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Post by Deleted on Apr 25, 2013 21:50:47 GMT -5
So I went here:  I drove 2/3's of the way up and had to stop. Luckily I could turn around. I parked the trusty tacoma and chocked the wheels to be sure it would be there when I returned. I hiked up about 4-500 yards to the quarry. Sorry no Verd Antique quarry pix. I am way out of shape and my focus was not great. I knew roughly where to go from the quarry and devised a plan. After a bit of humping the cliffside, I saw a red stained outcrop. I'm looking for an iron ore, magnetite, so a rusty outcrop looks like a good place to start. By the time I get there I am gassed. Gotta sit down. This is what I saw when I sat down.   Things are looking good. Now I have rusty red actinolite crystals. Actinolite = Nephrite chemically. Plus Mattatya had a piece with actinolite, jade and magnetite. Took a couple pix and starting working the pile. Can't bust a corner off. Good sign. Hit the stone with a hammer and it rings, another good sign. Keep looking for obvious magnetite. Can't find it. Catch breath. Take a couple pix. View from the jade outcrop. The tomato colored rocks are the jade.  Someone, Mattatya I think, wished for me to have jade under my feet. Indeed I did. Here is proof, along with a look down the cliff I am perched on. Thanks for the good wishes!  Some flowers for Snuffy and Jean.  And the spoils. 28# is all I could hump back down the mountain. 4 little stones doesn't seem like enough. No matter what I am happy. 12 months ago I could NOT have done this trip. Next winter I will go back and hopefully have more goat'like skillz. Then I can get all over that cliff to check more outcrops. He|| maybe I should bring a goat to pack out more stuff!!  I guess I should discuss the "new Verde Antique" quarry in the first pic. The same marble as found at the original Verd Antique is found there. You can drive a 4x4 right up to it. I did so while I was close and brought back 40# of that material too. Perhaps more on this material later. Thanks for taking the time to look and read. I also posted it here with different text: www.scottsolar.com/jade-hunting/ |
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Sabre52
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Post by Sabre52 on Apr 25, 2013 23:08:16 GMT -5
Very cool! I always get excited when a rock rings like a bell and has the red crust. All the black and green jade up Porterville way has those same characteristics. Now get to cutting cause we're all dying to see what's inside those nice looking blocks of jade.....Mel
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Mattatya
spending too much on rocks
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Post by Mattatya on Apr 26, 2013 1:29:50 GMT -5
That is sooooo cool that you found some great material. I loved the picture of your foot on the jade  You searched and it demanded your attention. I can't wait to polish some of the stuff I have. My setup those don't yet have all the steps to create a polished cab. I'm going to go jasper hunting hopefully this weekend but if I don't I going to get some time in on my saw and wheels to get some shapes and do some hand polishing and see what happens. I can't wait to see what you do with your finds. Be proud for making it up and down those hills and the strength you gained taking to em on! Matt |
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Apr 26, 2013 6:19:16 GMT -5
I wanna go.Lucky lucky Scott.All that geology stare ing you in the face.That place is steeper than camera let's on.How far is that from your crib?Love the heat-that looks hot.
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Post by rockpickerforever on Apr 26, 2013 9:37:03 GMT -5
Well, you know what they say, Lucky - Whatever don't kill you makes you stronger! That is a seriously steep little hill. Did you have your medic alert on you, so you could call for assistance when you had a heart attack? See (or hear) any buzz tails?
What Mel said about the rock ringing like a bell when struck - good thing my new favorite BLM ranger wasn't around. He don't like rocks being hammered on - lol! Oh, and thanks for the link to the BLM Barstow field office rockhound regs. Could be my imagination, but they don't seem as strongly worded as the ones on the El Centro field office's website. Should be the same for the entire state, no? Will have to check them side by side. That 250 lbs is for a year, not per trip. And who gets to define "decorative rock?"
Anyway, back to your report. Thanks for the flowers, I think they may be Mojave asters. You only brought down just those four little stones? Sure don't look like much from the outside. Better get busy and slice those puppies open, see what wonders lay inside.
Thanks for the report! Jean
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Post by Deleted on Apr 26, 2013 9:40:06 GMT -5
Mel, your description from Sinkanka really helped. Thanks!
Jim that spot is exactly 165 miles round trip from my house.
All the California spots you hear about on these forums: Calico, Lavic, Cady, Boron, Wrightwood and many many more are within 60 minutes of this rocky hill. This area is kinda in the middle of all the good materials.
