Day 4 camp was in a nice grove of trees.

We headed out pretty early hiking through the sage brush and within minutes I was killing ticks.  None of them attached themselves to us so we kept going.  We soon left the sage brush behind and headed up the hills where I was lucky enough to find a small limb cast that contained some nice boitrodal agate in it.  Garry found the next limb cast that had some nice blue banding.  Mark then found a large chunck of jasper.  Unfortunately our finds were few and far between.  I wasn’t able to get many pictures because of battery issues so this episode will be short pictures.

We finally made it to the area we wanted and spent some time checking it out.  There was a lot of small jasper pieces, and I found the petrified wood I saw last year.  It was not very agatized but it was solid and had nice texture.  I also found another large log that was mostly black agate with blue veins running through it.  One of the pieces had a nice boitrodal pocket of blue agate.  Needless to say that came home with me.

We finally had enough material from here and headed back to the road, where we left the material to be picked up later.  We then headed up the hill on the other side of the road.  Here we found some very large seams of calcite, with a lot of clear yellow crystals in the center.  We left most of this material and hiked back to camp.  That last of our hike was a bust.  We didn’t find a single keepable piece of material.

Once we arrived back at camp Garry and Mark headed one way and I headed the other.  It turned out that I must have found the mother load of ticks.  I got onto and deer trail and within ten feet I had to kill four ticks crawling up my pant legs.  I did find some material in this area though, but it was not the greatest I have ever found.

Small limb casts and medium sized jasp/agate. My finds.

Garry and Mark soon returned and showed off their finds.

Two large limb casts.

Garry’s limb cast would be the find of the day.

That night we decided to head home in the morning, and after eating supper we crawled into bed.  I checked out my clothes and found 8 more ticks trying to invade my body.  I killed them all and the next morning Mark found two more on him.  One had actually started to burrow into his skin, but we caught it and killed it before it made it very far.

Thanks for joining us on this trip to Central Oregon, and keep on Rockhounding.

chasfire

The creek I hiked up managed to have just as much agate as the previous days site, but it also contained lots of petrified wood and jasper pieces.

Dry as a bone.

My first find was a nice piece of Jasp/agate.

A nice find for the first one of the day.

Here is one of the larger pieces of Jasper I found and had to leave behind.

Too big to haul the distance I had to go.

Here is a really nice petrified log chunk I had to leave behind.

This round was about 4″ thick.

The rest of the hike was frustrating because there was way more material than I could haul.  I had to do some serious high grading, and I still had more material to look over when I join up with Mark and Garry.

It was nice to be lucky enough to find this much material still available.  I met up with Garry and Mark and we scoured the ground for the best we could find before heading back.  Like I told Garry “I am on sensory overload” because of so much nice materal.

We reluctantly left our agate site and headed to another spot fossildog told me about last year.  We located a nice camping spot and did a little surface hunting during the closing hours of the day.

Thanks for joining us.

chasfire

Only 1/4 of the log is showing at this point.

Here is a little closer look.

The ground is not as soft as it looks.

This log appeared to be solid agate, and we hated to leave it behind, but it was way over the 250 pound limit of one piece from BLM land so it remains in the ground.  I did break off a few pieces though so all was not lost.

Garry arrived back from his exploring and off we went to check out a spot I found last year.  This spot turned out to be covered with agate, and jasp/agate.  There was so much stuff we were having a hard time choosing what to take and what to leave.  Especially since we had to carry everything out 3 miles or more.

Mark hiking in.

Garry trying to make up his mind which pieces to keep.

Here is some pictures of what the material looked like on the ground.

I couldn’t count all the agate in this shot.

More of the many pieces we found.

We finally had to call it quits and head back to camp.  I washed off my biggest piece(which weighed 16 lbs), and took a couple of pictures of the days haul.

I really was pleased with this piece.

A bucket half full of solid agate.

Supper was once again over and we discussed our options for the next day.

Thanks for joining us.

chasfire

Getting camp set up is easy when you sleep in the truck.

Mark and I headed in one direction and Garry took off on his own.  We hiked for about 1 mile before we started seriously looking for material, and it didn’t take long to  locate our first piece of petrified wood.

This one is a keeper.

Not long after this find we came upon a nice buck rack.  It appeared to be a winter kill, and I wouldn’t have minded getting a shot at it during hunting season.

This one has a big problem.

This area was a treasure trove of jasper, and our next few finds were some that resembled the Stone Canyon material from Californis.

Similar to Stone Canyon brecciated jasper.

Here is a shot of it after it was cleaned off.

Nice looking piece.

We continued hiking for the better part of 2 hours and picked up some really nice smaller pieces of jasper and petrified wood, although we didn’t find much agate.

Nice sized jasper.

Small but a keeper.

Another nice piece of petrified wood.

