panamark
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2012
Posts: 1,343
|
Post by panamark on Apr 14, 2014 7:01:39 GMT -5
miander 's post on the nice, big petrified wood she had to leave behind made me wonder. Do you all have stories about the one piece you had left behind and it still haunts you to this day? Post your story here. Was the piece too big, too far, or what? And what made it so special that it wakes you up at night, haha. I would like to hear about it.
|
|
|
Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Apr 14, 2014 7:22:28 GMT -5
Last fall while out 4-wheeling and dirt biking me and my boys stopped for a break on the trail. As usual I walked off into the woods a little bit looking for pudding stones and sure enough I spotted a big one barely protruding from the ground. I am still not sure how big it actually is but a corner was broken off that I was able throw on the quad. I have the location marked on my GPS so this spring we will go back with tools to see if its possible to bring home. here's the piece we left behind And here is the broken off piece we brought home Of course I slabbed it! Chuck
|
|
panamark
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2012
Posts: 1,343
|
Post by panamark on Apr 14, 2014 7:48:18 GMT -5
yeah Chuck, that would be so worthwhile to do some digging and dragging on. Love the red jasp in it. But I don't think it will fit on a 4 wheeler will it?
|
|
Fossilman
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2009
Posts: 20,709
|
Post by Fossilman on Apr 14, 2014 8:47:29 GMT -5
While in Montana,I was fossil hunting and walked into a valley of busted fossils,just littered everywhere.I wanted to pick them up and take them home with me,but just didn't have the room in my backpack.... A few months later the land changed owners and he didn't let anyone on his land and to this day 26 years later,he still doesn't.. They would have made some great cabs and displays!!!!!! I can just see them laying there saying,"PICK ME Pick Me Pick me!!!!! LOL (Ammonites and baculites)
|
|
miander
spending too much on rocks
Searching for the shop of my dreams...
Member since November 2013
Posts: 407
|
Post by miander on Apr 14, 2014 8:55:15 GMT -5
That pudding stone is so nice! I love the pictorial you have to show the process, we just need a picture of you tossing and turning in bed at 3am, trying to stop thinking about the boulder left behind ;D
|
|
|
Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Apr 14, 2014 8:57:12 GMT -5
yeah Chuck, that would be so worthwhile to do some digging and dragging on. Love the red jasp in it. But I don't think it will fit on a 4 wheeler will it? where there's a will there's a way. I have brought back a couple 80-90 pounder's in my single seat kayak. Gets a little scary and really don't steer very good with a boulder in the cockpit. Looks funny too since I have to have my legs hanging on the outside of the kayak all the way home. Chuck
|
|
|
Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Apr 14, 2014 9:03:24 GMT -5
There's one more my son found that's probably about 150 pounds and its in water just deep enough that to bend down and touch it you have to have your face in the water. Picture is deceiving but its in water over 3 ft deep. we brushed it off a bit but the colors didn't really show on my sons phone camera. I am going to have start pulling a floating trailer behind the kayaks from now on. This is a shoal off of our bay. About a mile offshore in Lake Huron. Chuck
|
|
Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
|
Post by Sabre52 on Apr 14, 2014 9:08:57 GMT -5
*LOL* I've got so many of these stories as I've been hounding for so long, but this is the one I most often kick myself over.
I think it was back in he late seventies that the wife and I went on a massive "rockabout" field trip. We loaded up our old VW bus and spent weeks hounding through Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming and Montana. The highlight of the trip for me was to be a planned dig at the famed Dryhead Agate beds in the Pryor Mountains of southern Montana. I'd wanted to dig there since reading an article on a lapidary magazine. We didn't have a lot of money back then and the dig was like $35 per day to dig so that was our most expensive stop on the whole trip and I really wanted to find some good stuff. No per pound fees were charged and you could keep everything you wanted. The wife would have to be strictly an observer as we could not afford a second dig fee for her but she was happy with all the pretty springtime wildflowers.
Well, after a long drive we got out there, and I mean way out there, on very rough washboardy gravel roads. Beautiful country though, with lots of spring wildflowers and beautiful wild mustangs all the way. The first disappointment, we discovered, after I paid my fee of course, was the bulldozer that was supposed to be clearing off overburden was broke down. This sucked because the good agate layer was beneath like four feet of slatey limestoney overburden. Took hours just to cut and chisel down to the good stuff. Fee was for a 24 hour period and the days are long that far north so I dug like 18 from the 24 hours. Agate nodules were in clusters and I found a few but nothing real spectacular. Guys leaving after the bulldozer was working had hundreds of pounds without even having to dig hardly at all.
Anyway, here comes the dumbass Mel part of the story. While I was digging, my wife got bored and was sitting on the old bulldozed waste piles. She called me to come over and look at a huge number of large five pound or so nodules in the pile. They were surface material and appeared to be slightly fortified with lots of vugs and I chipped a couple and threw a couple into my box as somewhat interesting specimenwise but not "Real Dryhead Agates" and went back to my pretty disappointing hole. I should add here, that there were literally hundreds of those surface nodules just sitting there on the piles and my wife thought they were "real pretty" and wanted me to take a bunch.
