Garry and his two grandsons, Michael and Ryan decided to go rockhounding and invited me along. ?I naturally was unable to refuse such an invitation, so we headed out this morning at 7:30am for the Toutle area. ?This is the piece of carnelian I found that rated at least three “WOW”s.

This is one beauty I will do somthing with.

Hiking in on the roads wasn’t to bad, but we had to stop and rest before bush whacking our way through the woods to the dig site.

Michael and Ryan wait impatiently for a couple of old duffers.

Once we reached the dig site it didn’t take long to start pulling out the carnelian, jasper and petrified wood. ?Mostly it was just digging and cleaning and throwing away the inferior ones.

Garry preparing for the hard part.

Garry and the boys were pulling out small and medium sized pieces from their spot, but I was going for the bigger stuff. ?Here is a shot of my “keepers”.

Not a bad haul.

This batch included some nice carnelian, including my ‘WOW’ piece, some nice sized petrified wood, and a pretty good sized piece of nicely patterned jasper. ?I think the total weighed about 20 pounds. ?Not a bad haul for a day of digging in nice weather. ?The only down side was the mosquitoes. ?They were thick and hungry for our blood. ?Mosquito repellent worked for only a short time since it kept getting washed off with our sweat. ?Who was it that said ‘that which doesn’t destroy us only makes us stronger’ or something to that effect.

Thanks for joining us on this trip.

chasfire