Post by catmandewe on Nov 9, 2009 11:26:24 GMT -5
Chris and I met Shannon and Dennis at Glass Butte for a weekend rock hounding trip this past weekend. We both left sometime Thursday with the intention of arriving there Thursday night or Friday morning, depending on travel conditions. The funny thing was that we both arrived at the Glass Butte turn off within several minutes of each other, we could still see them driving down the dirt road when we got there, what great timing!
We arrived at about 1 am and the weather was cold and cloudy. Chris and I got busy setting up our tents and getting our little home away from home situated. Dennis and Shannon had a cozy little bed set up in the back of their Blazer.
As soon as Chris and I got everything into the tent it started to blow and rain, so we all turned in for the night and listened to it rain and blow all night long. I expected to wake up to snow, but around 6 am it quit raining and actually turned out to be a pretty nice day. I did a little bit of rock hounding close to camp with a bucket and a paleo pick, while we waited for it to warm up some.
Here is a picture of our camp the next morning
Here is Dennis and Shannon's cool little setup
Dennis and Shannon making Breakfast
We had a map that John (pebblepup) gave us, so we started out looking for some of the places on the map. We expected the roads to be muddy, but they dried out just fine and we had no problems getting around.
We found digs everywhere and stopped and checked out a few of them, did alot of surface collecting, and pretty much was just getting to know our way around the area. This is what we brought back to camp after our first day in the area.
a closeup of some of the stuff
We went to an old opalite dump and rolled some stuff down off of the top of the dump to take home, but I didn't seem to get any pictures of that part of the trip.
We went back to camp and made dinner, then we sat around the fire for a while
The second night was COLD!!!
No rain, just frost, had a nice frosty tent!
And a nice frosty wife!
After breakfast we headed out for some more exploring again, we tried a different road and found lots more cool stuff! Seems the worse the road is, the better the stuff you can find on it!
Here is one of the places we stopped and collected for a while, people have been digging here for a very very long time!
Here is Shannon getting ready to jump into a deep deep hole
Then we went to a spot my Dad and I went to earlier this year, where I had left a large ledge of obsidian that I had exposed and a very large boulder that I couldn't lift in the bottom of the hole. I just wanted to see if it was still there. The large boulder was gone, and the ledge was covered up in dirt again. We dug the ledge back out and got some pry bars and went to work on it.
Dennis and I working on freeing up a large chunk
Got to get a little more dirt out of the way
Finally, it is free!!
And in the back of the truck
Honest, it was this big!!
Another big piece from the same ledge
Dennis working on a big chunk
We are all cheering him on! GO Dennis GO Dennis!!
Here is Shannon digging her way to China
Was a good day on Saturday, we all had a great time and came back to camp ready for bed! Was another cold night, but no rain and we awoke to sunshine first thing in the morning. We broke camp and got everything loaded up and ready to head for home.
Chris got this little guy to come into camp and pose for some pictures. Was about the extent of the wildlife we saw, except for the deer we both almost hit on the way there!
(Shannon and Dennis clipped a doe on Mount Hood, and Chris and I narrowly missed a doe in downtown Burns.)
Well, that was our camping trip this weekend!
I sure had a blast!!
Thanks for looking......................Tony
We arrived at about 1 am and the weather was cold and cloudy. Chris and I got busy setting up our tents and getting our little home away from home situated. Dennis and Shannon had a cozy little bed set up in the back of their Blazer.
As soon as Chris and I got everything into the tent it started to blow and rain, so we all turned in for the night and listened to it rain and blow all night long. I expected to wake up to snow, but around 6 am it quit raining and actually turned out to be a pretty nice day. I did a little bit of rock hounding close to camp with a bucket and a paleo pick, while we waited for it to warm up some.
Here is a picture of our camp the next morning
Here is Dennis and Shannon's cool little setup
Dennis and Shannon making Breakfast
We had a map that John (pebblepup) gave us, so we started out looking for some of the places on the map. We expected the roads to be muddy, but they dried out just fine and we had no problems getting around.
We found digs everywhere and stopped and checked out a few of them, did alot of surface collecting, and pretty much was just getting to know our way around the area. This is what we brought back to camp after our first day in the area.
a closeup of some of the stuff
We went to an old opalite dump and rolled some stuff down off of the top of the dump to take home, but I didn't seem to get any pictures of that part of the trip.
We went back to camp and made dinner, then we sat around the fire for a while
The second night was COLD!!!
No rain, just frost, had a nice frosty tent!
And a nice frosty wife!
After breakfast we headed out for some more exploring again, we tried a different road and found lots more cool stuff! Seems the worse the road is, the better the stuff you can find on it!
Here is one of the places we stopped and collected for a while, people have been digging here for a very very long time!
Here is Shannon getting ready to jump into a deep deep hole
Then we went to a spot my Dad and I went to earlier this year, where I had left a large ledge of obsidian that I had exposed and a very large boulder that I couldn't lift in the bottom of the hole. I just wanted to see if it was still there. The large boulder was gone, and the ledge was covered up in dirt again. We dug the ledge back out and got some pry bars and went to work on it.
Dennis and I working on freeing up a large chunk
Got to get a little more dirt out of the way
Finally, it is free!!
And in the back of the truck
Honest, it was this big!!
Another big piece from the same ledge
Dennis working on a big chunk
We are all cheering him on! GO Dennis GO Dennis!!
Here is Shannon digging her way to China
Was a good day on Saturday, we all had a great time and came back to camp ready for bed! Was another cold night, but no rain and we awoke to sunshine first thing in the morning. We broke camp and got everything loaded up and ready to head for home.
Chris got this little guy to come into camp and pose for some pictures. Was about the extent of the wildlife we saw, except for the deer we both almost hit on the way there!
(Shannon and Dennis clipped a doe on Mount Hood, and Chris and I narrowly missed a doe in downtown Burns.)
Well, that was our camping trip this weekend!
I sure had a blast!!
Thanks for looking......................Tony