elementary
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since February 2006
Posts: 1,077
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Post by elementary on Aug 13, 2010 2:39:51 GMT -5
Sorry - No "You Were There" photos. I tend to jump out of the car once we reach a destination, grab my stuff, and then hunt hunt hunt. Here's what I picked up a week and a half ago in the North Cady's accessed via Basin Road. Ron Wise (field trip chairman for my club) and myself took off to Barstow Thursday night, hit a motel about 1:00 am - woke up about 5:00 am and headed down the highway. We started at the nodule field we came across last time out. It is about 2/3 of an acre, flat, at the top of group of hills. It looks like the agates just weathered out of the basalt and lay there, baking, for years. Last time there Ron had found a large sagenite agate. We hoped to find more. Here's my haul of agates: Larger Nodules Bucket o' nodules Bin of those showing sagenite (most are not going to be polishable - they are too fractured or not agatized enough, but we'll see Two individuals - one with some strange growths... One with a pitty spray: Then we pulled down the wrong canyon and saw a stack of rocks by a draw. We decided to investigate to see why someone would do this. We found jasper eroding from the side of the draw. It looked heavily worked but the patterns (moss and brecciated) were very intriguing. After a 1/2 hour I went back to the truck (it was 108 degrees by then.) I had about 3/4 of a bucket of the material. It's a mixed lot. Some show great pattern but are fractured. Some of the moss will undercut. I would have been more discerning but I was melting on that slope. I went through gallons of water that half day. Here's the chunky jasper/agate stuff: We then found the correct route and followed it for a little bit for exploration sake, but it was getting really hot and decided to head back to Diamond Pacific - which is where I got the Queensland material and Titan - which I wrote about elsewhere. Next time I'll take photos of the where as well as the what... Lowell
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Post by jakesrocks on Aug 13, 2010 8:48:16 GMT -5
Now you've gone and made me homesick for So. Cal. Hate having to go clear across the state for rockhounding. The Cady's used to be part of my old stomping grounds. Nice haul. You should be able to get some nice cabs out of at least part of those. And for the fractured ones, it's hammer and tumbler time. Don
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
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Post by Sabre52 on Aug 13, 2010 13:11:56 GMT -5
Wow interesting stuff Lowell. It really makes me miss the Cadys too. Funny but a few years ago, someone was marketing a brecciated jasper from the Mojave they called Zephyr Jasper. I had heard the site was across the border in Arizona but that breccia you've posted is a dead ringer and I'm wondering if you've discovered the old site where their material was mined. Love the pile of nodules too. Amazing what you can stumble across back in those hills and so much is relatively or totally untouched.....Mel
PS: My wife is always teasing me about how no one but me, mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noon day sun. I think you've just added yourself to that list.
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elementary
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since February 2006
Posts: 1,077
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Post by elementary on Aug 13, 2010 17:11:10 GMT -5
Don,
I would love to see some of that material you pulled out of the Cady's when you were here!
I always feel like I'm tromping over hills already stomped flat by the passage of other rockhounds. I've been lucky out there a few times. The place is sooo huge and a little bit of hiking usually provides a nice surprise.
Please, give us a peak at the treasures pulled out of there!
Mel,
I'm surprised you don't have a sample piece of the Zephyr material - you seem to have a hunk of everything else...Were they charging an arm and a leg?
That brecciated material was dribbling down a slope. There were a few larger but highly fractured pieces we left behind. There were also pieces that almost looked like a paisley agate - beautiful stuff, but again, all the big pieces weren't worth the haul. My best piece actually came from the bottom of the stream bed below. I tend to hunt these more than the original site if the site looks too beaten up. It looked like there used to be a ledge of the material, but it was gone with this shattered elbow remaining, peeking from the dirt.
(((Oh, news is that the Paul Bunyan site is producing again - and good stuff. I've been there once, and Ron and I are trying to get back there, but my only experience is with a winding set of roads with quite a few cross-trails.)))
As for what category I should fall into - are you sure I should be added, or am I already under the mad dogs or Englishman heading???
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Post by jakesrocks on Aug 13, 2010 17:30:13 GMT -5
Lowell, as soon as I finish mowing, I'll dig around in my shed and see what I can dig out. The last time I was in the Cady's was the early 90's, and it was already pretty well picked over. Surface material was mostly small pieces, and well fractured. As you know, the secret to finding good material around there is lots of leg work. Hey, is Camp Irwin still open to collecting on weekends ? I have a few large pieces of Chapinite that I collected back in the 50's, when I was still a kid. Don
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Post by beefjello on Aug 13, 2010 19:57:00 GMT -5
Very cool finds Lowell! Dig that jasper, neat stuff. Definitely gotta get some "I was there" pics next time!
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elementary
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since February 2006
Posts: 1,077
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Post by elementary on Aug 13, 2010 22:15:45 GMT -5
Don, Not much is allowed on the base now. There is a website that chronicles one trip taken by the University of Nebraska for research. The whole site is filled with desert treks and rockhunting/ghost towns/hiking. The fort irwin material is found here: dzrtgrls.com/ft_irwin_rocks/ft_irwin_rocks.htmlThere is a nice 'urban legend' of a guy who was so desperate to get on base to hunt rocks, he found a girl who worked on base at a cafeteria or food court out there and began dating her - just to get access. More recent stories are more about guys sneaking on base to grab the shell casings from all the training that goes on out there. They've had to shut down whole exercises cause some idiot wanted to get a few hundred pounds of brass to recycle. Anyways, no Irwin for a while. Mel actually had done some hunting there sometime in the past. He has Lead Pipe Springs thundereggs (which he was ever so kind to pass on a couple to me when he moved...) Lowell
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Post by Roller on Aug 13, 2010 22:20:02 GMT -5
great finds ... still wish i went like i was gunna in the summer but that day was the hottest so i bailed ....
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
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Post by Sabre52 on Aug 14, 2010 15:09:21 GMT -5
Lowell: Hunting the Mojave at 108, man you are far gone already *L*. Regarding the Zephyr Jasper. I came to the conclusion years ago that I do not have space or the pocketbook for a piece of everything and with so many new finds being made too. Now I run in phases where I may pick up something at a rock show but try to stick to a particular field of interest. Gone are the days where I camped for days at Quartzite and staggered the miles back to the car with a full backpack of every kind of quartz gem I could afford *L*.....Mel
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SteveHolmes
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since July 2009
Posts: 1,900
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Post by SteveHolmes on Aug 15, 2010 0:02:27 GMT -5
Fun Trip Lowell...and very successful from the looks of it. Post some cuts when you get around to them. Steve
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Post by frane on Aug 15, 2010 9:18:15 GMT -5
Looks like you had a great but very warm trip! I sure hope you find some good saginite in that batch worth slabbing and cabbing! Fran
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NorthShore-Rocks
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since December 2008
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Post by NorthShore-Rocks on Aug 15, 2010 9:41:38 GMT -5
Great trip Lowell! Sounds like big big fun, but 108... Man I'd be a wreck! Great rocks too.
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