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Post by Michael John on Jan 27, 2009 2:57:05 GMT -5
Steve (northshorerocks) drove all the way from Duluth, Minnesota to rockhound with me (2000 miles)! He got here around noon yesterday, and we spent the entire day and evening talking, non-stop. It turns-out that we have a lot in common, and he's one heck of a nice guy! This morning, showing him rocks in my garage, we put together a batch of tumbling rough to sell on the forum, and he took the pics, teaching me how to take better pics! Then we were off to The Blue Mule Mine. We mined a lot of Chrysocolla, and Steve took a lot of FANTASTIC pics. We had a blast! Here's a pic of Steve's truck. We drove up the wash as far as we could to get close to the mountain... Steve loved these little red cactii. This is the same type of cactus I fell-on the first time that Zak and I went to the mine, and climbed-down in the dark... Finally, here ya go, folks. This is one of the veins at The Blue Mule... Here's two big boulders ... reminds me of something, but I just can't place it... Here are some gorgeous examples of Steve's extraordinary talent. I never knew that Pahrump could be so pretty... AND ... another first! Pics of ME!!! Here's me, sitting in Steve's truck... And here I am on the way back to the truck from the mountain... ;D ;D Tomorrow ... my favorite little place south of Death Valley. We have the GPS coordinates programmed so that we can go to a few areas down there where I haven't been yet, and to try to locate some materials which I couldn't find on my previous trips. We'll keep you posted!
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ejs
spending too much on rocks
Member since July 2008
Posts: 478
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Post by ejs on Jan 27, 2009 7:19:41 GMT -5
Wow, most excellent photos! That vein made my jaw drop! Thanks for posting.
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Post by Hard Rock Cafe on Jan 27, 2009 7:20:53 GMT -5
Nice photos! It's cool to see the rocks on location. That vein is extraordinary! I want to come visit!
Chuck
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Post by NatureNut on Jan 27, 2009 8:38:58 GMT -5
I wanna come too!!!! Jo
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Post by sbreed on Jan 27, 2009 9:08:45 GMT -5
No fair! Turn around MJ!! I wanna see!! The pics are breathtaking!
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Post by stonesthatrock on Jan 27, 2009 10:19:18 GMT -5
i've been threw Pahrump many times, but never seen it look like that. of course, i was on my way to vegas, so only had one thing on my mind....... bet, bet bet bet lol
now turn around........
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MidNight~Rocksi3
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since January 2008
Posts: 1,716
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Post by MidNight~Rocksi3 on Jan 27, 2009 10:29:48 GMT -5
WOW!!!! THAT VEIN IS GORGEOUS!!! reminds me of BLUUUUUUUUUUEEEE!!!! can't get over the blue in that.. damn that's pretty.. excellent pics.. and clever pics of you.. the whole mysterious thingy is a good way to drive em crazy!! LOL
Woohooo for rock hunts!!! Good luck guys!
*smiles* Roxy
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Post by catmandewe on Jan 27, 2009 10:46:10 GMT -5
Nice pics, thanks for taking us along!!
Tony
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Post by Bejewelme on Jan 27, 2009 11:27:53 GMT -5
MJ: Yeah!!!!! I am so glad you guys are together and getting some great stuff. NSR sure seems like a nice guy. I totally missed this thread, Jo finally sent it to me! You guys have fun, and tell Steve that he must get a pic of you for me you promised !!!! Remember? Have fun, it looks beautiful! We are hoping to see that mine in August, you said you still like to hunt when it is 120 degrees! Big Hugs to you and NSR!!!!! Amber
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Post by Hard Rock Cafe on Jan 27, 2009 12:00:16 GMT -5
Oh, and that pic of the boulders reminds me of something, too, out of a movie I've seen. "Twin Peaks" comes to mind, but I know that's not it... :-)
Chuck
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NorthShore-Rocks
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since December 2008
Posts: 1,004
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Post by NorthShore-Rocks on Jan 27, 2009 12:00:56 GMT -5
We'll be working on that photo of MJ! ;D
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Post by Woodyrock on Jan 27, 2009 12:24:42 GMT -5
MJ: That pack full of rock looks paiful. I bought a Swiss army surplus packframe made to haul fuel cans from the Sportsmans Guide (an online sports company that has some military surplus) that is as close to ideal from hauling rock as one can get. It is aluminium framed, with an adjustablee shelf, lots of tie down places, and really wide shoulder straps and waist band. It was $25.00. You can haul about twice the weight over a camping pack. Damn, I can see why your claim is named the 'the Blue Mule' that vein is beautiful. Woody
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DeanW
has rocks in the head
Member since December 2007
Posts: 721
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Post by DeanW on Jan 27, 2009 16:31:39 GMT -5
Sweet! One of these days I hope to visit too!
