COMPASS MENTUS

Garry had a sore heel from new boots, and the heat was wilting both of us.  We were exploring a new area in Central Oregon, and the material we were finding wasn’t quite good enough to keep us out much longer.

This trip was a vacation for Garry, Nancy, and their two Grandsons Ryan and Michael.  I tagged along for the ride, and we ended up in Central Oregon rockhounding.  I left home at about 5:30am and drove over the Mt. Hood Highway, arriving at our camping spot around 3:30pm.

The cool weather at the Mountain is refreshing.

Garry and his family arrived around 6:00pm, and we set up camp.

Small tents work great for one person.

But a trailer sure is better for 4 people.

I had stopped at one spot to check it out on the way, and after camp was set up I got busy with show-and-tell.  I had found quite a variety of material, including petrified wood, jasper, agate, and limb casts.

Quite a haul for a short stop.

We decided to head back there the next day and spend the day exploring and hiking.  I headed off on a side trip, and was able to look down on Garry, Nancy and the boys.

Garry, Nancy and the boys look a long ways off.

I eventually worked my way back down to meet them and we were rewarded with some very nice petrified logs.  This one has a jasper center surrounded by agate, and weighs 67 pounds.

Some unique Petrified Wood.

Here is a large jasper seam, that I only kept a small piece of.

Large jasper seam.

We ended up the day heading back to camp with our packs full.  The weather had been perfect, with scattered clouds keeping the temperatures in the mid to low 70s.

Garry, Ryan, Nancy and Michael.

The third day found Garry and I over two miles from the road.  We spent the day exploring a small portion of ground that seemed to contain a lot of agate nodules and pieces of nodules.  The agate was blue gray to clear, with an occasional root beer colored find.  I didn’t get any pictures of this material.

The weather turned hot and this is where my story started.  We didn’t really collect all that much material, but had fun exploring new country.

Monday found us separating.  Garry and his family headed to Maury Mountain to dig some moss agate, while I headed back to the previous days spot to do more exploring.  The moss Garry dug was similar to what was found in some of our previous trips, so I am not including any photos.

My exploring produced some pretty nice material.  I found this log buried in the side of a pretty steep hill.

This one is to big to haul.

I did keep a couple of chunks off of this log that were blue gray agate.

Further exploration revealed this large piece of black and brown jasper.

Large and not very interesting.

I kept a small piece of this jasper, and since the weather was heating up again Iheaded back to the truck.

I met up with Garry, Nancy and the boys around noon at the Maury Mtn. site and spent an easy afternoon exploring and hiking through the shade of the trees.

We headed home on Tuesday morning, tired but satisfied.

Thanks for joining us.

chasfire