Mark did locate a buried petrified log that looked like it had promise, but we didn’t have time to do any digging, so we headed back to camp.

Heading back to camp.

Garry was already back at camp so we fixed supper and talked the evening away.

Nearing sundown.

Thanks for joining us.

chasfire

Preparing to head out is not always simple.

The ride in was not really very long, only about 2 miles, but it contained one very steep hill.  Once we reached the top of this hill we needed to rest up and try to warm up our fingers.

Standing in the sun before continuing the trip.

The rest of the bike trip was pretty easy and it didn’t take us long to reach our destination.  We got our waders on and headed for the creek.  Our destination this trip was above the falls where I hoped we would find some more carnelian.   I did find some very small pieces of clear agate, but the best early find was a small piece of opal.

This piece has some nice colors.

I found this piece in the bank and it looked like it had weathered out from somewhere above the creek.  I didn’t bring any digging tools so I just scratched the surface a little bit.  I did find one other small piece that I didn’t keep.  Maybe this will convince me to make another trip after all.

Becky and I headed up a small feeder creek where we found a few pieces of agate.  We then climbed over the ridge and back down to the main creek.  I headed up the creek at a fast pace to try and catch up with Chuck, while Becky poked along finding some of the best pieces of the day.

After I caught up with Chuck and headed back downstream I found my best pieces.

A baseball sized clear agate nodule.

A large piece of jasper with carnelian spots.

When Chuck and I met up with Becky, we stopped to eat a bite and discuss our stategy.  After looking at the map we decided to head back over the ridge to the creek Becky and I was on, following it up to an old abandoned road and following this road back to the bikes.

This trip actually worked out pretty good.  Chuck even found an very interesting agate.  I didn’t get a picture of it but it caused Chuck and Becky to pause for a thorough inspection.

Checking discussing a recent find.

Once we reached the abandoned road it didn’t take us long to get back to the bikes and ride out.  We finally arrived back at the truck close to 3:15pm.

It was a beautiful day and we had a great time.

Thanks for joining us.

chasfire

Not completely soaked, but close.

The day had started out pretty good.  Jeff and I left my house at around 8:30am and headed for Hemlock Creek.   We quickly unloaded our bikes and headed for the falls I stopped at on my last trip.  It didn’t take us long to ride to the jump off point.

The day has promise.

When we arrived we noticed a large truck parked just up the road.  We headed over to talk to the driver and he said they were fertilizing the trees.  Using a helicopter no less.

Trees need food too.

We watched the pilot do some amazing maneuvering.  He seemed to be able to get the bucket lined up and filled in under 2 minutes.  Since this wasn’t anything that would poison us, we headed down to the creek and started up stream.  This was when Jeff took his spill.  We decided that Jeff would head back to the bikes and dry out in the sun, while I continued upstream looking for agate.  I did find a few, as well as a nice sized jasper piece.

This one got left behind.

I also found some nice pieces of agate, including some nice carnelian, although most of it was clear.

This one is a keeper.

I continued up the creek for another 1/4 mile before I decided that I probably should head back so Jeff could get home and into some warm dry clothes.  I stopped at a spot that could have been a park.  It was so serene and beautiful I had to take a picture of it.

This could have been a city park.

When I arrived back at the bikes, Jeff was hiking around in the sun.  Mostly dry but still in need of warmer clothes.

One way to get dried out.

I quickly took off my waders, put on my other shoes and we headed back to the truck.  It didn’t take long before we were on the road to home and dry clothes.

Thanks for joining us.

chasfire

What a difference two weeks make.

I decided to check out the first gravel bar I saw, which was underwater last time, and was pleasantly surprised to find my first agate.

Not bad for the first five minutes.

I headed up the creek encouraged, but I only made a sporadic check of the gravel bars until I reached my stopping point from the last trip.  It was then I located my next agate.

This one has some nice red color.

I couldn’t have asked for a better day.  The creek was low and the water was clear.

Easy hiking in this creek.

I was able to check out many areas of the creek and found quite a few pieces of butterscotch colored jasper, which I left.  I also found some smaller agates, like this one.

My eye didn’t miss this small carnelian.

I also found a few more larger pieces.

This one surprised me.

As well as some that I left behind.

Not enough color for me.

I had brought my larger camera and tripod along and spent quite a bit of the rest of the day experimenting with exposures and ISO settings.  I finally reached a small water falls that I decided would be where I headed back to the bike.  I climbed around the falls and realized that there would be plenty of more areas for me to check out in future trips.

I then pulled out my mapping app, I use Backcountry Navigator PRO by CritterMap Software on my Nexus 7, and located a logging road that I could reach easily and follow back to the bike.  This hike was only about a mile and a half and took me about 30 minutes.  I loaded my gear on the bike and rode back to the truck where I relaxed and headed home.

Thanks for joining me.

chasfire

Parked and ready to dig!