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Post by Michael John on Jan 29, 2009 3:51:11 GMT -5
On Tuesday, we hounded an area just south of Death Valley. It was an exciting day, full of adventure, and we had a total blast. Not only did we manage to collect over 500 pounds of material, we also went on a journey through the mountains to the north to see the Emma and Ellie manganese mines. Again, Steve took a lot of amazing photographs, but we were exhausted when we got back, so neither of us remembered to get pics of the day's load. Sorry. We collected a lot of Selenite, including some BIG pieces of Satin Spar and some beautiful, rare specimens of green Selenite. We also got various agates, jaspers, idunnoites, and a lot of gorgeous assorted specimens. The weather was great, and we hounded right up until it was dark. As we approached the area, the Locals sent-out the Welcome Wagon: Here's a great shot of the spring: You can see our shadows in the spring: Here's a couple shots of the Selenite area: Here's "some idiot" going slightly into the Emma mine to look at a rock: And here's a couple of great shots of the material bin at the Emma mine: This is the awesome view from the Ellie Mine: And here's a huge druzy pocket on Manganese at the Ellie mine: These are wonderful pics which Steve took of ... yup ... more cactii: With the back-end of the truck riding a bit low, the Rock Monsters left after another great day of Xtreme Hounding.
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Post by Michael John on Jan 29, 2009 4:04:02 GMT -5
Ooops, my bad. Looks like Steve DID snap a pic of part of the load...
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Post by Michael John on Jan 29, 2009 5:13:55 GMT -5
For our third day of hounding, we decided that we would check-out a few new places that I've been wanting to try. The first place was just a hint from the internet, basically saying, "Go down this highway, turn on this road, collect agate on both sides of road". So, we jumped in the truck, drove about 25 miles out there, and when we got there it was just a little dirt road... Having pounded a couple of pots of coffee before we left, well, let's just say we had to exit the vehicle quickly once we got away from the main road. Steve opened his door, looked down, said "what's that", bent down, and came back up with a sweet agate in his hand! After "setting our coffee free", we started picking up agates, and more agates, and MORE agates ... after filling and emptying our bags several times, we decided to go further down the road to see if the hounding could possibly be even better. Sure enough, as we kept going down the road, there were more, bigger, better agates! Some nice jaspers, too! Here I am, hounding agates like a madman: And we even had a little helper... Once the back of the truck was sagging like the day before, after having only gone about a mile down that little road, we decided to call it a day, and Steve snapped a pic of the load after we'd thrown in "the last" of the stones. Heading back out to the main road, Steve stopped several times to take pics of the gorgeous scenery, but each time he stopped, I found more agates to throw in the truck LOL. It was dark when we got back to my house, but Steve decided to take some more pics of the load... This little trip was entirely overwhelming. We just couldn't believe how the whole area was littered with agates! It took us about an hour to unload the truck! Instead of the day being a crap-shoot, checking-out some possibilities, the first place we went we hit the jackpot.
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karenfh
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since November 2006
Posts: 1,495
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Post by karenfh on Jan 29, 2009 6:10:50 GMT -5
You did mention tumbling rough, right? RIGHT?
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Post by Michael John on Jan 29, 2009 10:55:33 GMT -5
Well, Steve just left to go back home. I had a great time with him, and I really hope that even though there's a lot of miles between us that our paths will cross again. He's one of the nicest people you'd ever want to meet.
With all of the hounding we did, we never really took a good look at everything once we got it back here. We just unloaded the truck into my garage each evening. So, once I get a bit more coffee down me I'm gonna go out to the garage, take a look at everything, and put some flat-raters together to put up for sale here.
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Post by Hard Rock Cafe on Jan 29, 2009 12:21:05 GMT -5
So did you send Steve home with a truckload, too? He's got to pass through the Twin Cities on his way back to Duluth...
:-)
Looks like you guys had a great time. That's my kind of rock hounding.
Chuck
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DeanW
has rocks in the head
Member since December 2007
Posts: 721
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Post by DeanW on Jan 29, 2009 12:58:40 GMT -5
MJ, waiting waiting waiting to see what some of those look like all cleaned up!
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