You cats talkin' bout your Madison shoes...
Jun 11, 2009 19:14:23 GMT -5
mtfrost and gabe76 like this
Post by rallyrocks on Jun 11, 2009 19:14:23 GMT -5
"We do a thing we call the Madison Blues..."
Took a little trip back up to Montana last weekend, and dragged a buddy out to look for the elusive Madison Blue agate.
I've seen this stuff in shops for upwards from $35/lb which seemed a bit steep, but after having made the trip out to collect the stuff I think I have a little better appreciation for why people might charge that much.
Fact is, the main occurrence is now pretty much off limits as it lies on ranch land owned by some guy named Ted from Atlanta that raises Buffalo, but there is BLM wilderness on the other side of Ted's fenceline, and just enough float out on the BLM side to make the hike worthwhile.
However I don't think I want to make a public posting of details of this location, as I'd hate to see it get overrun and abused- but if you are in the area and want to shoot me a PM I might be willing to share some more hints.
As the name implies, the site is near the Madison River, its a couple miles and about 1000 feet elevation gain for the hike to get there.
When you get to a fence with these markers behind it, you are getting close;
Believe it or not Ted's crews used chunks of Madison Blue to prop up his fence posts!
Someone had been up there ahead of us and piled up some high-grade, presumably to come back later for, I had to leave it alone, although it was tempting to pick from this pile, there were plenty of other good pieces laying around
And here is the view down to the river, we decided to go more or less straight down towards the river from here, which proved to be a mistake, it got really steep and being rainy and wet, I managed to take a tumble with like 40-50 lbs of rocks in my backpack, I probably lost a third of them, thankfully didn't bust open my head or break any bones- but I've been really sore for 4 days now since;
Took a little trip back up to Montana last weekend, and dragged a buddy out to look for the elusive Madison Blue agate.
I've seen this stuff in shops for upwards from $35/lb which seemed a bit steep, but after having made the trip out to collect the stuff I think I have a little better appreciation for why people might charge that much.
Fact is, the main occurrence is now pretty much off limits as it lies on ranch land owned by some guy named Ted from Atlanta that raises Buffalo, but there is BLM wilderness on the other side of Ted's fenceline, and just enough float out on the BLM side to make the hike worthwhile.
However I don't think I want to make a public posting of details of this location, as I'd hate to see it get overrun and abused- but if you are in the area and want to shoot me a PM I might be willing to share some more hints.
As the name implies, the site is near the Madison River, its a couple miles and about 1000 feet elevation gain for the hike to get there.
When you get to a fence with these markers behind it, you are getting close;
Believe it or not Ted's crews used chunks of Madison Blue to prop up his fence posts!
Someone had been up there ahead of us and piled up some high-grade, presumably to come back later for, I had to leave it alone, although it was tempting to pick from this pile, there were plenty of other good pieces laying around
And here is the view down to the river, we decided to go more or less straight down towards the river from here, which proved to be a mistake, it got really steep and being rainy and wet, I managed to take a tumble with like 40-50 lbs of rocks in my backpack, I probably lost a third of them, thankfully didn't bust open my head or break any bones- but I've been really sore for 4 days now since;