It only took us about an hour to reach our destination, and fifteen minutes later we were finding our first agate.  We hiked up a new logging road and entered the woods to start digging.  The first agate was quite small and we found it in the roadside ditch, but it was still an agate.  As I stated in a previous post, one of my rules for creek walking also applies to most other agate hunting experiences.

Checking the roadside.

Heading down into the woods we probed for any good sounds, and finally started digging.  Chuck was able to find a pretty nice golf ball sized agate in his hole, while I spent some time next to a small drainage where I found a few small agates.

Hard to see, but there is an agate in the center of the picture.

We spent another hour or so digging in this spot, before heading out to bigger and better things.  Most of what we were finding was uninteresting jasper, but were were persistent and was able to dig out a few more agates.

Digging in the woods is relaxing.

The following are some pictures of my finds for the day.

The entire group of agate and petrified wood.

The best pattern.

Looks like this one has some good color combinations.

Some nice carnelian.

The day was perfect and we had a great time.

Thanks for joining us.

chasfire

Check out the center of the photo.

Today I am on Hemlock Creek.  I talked to a Game Officer a couple of weeks ago and he said there was lots of carnelian to be found here.  The weather report was favorable and I had to get out of the house, so here I am.  I didn’t get started very early and when I arrived at the creek I almost turned around and went somewhere else.  The water was high and I couldn’t see any gravel bars.

Fast flowing and lots of it.

I made the decision to hike up the creek a little ways just to make sure there were no gravel bars.  The first 1/4 mile didn’t offer even a small area of gravel, but I kept on and finally located a medium sized gravel bar.

To bad it’s on the wrong side of the creek.

Problem!  Me on one side and gravel bar on the other, water looked deep and swift and I only had hip waders on.  I scanned up and down a little ways and finally decided to give it a try.  When I finally reached the gravel bar I located my first agate.

Small, but this early in the game a keeper.

I subscribe to the theory that “when creek walking any agate is a keeper, until a better one is found, or the bag fills up.  So this one went into the bag.

Continuing up the creek I noticed the elk, and after trying, without success, to get closer I entered the water again.

I found a few more white agates, and then noticed a different color under the water.  Scooping it out I was surprised to find a fist sized carnelian that was at least 3/4″ thick.

I didn’t really expect to find one this nice.

Maybe all that water was a good thing after all.  Moving gravel around to reveal the prize.  I almost gave up after this find and headed back to the truck, but decided to keep on for a few more bends of the creek.  Primarily because I needed to cross the creek again and wanted to find a spot that wouldn’t drown me.

I finally found a likely crossing place.  I was halfway across when, once again I noticed a different colored rock under the surface.  I scooped it out and after chipping off a small piece realized that it was a softball sized chunk of jasper.

Butterscotch Jasper is not what I was looking for so I left this one for someone else.

I made it safely across the creek and decided to check out one more bend.  I did find a small gravel bar, but it was barren of any agate, so I headed back to the bike.  I hiked up into the trees to get away from the underbrush near the creek and noticed some really large cedar stumps.  This area must have been really neat before it was logged.

Old decaying stumps provide what is needed for growth.

I finally arrived back at the bike and peddled my way back to the truck.

Transportation awaits.

So! Was I disappointed that all I found was one carnelian and a few small white agates?  NO WAY!  I had a great time doing what I enjoy on a beautiful day in the great Northwest.

Hemlock Creek is one of the places that will be fun to visit again.  Especially when the water level is down.

Thanks for joining me.

chasfire

The carpet of ferns makes hiking a breeze.

I won’t bore you with a bunch of pictures of holes in the ground, but I did do some pretty serious digging.  One of the spots I dug was full of large roots.  I had to dig around all the roots and just barely had enough room to slip my shovel into the hole to remove some of the dirt.  I did find some nice carnelian, and jasper though so it was worth it.

A small piece of jasper with great looking patterns.

This was the largest piece of patterned jasper I brought out.

After spending about an hour on this hole I moved over a couple of feet and started a new hole.  This one was quite a bit easier to dig(no roots), and I found some nice carnelian.

This one has some of the best red I have found.

I also found a golf ball sized piece of agate that I can’t wait to cut.  It looks like it will make a nice display piece.

This might be one of the best finds of the day.

I finally decided to head back to the truck at about 1:00pm.  I know, why quit so early when the day was so nice.  I just decided to enjoy the sun by being in it instead of under the trees freezing my fingers off.

Here is a shot of the entire batch I brought out today.  I know it isn’t a lot of material, but I enjoyed spending the time in the one of my favorite activities.

The whole “shooten match”.

Lanny asked me to post some pictures of the “probably best find of the day” rock after I cut it so here they are.

The end piece

Small Slab.

Slab backlit.

Thanks for joining me.

chasfire