11/15/13 Official N.Cady's trip report (more pics added)
Nov 18, 2013 20:06:26 GMT -5
roy, rockpickerforever, and 1 more like this
Post by Tommy on Nov 18, 2013 20:06:26 GMT -5
Editor's note: I hope all the participants will jump in and post pictures and personal accounts and have fun with this - Tommy
Many thanks to @shotgunner, elementary, and LarryS for putting in the leg work to make this trip possible for those who participated.
Thursday 11/14/2013
Eva and I arrived at Lavic around 1PM on Thursday and proceeded to search there the entire afternoon. Those who say that the area is picked over from countless years of activity are correct but there is still material to be had. It just takes more time and work to find it. We continued on past the book collection sites and past Larry's "Jesus Rocks" area and began to see an improvement in material. It took a lot of work and we didn't collect a lot but we did manage to find a small pile of some quality material.
Sun was setting and the clouds were inviting us to the Cadys as we left and headed back to Barstow to stay the first night in a hotel there.
Friday 11/15/13
To kill some time until meeting up with Scott, we hit another book location known as Field Road siding. This area too was thoroughly picked - if you are into tumbler rough you'd be happy running around picking up scraps. The collection location is the small line of hills in the foreground.
We left the book site and pressed on towards the larger hill in the distance and discovered an outcropping of ash - desert cement - from which the rocks it held were still emerging. The material still wasn't of great quality - mostly brown desert agate - but seeing the process of agates emerging from the host rock was incredible and made the side trip worth our time.
Found a few nice goodies and one really beautiful piece of jasper here as well.
After leaving the Field Road area we ate lunch at Peggy Sue's and the good food definitely hit the spot and the atmosphere was fun. It turns out we barely missed Scott who also ate at Peggy Sue's and no it wasn't coordinated. Just great minds thinking alike.
We met up with Scott at the location that since come to be called the Green Monster mine - the material there is a lime green material of an unknown (to me) origin that resembles marble in a lot of ways. Having worked some of it at home now I can tell you that it is VERY soft - I went from the shaping stage straight to 1200 grit and was still removing material. However it does seem take a nice shine which also seems to indicate a material similar to marble. I picked up some sample material showing dendrites but so far haven't been able to find any that are anything more than surface (as Scott said it would be). The material with lines seems to be a very nice color pattern - I haven't made any cabs from it yet.
This 2000 lb monster green boulder guards the road in and is covered with fascinating dendrites. I'm not sure why the color on my camera tanked - the whole boulder is a wonderful lime green color with vivid dendrites.
After the green monster, Eva and I followed our fearless leader to the first camping location where we met up with barclay (Paul) and drycreek (David). rockpickerforever (Jean) and her husband Bob pulled into camp around 10pm and our rock-picking lineup was all set to go after a good night sleep in camp.
Saturday 11/16/13
Were off... From memory of having been there one time, Scott did an awesome job of taking us directly to our destination, the old fluorite mine.
Cute picture of Jean and Scott. Both are rockstars in my book and we are very happy to have met them and the others.
Jean and Bob's adorable doggie Lucy.
Bob busily attacking a large boulder of jasper - trust me when I say this thing did not come easily. He had it on its way out by the time I pitched in with a final tug of my hammer and she was free. Scott and Jean and Bob later returned to this location and coaxed several other large jasper boulders to come with us.
I concentrated on smaller stuff and grabbed a nice little pile of the yellow and red stuff.
Moving on to other hunting grounds, these are some jasper/agate rocks Eva and I found. I'm sure the others will have lots to share here soon too. So much for my vow to concentrate on small stuff. The excitement of finding something special tends to change a person's perspective and they get greedy I guess. These two pieces, one weighing 68 lbs and the other 41 lbs were simply sticking out of a hillside along an ancient vein and barely had to be wiggled to get loose. Recent rains had probably loosened the earth's grip on them and they were ready to roll down the hill. The stuff is heavily fractured and the smaller of the two boulders had split into several pieces by the time we got home. When I figure out what to cut and how, we promise slabs to everyone who participated in this quest including Lowell.
These are some other agate/jasper pieces that we found.
Saturday night Rock swap...
Nightfall brought an end to an awesome day and the start of an excellent camping adventure. roy provided a box of excellent rocks which we all divided up and everyone was happy. David generously brought two boxes stuffed full of slabs and invited everyone to take whatever slabs they desired. Eva and I brought Scott his Sunset Rhyolite boulder which based on the grin I think he was happy with. If I missed any of the swapping that went on please let me know and I'll add it in.
Edit: how could I have forgotten... When I posted Thursday night about not finding much material at Lavic, Scott came up early on Friday and went to Lavic and found enough material so that myself and everyone who came had some nice material from there. Way above and beyond :-)
The fire was a roaring success - between Jean and Bob, and Eva and myself, we brought enough wood to build a fire that could signal airplanes with if any had been in the region.
Sunday 11/17/13
After a great nights sleep, we bid farewell and safe travels to the group and pressed further into the canyons to see what we could find.
We found several seams of agate - one was from a location that we affectionately named "poop agate." I'll let your minds fill in the blanks on how that name came to be...
With a long drive out of the desert and an even longer drive home ahead of us we travelled out... but not before taking the utmost joy and delight (literally we were giggling like school kids) in finding and removing three trash mylar balloons.
