Today I slept in. ?The sun was actually above the horizon when I finally crawled out of the sleeping bag. ?I planned on giving my feet a rest this morning before meeting up with Chuck and Becky. ?No hiking or carrying a bag full of rocks this morning. ?I goofed off around camp until about 7:30am and then headed for Post.
Before I reached Hwy 380 though, I couldn’t resist one more hike through the hills. ?My blisters weren’t hurting that bad! and ?I wanted to locate a seam of agate that my son had found a few years ago, so parking the truck off I go.
For those that insist I take pictures of myself, Here I am.
This turned out to be a short hike and I wore rubber mocs instead of boots. ?It helped (a little anyway). ?I climbed over the hills toward the area where the my son told me the seam was located, and along the way noticed some holes in the cliff face.
The homes of petrified logs.
Looking closer I realized these were where petrified logs had worn out of the cliff face.
This one is at least three feet back in there.
I decided that I didn’t have the tools to try and remove this log, so it remains there.
I continued on my way and finally located the seam my son mentioned.
This seam is about 9" thick.
I worked on the seam for a little while, chipping away at the exposed portion. ?I hadn’t brought the proper tools to work this seam so I left most of it in place. ?I did get a few small pieces to polish as a test to see if it would be worth a return trip.
I finally hiked back to the truck and made my way to Post. ?I hung around my truck taking pictures and listening to books for a couple of hours while waiting for Chuck and Becky. ?I had just gotten a picture of some black birds, when a guy comes up to me and reminds me that I had met him a few years back near Maury Mtn.
This was Skip, and I was happy to meet him again. ?He comes to this area once a year and spends as much time hiking the hills looking for material as I do. ?We talked about the different areas we have been and the different material we have found. ?Skip had gone past my truck that morning on his way into the hills. ?We must have missed each other by only a few minutes. ?He did show me a really nice piece of petrified wood he hauled out. ?Skip also told me of another place I could check out if I had the time.
Skip left around noon and Chuck and Becky arrived at 12:30. ?Chuck and Becky followed me up to the Elkhorn Campground, where we planned to set up base camp.
A Prius is not the vehicle you want to use on many of the roads we were planning on traveling.
Chuck and Becky quickly unloaded their equipment and we headed to the Maury Mtn. agate beds. ?The Forest Service is working on the habitat in the area and have decided to close some of the roads to motorized traffic.
Habitat preservation is closing more areas to motorized vehicles.
We finally parked and hiked into the agate beds, where I showed Chuck and Becky what to look for. ?We all started hiking around searching the ground for the Maury Mtn Moss agate this place is known for.
The typical Rockhound hiking the woods.
Chuck is getting ready to dig.
I finally found a spot where a nice large agate was sticking partially out of the ground, and started digging. ?Here is the result of a few minutes of digging.
The first big one I found.
Number two.
I decided that Chuck and Becky needed to share in my wealth, and called them over. ?I showed them where I was digging and then left to do some more exploring. ?I found plenty of surface material, but nothing very big so I headed back to where Chuck and Becky were still digging.
Chuck and Becky are still moving dirt.
They hadn’t found very many more pieces of agate, so I took over the spot and they moved down hill from me a few feet. ?They were finally finding some nice sized pieces. ?The largest they found was probably 2 to 3 pounds and turned out to have some really nice gold and red moss in a clear agate base.
I wasn’t to be outdone though, and dug up what I consider the best find of the day.
Bright red moss in clear agate is what I am always looking for.
We finally decided to call it a day, and headed back to camp. ?We cleaned up and admired some of our finds before setting up Chuck and Becky’s tent and cooking a well earned meal. ?After dinner Chuck worked on cleaning some of their agates while Becky and I had a short Bible study.
We finished our day sitting by the camp fire and talking about tomorrow.
The day is done.
Thanks for joining us.
chasfire
Glad that you found the seam I told you about! It is thick and runs quite a ways, cropping up above ground in several spots. I’d be interested to see what it looks like polished 🙂
Scott: It wasn’t as hard to find as I thought. I did bring some home and will probably try and polish it sometime in the next few weeks.
chasfire
Richard,
I love the Maury Mtn material, of course I’ve only seen it from others collections. It is very unique with the mossy formations and colors. The petrified logs in the hill side is a sure sign that the material is just under foot, too bad we don’t have a detector that locates the logs just underneath ones shoes, a probe won’t work when the ground is hard.
Dean
Dean: I agree that a detector for agate and petrified wood would be great. There must be a lot of material just under the surface of where we walk. If we only knew where to dig.
chasfire
Chasfire: If that probe of yours is not an agate detector, it is the next best thing! Now, to find the vein that red MMM is coming out of.
Woody
Woody: A probe only works in certain areas. I would like a detector that could work no matter were you are. I really would like to find the vein of the red MMM.
chasfire
Hi, I noticed that you used a probe to locate the rough material. I have been trying to find someone that sells them. Do you have any suggestions on where I can buy one? Thanks, Eric
Eric: I don’t know of anyone that sells probes, but they are fairly easy to make. I just use a 3/8″ or 1/2″ iron or steel rod and weld or thread a handle onto it. I then sharpen the end and go for it. My main probe I welded a bolt to the end and sharpened that so that there was a little shoulder on it. It helped to pull the probe out of the mud easier.
chasfire