Well, fast forward a couple of months and I'm cutting my finds on my piece of garbage 14" Lortone drop saw. Got a few decent nodules and any duds from my dig but you guessed it, when I cut the surface stuff it was really neat. Had a creamy background with scattered geometric designs and small fortifications in red or orange agate. Almost like Dryhead Crazy Lace agate and excellent cabbing material with patterns more interesting that the regular fortification nodules we all think of when we hear Dryhead. And, of course, I could have hauled off as much as I could fit in the VW *sniff*. Now, all these years later, every time I cut Dryheads from that trip, I whine about all the neat nodules I left behind and have to hear the wife say " I freaking told ya so dumbass!" *L*........Mel
|
|
|
Post by roy on Apr 14, 2014 9:27:09 GMT -5
left this behind yesterday ! just didnt have time or the resources to get it out besides i already pulled out 200lbs of nice limbs
|
|
|
Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Apr 14, 2014 9:42:38 GMT -5
left this behind yesterday ! just didnt have time or the resources to get it out besides i already pulled out 200lbs of nice limbs wow, I assume you dug that hole? That would be tough to leave behind after all that digging for sure.
|
|
|
Post by fantastic5 on Apr 14, 2014 12:27:44 GMT -5
Two years ago our family took our first trip out west. Our first stop was the Grand Canyon and to avoid the crowds we hiked down into one of the side canyons. This seemed like a good idea as we quickly left the crowds behind. But after a nearly 1600 foot descend we realized that we did need to go back up. On the ascent we took numerous breaks due to the heat and on one of the breaks my daughter Sandi found this fossil foot print. Being a National Park (and trying to set a good example for the kids) we left it near where it was found and took only the picture. We showed the picture later to a ranger who said they were 270 million year old amphibian tracks. He thanked us for doing the right thing (only taking a picture) and he would send the geologist back to retrieve the specimen. The fuss he made over us taking only a picture had the kids feeling really good, but I'll secretly always have a small tinge of regret leaving it behind.
|
|
snuffy
Cave Dweller
Member since May 2009
Posts: 4,319
|
Post by snuffy on Apr 14, 2014 12:29:19 GMT -5
This piece of wood was exposed during a major drouth at an area lake.Could put a hurt on a boat when the lake fills back up.Woulda looked good in my yard,but!! My coffee thermos on top for scale snuffy
|
|
|
Post by Hard Rock Cafe on Apr 14, 2014 14:38:20 GMT -5
I don't have pictures, but I have a story... When I was a kid of about 12, my school took a trip to a local 4H camp in Iowa. One day we went down to the river and we dug crystals out of the river bank mud. They were up to 6 inches long and mostly clear, but had some muddy inclusions and they were very brittle. I had a great time and brought some home to show my parents. As a result, my father got me a rock pick, which I still have. Now fast forward roughly 35 years. I learned that the crystals were selenite and I happened to be spending a weekend near the 4H camp. I decided to go back to see if I could find more crystals. I went to the camp and it looked very different from what I remembered, but I found my way down to the river. Once I got there, I thought I remembered going to the right years ago, so I walked down stream and could not find the river bank that I remembered. Oh well, I thought, I'll see if I can find any agates or at least interesting jaspers. After wondering for an hour and nothing to show for my effort, I headed back up stream to where I came down to the river. Just for fun I decided to go a little farther up stream, and lo and behold, there was the muddy bank! And there were crystals sticking out of it! I worked for a while and dug some nice crystals out of the dirt. I had found enough to satisfy me when I turned around to leave and spotted a boulder about 3 feet in diameter with a layer of mud and crystals 3 inches thick. And some of the crystal clusters were 10 inches long! I looked up the bank and could see where the boulder had been; it must have fallen relatively recently. In the end, I had filled 2 five gallon buckets of mud and crystals. Poor me! I had to lug them back up to the top of the river bank and back to my car. I guess it's sort of a story about the one that got away, but caught it again. Chuck
|
|
|
Post by johnjsgems on Apr 14, 2014 19:43:59 GMT -5
We have found many "way too big ones" over the years. Once near Torrey UT we were collecting wood and my wife found a nice one. About 3-4' diameter and 3-4' sticking out of the ground. She wanted me to "dig it up and roll it to the jeep". Guess how that ended. We went to Ballarat (Charlie Manson country) looking for the distinctive marble. Wife says "show me some so I can see what it looks like". As it turned out she was standing in front of a boulder as tall as she is and as wide as her sister. That one didn't make it to the jeep either. The biggest "find" was in UT with a Colorado friend collecting black wood on a hillside. I'm 6' and 180 lbs and he makes me look like a pint sized junior. We collect on a hillside where maybe only one tree fossilized as it is all in one small area. The main trunk is mostly exposed. Friend had me take his picture straddling the trunk. He could barely spread his legs enough and legs dangled way up. Truly amazing. Same guy fills a large pack nearly to top and stands. After standing he had me add a couple more big pieces. I found a nice big round maybe 40-50 lbs. but couldn't see hauling it out for the 2 hour hike back down along with my overloaded small day pack. No problem, giant friend carried it for me. Had to buy dinner at the all you can eat buffet in Grand Junction.