Matt - thanks for the encouragement! It really helped motivate my fat@ss to get out and do something fun!
I will make it to class tuesday night. I will cut this stuff and see what is inside each piece.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 26, 2013 9:46:43 GMT -5
Thanks Jean! I'll cut it up tuesday night! I believe that Barstow office overseas the El Centro one. Maybe I am wrong. edited to add reptilian report: No rattlesnakes, nor any snakes for that matter. If I had on that mountain the only one I expected to see is the Panamint Speckled - Crotalus stephensi  I did see a few lizards: Side Blotched were not as common as expected. They are the first to rise in the cool morning air.  Then the whiptails woke up - Cnemidophorus t. tigris. Image of specimen from different area. At the Jade site the first half of the body is black.  On the way out I saw quite a few Desert Spiny's - Sceleporus uniformis  I did not see, but know they are there, the following species: Great Basin Collared Lizards Chuckwalla Desert Iguana Zebra Tailed Lizard Long Nose Leopard Lizard Desert Horned Lizards (super nice red ones!) Deserft Night lizards Banded Geckos and prolly some I forgot. Special Thanks to California Herps for use of their photos. All credit to them and their photographers for an amazing online resource. |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 26, 2013 10:48:38 GMT -5
Three things that told me something about these stones in the field:
***Cannot break with a rock hammer. TOUGH!
***Rings like a bell when struck with rock hammer. BONG!
***Nice crisp sharp edges. Notice all the crisp edges to the stones?
Unless recently broken, all the other outcrops in the area are weather worn with rounded edges. Like the rounding of a river worn stone but far less pronounced. These stones do not exhibit this. The toughness of nephrite keeps the edges sharp.
These are just some thoughts that come to mind. Perhaps others with more experience can also add to the field ID of Jades.
I am starting to think rock-hounding is a little like detective work. Look for evidence ask a few questions and find your solution.
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Post by Toad on Apr 26, 2013 10:55:05 GMT -5
Great pics. Thanks for the report.
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Sabre52
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Post by Sabre52 on Apr 26, 2013 12:02:03 GMT -5
Scott: You're very welcome to any info I can provide anytime. Got to say, I hiked that hill when I was fairly young and it was steep and rough hiking. I thought I was gonna croak as it was a pretty hot day when I went *L*. Kudos to you for first off making the hike unscathed and secondly for actually finding the jade.
There are Mojave Rattlers out there too but not as common as in areas further south and east. They like those rocky uplands too. Dang, have they gone and changed the Desert Spiny Lizards nomenclature too? I thought that was S. magister. I caught one of those down by Desert Center one time that was the largest Scelop I've ever had my hands on. Dang thing was almost Chuckwalla sized. Also almost killed myself trying to noose a S. orcutti out by Palm Springs. Had a ledge collapse under me and drop me off a dang hillside. Landed in a huge bush and it saved my neck *L*
Up at Porterville, that bell ringing technique is how we found jade lenses. We'd just go along the hill banging on the sharp vertically bedded lenses and the jade actually does ring quite well compared to the duller sounding serpentine. Big problem we had up there was many of the jade boulders were just too big. They'd break the handles off all your sledge hammers. I'm still pissed that during my California-Texas move I apparently left one of my best jade boulders in the garden and another huge lens beside the house where I'd partially buried it for a stepping stone. I'm so friggin forgetful I guess I should be happy I got back here with most the stuff I did remember to move *L*...........Mel
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Post by Deleted on Apr 26, 2013 12:41:00 GMT -5
Thanks Mel! I have humped those hills for literally a thousand hours, thirty years ago. I always saw the scutes in the flats. Never once on a hillside. At $10 each chuckwallas were easy money for a teenager/twenty something. It was easy to make $200-300 a day. Oddly enough I have never ever been able to catch a 'magister'. They broke all the various subspecies into well defined species. I did not read the paper but I sorta have to agree. They all seem different to me. Not color varieties of the same species. The day I chose to re-connnect myself with these mountains was slighty overcast, then clearing but with an expected high of 80. Not too bad even for a fat ole guy like myself. I was on the mountain for about three hours. I took things very slow. Very slow! Today I am as sore as if I spent 12 hours up there in my youth! If you can believe it, it feels good to have sore muscles. Sad to hear about your lost jades. The new homeowner probably trashed it in re-modelling too. Not knowing what they were. Everybody! That 'orcutti' Mel refers to is the Granite Spiny Lizard Sceleporus orcutti. California's and the USA's most beautiful lizard. They are purple and blue and orange and black and...... Image below, male on top, female - middle, juvenile - bottom  Thanks again to www.californiaherps.comI have these lizards 20 minutes from my house. I keep threatening to set up a couple pairs in cages to see if I can get babies. |
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Post by rockpickerforever on Apr 26, 2013 15:02:22 GMT -5
I love colorful little lizards! Here's some pics I took at Mission Trails Regional Park in San Diego:   And this is the one remaining snake left from our collection. This is a western shovel-nosed snake, Chionactis occipitalis, unless they changed the nomenclature.  We believe this is a female, and she's been around for awhile. She is 15" in length. Man, that's a terrible photo (husband took it with his cell phone). Will have to get a better photo. Jean Here's a little bit better shot:  Taken through the glass of the tank, I didn't want to bug her. |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 26, 2013 15:14:41 GMT -5
Nice pix Jean. Your granite spiny looks like a Rock Iguana in that pose!
