Friday the 13th conjures up visions of bad luck.  Greg, Zoe and I decided to see how much truth there is in this myth.  We headed out to continue our Rockhounding hike of Salmon Creek, that was cut short by Zoe falling in the creek last weekend.

We arrived at our parking spot at about 9:15am and rode our trusty bikes the 3+ miles to where we planned to start wading the creek.

Making sure the boots are on and dry.

It was just a short hike from here to the gravel bar we just missed las Saturday.

The elusive gravel bar.

We planned to hike down the creek hitting as many gravel bars as we could by 2:00pm.  This time constraint was because I had another place to be tonight and needed to be home by 4:00pm.  We hoped to get at least 3/4 of a mile of creek covered in the shortened day.

It wasn’t long before Zoe found a nice sized piece of petrified wood buried in the gravel.

The Elusive Petrified Wood.

We continued down the creek, filling our packs and bags with petrified wood and agate.  Rocks were not our only enjoyment though.  We located on large old growth fir, and a very picturesque waterfall.

Such a small child by such a large tree.

Layered Waterfall

It turned out that right after locating the water fall we decided to head back to the bikes.

Our packs were full, we were tired, and it was now 1:00pm.

By leaving at 1:00 we figured we could get back to the bikes and ride back to the truck before 3:00pm.

Getting me home not to long after my 4:00pm deadline.

It actually took us only until 2:30 to get back to the truck.  This was accomplished even though the 44 pounds of rocks on my back was causing all kinds of distress in my leg and back muscles. The road out was a little bit up hill, and I was breathing quite hard by the time we arrived at the truck and I could unload all that weight.

The rocks we got were quite nice and some of them were quite large.

11 pounds of Petrified Wood and Agate.

Two of the best carnelian found.

The day ended with some tired but happy Rockhounders, who found out that bad luck does not always happen on Friday the 13th.

Thanks for joining us.

chasfire