|
|
|
Post by roy on Apr 14, 2014 23:22:13 GMT -5
We have found many "way too big ones" over the years. Once near Torrey UT we were collecting wood and my wife found a nice one. About 3-4' diameter and 3-4' sticking out of the ground. She wanted me to "dig it up and roll it to the jeep". Guess how that ended. We went to Ballarat (Charlie Manson country) looking for the distinctive marble. Wife says "show me some so I can see what it looks like". As it turned out she was standing in front of a boulder as tall as she is and as wide as her sister. That one didn't make it to the jeep either. The biggest "find" was in UT with a Colorado friend collecting black wood on a hillside. I'm 6' and 180 lbs and he makes me look like a pint sized junior. We collect on a hillside where maybe only one tree fossilized as it is all in one small area. The main trunk is mostly exposed. Friend had me take his picture straddling the trunk. He could barely spread his legs enough and legs dangled way up. Truly amazing. Same guy fills a large pack nearly to top and stands. After standing he had me add a couple more big pieces. I found a nice big round maybe 40-50 lbs. but couldn't see hauling it out for the 2 hour hike back down along with my overloaded small day pack. No problem, giant friend carried it for me. Had to buy dinner at the all you can eat buffet in Grand Junction. thats some funny stuff there john but you better hope your sister in law dont read this or you might get a whooping lmao!!!
|
|
Geoff
spending too much on rocks
Please add 1074 to my post number.
Member since December 2012
Posts: 446
|
Post by Geoff on Apr 15, 2014 1:02:04 GMT -5
Her name is Allie. But we're talking about rocks here so mine is a huge fault breccia erratic I found on top of a mountain. Too big and too hard to break much more than some chips off of. Polishes up great too. Major bummer.
|
|
panamark
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2012
Posts: 1,343
|
Post by panamark on Apr 15, 2014 18:54:35 GMT -5
wow, those are great stories everyone.Thanks - I don't feel so bad about some of mine. Sabre52, Mel your story reminds me a bit of one of my Dad's stories. When he was young he wanted to go deer hunting with the other men, but they told him he was too young and that he should hunt from inside the cabin, ha. Kind of a crushing blow. Well he went upstairs and took out the window. And you guessed it, when the "men" came back he had a nice buck dressed out in the front yard. "wide as her sister", wow, I will have to remember that one. Maybe not!
|
|
|
Post by Jugglerguy on Apr 15, 2014 19:20:56 GMT -5
I've been enjoying these stories, but I don't really have anything in the same league. The only thing that comes to mind is not the one I left behind, but the thousands I left behind. Last summer, my sister took me to a very remote beach on Lake Superior. There's no way you could get there without four wheel drive, and even then, I'd have a hard time finding it. There were these really cool pieces of banded chert all over the beach, but I didn't know what they were. They didn't look like any chert I have seen before. I picked up a handful, but didn't take more because I had no idea if they'd tumble. Untitled It turns out they polish really well. I've regretted not getting more since these came out of the tumbler. Untitled I plan to go back to her house this summer and one of my main goals is to get a bucket full of the stuff. There were also these little thunder eggs all over the beach. I grabbed a handful, but I haven't done anything with them. If these are of interest to anyone, I don't mind picking more up. Here's another rock that I would love to have in my yard. It wouldn't fit in my car trunk either. Untitled
|
|
panamark
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2012
Posts: 1,343
|
Post by panamark on Apr 15, 2014 20:12:18 GMT -5
Wow, now THAT is a yard rock!
Well one thing Rob is that those rocks are on a desolate beach, so no one is gonna clean them out. They sure do polish up nice!
|
|
ash
spending too much on rocks
Prairieville, Louisiana
Member since July 2012
Posts: 361
|
Post by ash on Apr 19, 2014 10:57:02 GMT -5
I have two regrets in rockhounding.
One is that I did not collect more of the Pet wood from the reclaimed coal(I think) in brilliant AL. I thought that I could go back another time and get some more, but the site was closed a year or two after by the kids of the owner after his passing. I still kick myself for that though I do have two very large pieces from there, one that I can roll but not pick up, the other about 40 or 50ish pounds. They don't look that great on the outside, but I guarantee if I broke them up they would be full of druzy.
The other was from one of my first trips with the Mississippi Gem and Mineral club on Bayou Pierre. I was WAY down the creek, cause I like to roam you know, and came across a large sphere that was light tan in color. The sphere was smooth but not polished as I remember and just small enough to fit into a bucket and HEAVY. I did not have a pack at the time and only had a 5 gallon bucket, I only take a backpack now. I lugged that thing for a good distance back, even resorted to putting it in the bucket and walked in the creek letting the water support it. Eventually, I bent the handle out of the bucket carrying it so I gave out and gave up and dumped it back on the beach. When I got back, someone offered to go and pick it up in a ATV but I said naw, no need, I didn't need that thing anyway. But...now that I think about it, I really regret leaving it behind. I still have no idea what it even was. Anyway, that is my tale of geologic woe.
|
|