the story, give me a holler and I'll come a-runnin (which is a sight to see at my height/weight/age) although I make no promises if a good liking rock gets in my way and I get sidetracked for a bit too!!
Marry Christmas & a Happy New Year to all too !!!