I love that you have had Chionactis for a long time. Do you feed mealworms? Or just grubs from the garden?
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Post by rockpickerforever on Apr 26, 2013 15:26:27 GMT -5
Yes, he does look like a Rock Iguana, huh? I'm not exaggerating, that thing was over a foot long! Scott, actually we used to buy those nasty brown crickets from the cricket ranch, 1000 at a time. (And then had to take care of them too!) Man, those things were bitey! Since we just have the one snake left tyo eat them, we catch crickets out in the yard, and feed them. We don't use any poison around here, so not worried about that. The local crickets are a lighter color, and they're just so much more... friendly. They don't freak me out when I catch them. Jean
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Post by kk on Apr 26, 2013 18:10:30 GMT -5
Nice material you have got there.
Gotta ask: Does anyone have an explanation as to how it comes to that "Ringing" sound?
Its not just in Jades, it comes in other stones too. Is it just an indication that the material is very tense, or is there more to it?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 26, 2013 18:16:06 GMT -5
Nice material you have got there. Gotta ask: Does anyone have an explanation as to how it comes to that "Ringing" sound? Its not just in Jades, it comes in other stones too. Is it just an indication that the material is very tense, or is there more to it? Good question Kurt. Anybody?? |
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Sabre52
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Post by Sabre52 on Apr 26, 2013 18:19:38 GMT -5
Beautiful Shovel Nose Jean. I've only ever found one of those ( Taquitz sp? Canyon by Palm Springs) and I turned it loose as I figured it would be hard to keep. Strangely enough, I found it out hiking instead of night driving. I used to have pretty bad luck with the rarer snakes out night driving. I found my only Patch Nosed out hiking too. Was right on top a wood rat nest down at the Hauser beds Shovel Noses are supposed to be common here on the ranch but I've yet to find one. Same with coral snakes and milk snakes. Everyone sees them except me *L*.....Mel
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Post by Deleted on Apr 26, 2013 18:25:57 GMT -5
Corals and milks found down close to Corpus too rocky on the plateau.
Chionactus very very common. Must go see them under a no moon in may at anza borrego. 100 snake nights are common! Mel come out, we'll get our fishing licenses and photograph a dozen species in a couple days! Blend our knowledge and we'll be unstoppable!
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Sabre52
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Post by Sabre52 on Apr 26, 2013 18:27:35 GMT -5
Hmmm. Nephrite jade is a calcium, magnesium ferro silicate. I'd think being hard, fibrous and containing iron and silica would tend to ring when struck. We've got some spots of high silica limestone here on the ranch and it rings real nice too. The ringing from shoes is kind of disconcerting when you ride a horse over a shelf with a hollow underneath..Mel
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Post by rockpickerforever on Apr 26, 2013 20:06:01 GMT -5
Thanks, Mel. The other ones we used to have (we had them for a long time, died of old age, I'm sure) had even more orange.
They are surprising easy to keep and feed, just throw crickets in the tank with them, and spray the sand with distilled water (doesn't leave deposits on the glass - learned the hard way) every so often. There's a few rocks that will hold water, too.
The tank doesn't have any heat, just a florescent light on a timer. During the winter, we don't heat our house much, it gets down to about 60 degrees most nights. I manually lengthen or shorten the hours as the seasons dictate. We won't see the chionactis for most of the winter (unless we have a few hot days in January or February), and this one just came out of hibernation less than a month ago. Jean
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You searched and it demanded your attention. I can't wait to polish some of the stuff I have. My setup those don't yet have all the steps to create a polished cab.
