I had taken off my pack and set it down on the 45 degree slope, propping it up with a rock, and then set my D40 camera on top of the pack.
Pretty steep to be digging Agate!
I turned around and started to work the seam of Tahoma Agate, when I bumped the pack. ?Seeing my camera bouncing and rolling down the slope before coming to a halt 20 feet down, was to say the least gut tightening. ?I was very fortunate that the camera didn’t hit any of the numerous rocks. ?I climbed down and examined it and everything worked!
I climbed back up to the site, and after making a better spot for the pack and camera started working on the seam.
This day started out like many others. ?Garry and I met at 8:00am and headed to the claim.
Hiking up the trail.
We split up and the Spires and Garry went down to Discovery Point, while I went to the west end of the claim to do some prospecting. ?This is the same area I found the last seam of top quality material, and I wanted to see if I could locate any more seams. ?I hiked across the slope and stopped a few time to check out some promising spots. ?None of them produced anything worth keeping and when I got to the end of the claim boundary I started down.
This slope was quite steep and interspersed with short cliffs, which made climbing difficult. ?I was rewarded though when I looked down thirty feet and could see a nice seam angling up the slope toward me.
This seam jumps out at me!
I did a little surface scratching to located the length of the seam, and figured out that it was a least 10 feet long.
From the tip of the rock hammer to the tip of the Paleo Pick is 10 feet.
The rest of the day was spent moving rock and mining the agate. ?I had to move quite a few rocks in order to make a flat spot to work from, but after that it wasn’t to bad getting the agate out.
Here is a small portion of the agate.
Tahoma agate just before loading up and heading back.
My radio had stopped working without my knowing it and I was unable to call Garry, so I just loaded up my gear and headed back. ?I met Garry at the Spires and we hiked back together.
I will be going back to get more of this material, so keep tuned.
Thanks for joining us.
chasfire
Neat. The seams, like this one, they can be any thickness, width, length and depth? Sure looks like it would have been interesting trying to stay on that slope, glad your camera survived.
Gene: Thanks for the comment. It was quite interesting working on that slope, even after I was able to fix a flat spot, which was only about 1 and 1/2 feet square. I never did find the true end of the seam, so your comment is “right on”.
chasfire
Nice vein! I would guess the slope is more like 60 degrees though. I’ve seen you practically run across 45 degree slopes. I’ll be anxious to hear how you did up there today.
Garry: Jerry and I discussed the slope and I convinced him that it was only 45%. We worked on the vein all day and still did not clean it all out. I hauled out 38 pounds and Jerry hauled out 30 pounds.
chasfire
Garry. I agreed with Richard that it was only 45 degrees because it might be that in some areas but I have to agree with you that it is closer to 60. Oh and by the way, we both were roped to the only bush I could find that would hold us onto the slope. At one point, the hillside did cave in. No fear in these two ole guys.
Jerry: You should go into politics, your statement waffles so nicely. I thought the rope was pretty nice though.
chasfire