Three cheers for @shotgunner and elementary and LarryS for helping make this possible for everyone.
Cheers!
Many thanks to @shotgunner, elementary, and LarryS for putting in the leg work to make this trip possible for those who participated.
Thursday 11/14/2013
Eva and I arrived at Lavic around 1PM on Thursday and proceeded to search there the entire afternoon. Those who say that the area is picked over from countless years of activity are correct but there is still material to be had. It just takes more time and work to find it. We continued on past the book collection sites and past Larry's "Jesus Rocks" area and began to see an improvement in material. It took a lot of work and we didn't collect a lot but we did manage to find a small pile of some quality material.
Sun was setting and the clouds were inviting us to the Cadys as we left and headed back to Barstow to stay the first night in a hotel there.
Friday 11/15/13
To kill some time until meeting up with Scott, we hit another book location known as Field Road siding. This area too was thoroughly picked - if you are into tumbler rough you'd be happy running around picking up scraps. The collection location is the small line of hills in the foreground.
We left the book site and pressed on towards the larger hill in the distance and discovered an outcropping of ash - desert cement - from which the rocks it held were still emerging. The material still wasn't of great quality - mostly brown desert agate - but seeing the process of agates emerging from the host rock was incredible and made the side trip worth our time.
Found a few nice goodies and one really beautiful piece of jasper here as well.
After leaving the Field Road area we ate lunch at Peggy Sue's and the good food definitely hit the spot and the atmosphere was fun. It turns out we barely missed Scott who also ate at Peggy Sue's and no it wasn't coordinated. Just great minds thinking alike.
We met up with Scott at the location that since come to be called the Green Monster mine - the material there is a lime green material of an unknown (to me) origin that resembles marble in a lot of ways. Having worked some of it at home now I can tell you that it is VERY soft - I went from the shaping stage straight to 1200 grit and was still removing material. However it does seem take a nice shine which also seems to indicate a material similar to marble. I picked up some sample material showing dendrites but so far haven't been able to find any that are anything more than surface (as Scott said it would be). The material with lines seems to be a very nice color pattern - I haven't made any cabs from it yet.
This 2000 lb monster green boulder guards the road in and is covered with fascinating dendrites. I'm not sure why the color on my camera tanked - the whole boulder is a wonderful lime green color with vivid dendrites.
After the green monster, Eva and I followed our fearless leader to the first camping location where we met up with barclay (Paul) and drycreek (David). rockpickerforever (Jean) and her husband Bob pulled into camp around 10pm and our rock-picking lineup was all set to go after a good night sleep in camp.
Saturday 11/16/13
Were off... From memory of having been there one time, Scott did an awesome job of taking us directly to our destination, the old fluorite mine.
Cute picture of Jean and Scott. Both are rockstars in my book and we are very happy to have met them and the others.
Jean and Bob's adorable doggie Lucy.
Bob busily attacking a large boulder of jasper - trust me when I say this thing did not come easily. He had it on its way out by the time I pitched in with a final tug of my hammer and she was free. Scott and Jean and Bob later returned to this location and coaxed several other large jasper boulders to come with us.
I concentrated on smaller stuff and grabbed a nice little pile of the yellow and red stuff.
Moving on to other hunting grounds, these are some jasper/agate rocks Eva and I found. I'm sure the others will have lots to share here soon too. So much for my vow to concentrate on small stuff. The excitement of finding something special tends to change a person's perspective and they get greedy I guess. These two pieces, one weighing 68 lbs and the other 41 lbs were simply sticking out of a hillside along an ancient vein and barely had to be wiggled to get loose. Recent rains had probably loosened the earth's grip on them and they were ready to roll down the hill. The stuff is heavily fractured and the smaller of the two boulders had split into several pieces by the time we got home. When I figure out what to cut and how, we promise slabs to everyone who participated in this quest including Lowell.
These are some other agate/jasper pieces that we found.
Saturday night Rock swap...
Nightfall brought an end to an awesome day and the start of an excellent camping adventure. roy provided a box of excellent rocks which we all divided up and everyone was happy. David generously brought two boxes stuffed full of slabs and invited everyone to take whatever slabs they desired. Eva and I brought Scott his Sunset Rhyolite boulder which based on the grin I think he was happy with. If I missed any of the swapping that went on please let me know and I'll add it in.
Edit: how could I have forgotten... When I posted Thursday night about not finding much material at Lavic, Scott came up early on Friday and went to Lavic and found enough material so that myself and everyone who came had some nice material from there. Way above and beyond :-)
The fire was a roaring success - between Jean and Bob, and Eva and myself, we brought enough wood to build a fire that could signal airplanes with if any had been in the region.
Sunday 11/17/13
After a great nights sleep, we bid farewell and safe travels to the group and pressed further into the canyons to see what we could find.
We found several seams of agate - one was from a location that we affectionately named "poop agate." I'll let your minds fill in the blanks on how that name came to be...
With a long drive out of the desert and an even longer drive home ahead of us we travelled out... but not before taking the utmost joy and delight (literally we were giggling like school kids) in finding and removing three trash mylar balloons.
Three cheers for @shotgunner and elementary and LarryS for helping make this possible for everyone.
Cheers!