|
|
Post by 1dave on Nov 4, 2016 9:01:49 GMT -5
jamesp, these are looking too good to be true. Starting to wonder if you're somehow altering the photos. To protect your reputation on RTH I suggest, no I insist that you send me a LFRB sampling of the best materials for evaluation. I will share results of said evaluation with the RTH community. Sorry but I just don't see any other way to resolve this situation... Seriously, great trip report, photos and awesome finds. Thanks for letting me tag along. It is a 3 year trip. Probably be another 3 years before returning. Got to feed the saw and the tumblers with something. Guilty of possessiveness. There is several high water shorelines that have piled serious tumbling gravel for many miles. Tumbler's paradise collecting the contours where the gravel shores are up on higher land when the lake is low like this. Rocks that need one week in course grit.. You could sit on your butt and fill a 5 gallon bucket in 10 feet with fine agates and woods. No matter the quantity, each rock will retrieve warm memories way into your dotage! Keep them all! |
|
jamesp
Cave Dweller 
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,600
|
Post by jamesp on Nov 4, 2016 9:09:17 GMT -5
Re: the thorns. I told you folks about the old Texas saying, " In Texas, if'n it don't bite , stank or stang, it has thorns!" *L*.....Mel
Blackberries in Georgia. That's about it. Texas has thorns on all greenery.
Scored well on green. Certain that I grabbed up at least 6 in the larger 2 pound and bigger zone. Bob picked some killer greens.
I know that one of them was about 4 pounds of high grade glassy green with little orange dendrites.
Buffalos me that you would nt find greens up that way. The mysteries of the Rio....
I am still confused as to why I found about 10 nice palms in a 100 foot circle. Almost none any where else.
Same with highly silicified wood. They to may be in a pile 10 feet around. No rhyme nor reason.
I have posted a tiny percentage of finds. It is simply to far to hike to tote a camera.
Most of the photos were taken when collecting close to car which is not representative of the better long hike finds.
Too busy downing water and resting after those long hauls to pull out camera.
|
|
jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,600
|
Post by jamesp on Nov 4, 2016 9:16:48 GMT -5
I hope not to make any enemies turning down requests for boxes of rocks.It is a 3 year trip. Probably be another 3 years before returning. Got to feed the saw and the tumblers with something. Guilty of possessiveness. There is several high water shorelines that have piled serious tumbling gravel for many miles. Tumbler's paradise collecting the contours where the gravel shores are up on higher land when the lake is low like this. Rocks that need one week in course grit.. You could sit on your butt and fill a 5 gallon bucket in 10 feet with fine agates and woods. No matter the quantity, each rock will retrieve warm memories way into your dotage! Keep them all! Any one out there can drop a boat in at the Zapata boat ramp and have full access to enough agate to sink said boat. Talking to a lifetime Falcon Lake fishing guide last night while looking at the lake map. He was pointing at gravel bars that made the area I am hunting dwarfed. Me not at prime location. The boat would be the key. A boat with sleeping quarters would be the ultimate. Got to talk captbob into manning a barge. I get to be first mate. captbob used to a Chevrolet 454 in a 19 foot boat. That is a beast. |
|
Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,492
|
Post by Sabre52 on Nov 4, 2016 9:33:02 GMT -5
James: Carrizo Springs does seem to yield sea weed looking green moss and green jasper but so far no true "plumes" in green like Matt has posted pics of. Nice feathery plume is present in the Carrizo stuff but mainly in yellows with some reds....Mel
|
|
|
|
Post by Garage Rocker on Nov 4, 2016 9:36:22 GMT -5
Man, those are some drool worthy links. There is some seriously beautiful material down that way. I've been lucky enough to tumble some Texas wood lately and, you're right, it can take a super shine:
|
|
jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,600
|
Post by jamesp on Nov 4, 2016 9:36:33 GMT -5
The girl came by to clean my room just then, inquired about the many buckets of rock.
I explained the whole game and gave her a fine red moss and tumbled Rio's.
She spoke of a jeweler in Laredo that makes jewelry out of Texas agates.
These people aware of these rocks.
|
|
|
|
Post by Garage Rocker on Nov 4, 2016 9:37:43 GMT -5
And that aardvark jasper is sweeeet!!!
|
|
jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,600
|
Post by jamesp on Nov 4, 2016 9:46:01 GMT -5
James: Carrizo Springs does seem to yield sea weed looking green moss and green jasper but so far no true "plumes" in green like Matt has posted pics of. Nice feathery plume is present in the Carrizo stuff but mainly in yellows with some reds....Mel Dialed in to mesquite laying over in the northern direction. Where the wave action of the lake knocked them down when 15 feet higher in water level.(lake is vicious, winds get violent). It is right at the stained black rock strata. The 'seaweed' layer. Lots more green rock and wood at that layer. Not sure if the green is related to this ancient kelp layer. Makes strata hunting easy as the lake at this point makes a perfect strata exposing machine. We are used to hunting rocks and artifacts in lakes when water is low in Georgia. |
|
|
|
Post by captbob on Nov 4, 2016 9:46:44 GMT -5
James just mentioned he found no rhyme nor reason to the locations where good rocks or wood was to be found.
100% true and it drove me nuts!
I'm a logic driven kinda person. Things should happen in certain consistent ways and according to predictable patterns. (women aside)
NOT with these rocks! I would find a treasure trove of nice rocks then try to figure out where they would extend to once I got all those in that area. Working same elevations, figuring out how they washed in from upstream or down from a higher elevation.
NOTHING was predictable or logical in where the good rocks had ended up. They are where they are...
A drop dead eye popping rock may be the only one in a pile of thousands of unremarkable rocks.
How the heck it got there and why there were not others had me baffled to the day I left.
Or, there could be 5 of the same within a few feet of each other.
Conclusion: Rocks MUST be female! Totally unpredictable.
|
|
jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,600
|
Post by jamesp on Nov 4, 2016 9:51:05 GMT -5
Man, those are some drool worthy links. There is some seriously beautiful material down that way. I've been lucky enough to tumble some Texas wood lately and, you're right, it can take a super shine:
The wood can be a real find. If you do happen up on gem wood it can be a big stone. The wood runs bigger than the average cobble. I actually scan the area for the larger rocks and walk them down briskly to see if they a gem wood. Most of the crappy wood shatters. But fine silicified stuff is brutally hard tough stone. High in hard silica content and ready for garage rocker shine. The black yellow and red stuff is w/out a doubt my fav, and hard to find here. Yours are beauties Randy. |
|
jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,600
|
Post by jamesp on Nov 4, 2016 9:57:40 GMT -5
James just mentioned he found no rhyme nor reason to the locations where good rocks or wood was to be found. 100% true and it drove me nuts! I'm a logic driven kinda person. Things should happen in certain consistent ways and according to predictable patterns. (women aside) NOT with these rocks! I would find a treasure trove of nice rocks then try to figure out where they would extend to once I got all those in that area. Working same elevations, figuring out how they washed in from upstream or down from a higher elevation. NOTHING was predictable or logical in where the good rocks had ended up. They are where they are... A drop dead eye popping rock may be the only one in a pile of thousands unremarkable of rocks. How the heck it got there and why there were not others had me baffled to the day I left. Or, there could be 5 of the same within a few feet of each other. Conclusion: Rocks MUST be female! Totally unpredictable. I don't know how many times I felt like my wife was present whilst hunting this rocks. Enigmatic logic certainly comes to mind in both cases(sorry Sweetie). Glad to hear a shared opinion on this note. I actually told my wife about 'our' logic theory and she quickly categorized us into a less than kind set of words. Glad you got to experience this warped conglomerate Bob. |
|
panamark
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2012
Posts: 1,343
|
Post by panamark on Nov 4, 2016 10:12:47 GMT -5
Ah, southwest Texas where the hands and the rocks bleed !!! aardvark jasper  aardvark opened  Man, those are truly killer rocks !!! I am surprised James, it looks like you wore shorts (liking the knee pads though). |
|
|
|
Post by captbob on Nov 4, 2016 10:26:19 GMT -5
Enigmatic logic by design with the females of our species. Happenstance with rocks.
|
|
Fossilman
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2009
Posts: 20,718 
|
Post by Fossilman on Nov 4, 2016 10:37:26 GMT -5
Ok,need a history lesson here..............Texas agates are in a zone,especially south Texas...
Does this area ever flood or flash flood from rains to erosion,with the soils for these rocks to keep popping up-year after year???
I know its a very hot dry climate down there.....Having never been there,I'm just curious!!
|
|
|
|
Post by MrMike on Nov 4, 2016 10:52:42 GMT -5
jamesp , these are looking too good to be true. Starting to wonder if you're somehow altering the photos. To protect your reputation on RTH I suggest, no I insist that you send me a LFRB sampling of the best materials for evaluation. I will share results of said evaluation with the RTH community. Sorry but I just don't see any other way to resolve this situation... Seriously, great trip report, photos and awesome finds. Thanks for letting me tag along. I hope not to make any enemies turning down requests for boxes of rocks. It is a 3 year trip. Probably be another 3 years before returning. Got to feed the saw and the tumblers with something. Guilty of possessiveness. There is several high water shorelines that have piled serious tumbling gravel for many miles. Tumbler's paradise collecting the contours where the gravel shores are up on higher land when the lake is low like this. Rocks that need one week in course grit.. You could sit on your butt and fill a 5 gallon bucket in 10 feet with fine agates and woods. I was just messin wit ya.. Don't blame you one bit. I'd do the same thing unless I needed some $ |
|
|
|
Post by captbob on Nov 4, 2016 11:04:57 GMT -5
I'm not the guy to answer questions about the geographic or climatic history of the area. But in my miles of tramping through the area I came across countless ravines, gullies or washes - whatever they are called - which could only have been created by extreme water erosion.
Bob's Knob was an area in particular with many such washed out areas. 10 to 20 feet deep in places and extending for hundreds of feet. These washes were packed full of rocks which had been washed from the ground they had been buried in for who knows how long.
There are also what I called cliffs, but not Rocky Mountain type cliffs, maybe up to a couple/few dozen feet high, which were completely impregnated with rocks. There were rock piles at the base of most every one of these "cliffs". Heavy rains and/or flooding had to be the cause of the rocks being removed from the faces of these walls. The rocks are almost cemented in place, I doubt that wind alone could have moved rocks in such numbers.
So, to answer a part of your question, yes - heavy rains and/or flooding must be unearthing or washing out "new" rocks. How frequently this happens I have no idea.
I would love to hound the area again sometime when it was raining. All the rocks are covered with a dusty crust or coating, and to hunt them when wet would be optimal and ever so much more productive.
|
|
Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,492
|
Post by Sabre52 on Nov 4, 2016 12:16:20 GMT -5
No rhyme or reason not surprising. When I took geology I learned the way to tell river gravel deposits from seashore deposits is the river gravel is unsorted while ocean deposits are sorted. I supposed the large lake acts somewhat like the ocean as far as sorting goes but those upland river deposits would not be sorted as to size.
I suspect concentrations of palm and other woods in some areas might be the result of tributary streams cutting through the petrified wood beds northwest of the Rio ie. Nueces and Frio and depositing wood along some sections of the Rio grande way back when. But then lots of petrified wood in the west Texas parts of the drainage too ( Stillwell Rch is full of wood). I also find wood in the Carrizo Springs and Eagle Pass gravel and I have a slab from a well rounded cobble from the Rio that is a dead ringer for AZ and New Mexico rainbow wood. So man there is wood from all over in those Rio deposits.
Fossilman: Texas flash floods most every time it rains more than a few inches and here in Texas, that rain falls very fast, sometimes inches per hour. Creek behind my house can go from dead dry to a raging torrent moving large rocks in minutes sometimes.....Mel
|
|
|
|
Post by 1dave on Nov 4, 2016 12:33:15 GMT -5
It is weird standing by a river and feeling those large boulders bumping by!
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Nov 4, 2016 13:17:34 GMT -5
Sabre52 and dont forget the montana agates found there too! That is even farther.... jamespAs much work and thoughful efforts you put into collecting those, nobody at all is upset about not wanting to guys earned every single gem. Cannot wait to see them starting to be polished entire. I hope you didnt break every single one!
|
|
|
|
Post by captbob on Nov 4, 2016 13:29:07 GMT -5
okay... (this was way too much work) ya asked for rocks. Rock pics - Round onesorry if you are on a dial up connection! 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18  19  20  21  22  23  24  25  26  27  28  29  30  31  32  33  34  35  36 - For Mel   Not the best pictures, but I was in a hurry and it's freakin' hot outside. May take pics not in the sun next time, some were too bright and didn't show true color exactly. Rocks better than my amateur pictures. More to come! |
|
