I headed down to Prineville to meet up with my good friends, Chuck and Becky, for a little rockhounding. ?It rained all the way from Olympia to the other side of Mount Hood, and I almost called them to cancel. ?I didn’t call and when I arrived the weather wasn’t too bad. ?We connected and made plans for a Tuesday trip.
Typical Central Oregon Rockhounding country.
Tuesday started out with beautiful weather. ?There were some clouds in the sky, but the temperature was nice. ?I made a bad error in judgement and left my rain gear at the truck, fully expecting the weather to continue with the same conditions.
By the time we had hiked for two hours, we could see the rain coming from the south. ?It arrived just as we reached our destination, and I was fortunate that Becky had an emergency poncho to lend me. ?That made for a funny looking rockhound, but at least I stayed relatively dry and warm. ?It didn’t take long to start finding nice material in a dry creek bed. ?Here is a log with an unusual outer covering.
At first I thought that this was a palm of some kind, but closer examination revealed wood grain.
I convinced myself that it was worth hauling back to the truck, and continued on my way. ?The next find was a small piece of jasp/agate that really caught my eye.
The agate banding in this piece was really eye catching.
Chuck and Becky were just as successful in there finds, and after 4 hours of hiking in the rain, we finally decided to head back to the truck. ?One of the worst things about rockhounding in Central Oregon during a rain storm was the gumbo that added 6″ and 10 pounds to a person.
It was now almost 2:30pm and wouldn’t you know it the rain stopped. ?It didn’t take us long to reach the truck, and we headed back to town for some much needed rest and cleanup.
Wednesday started out raining, so we stayed out of the gumbo as much as possible.
Trying to stay out of the gumbo.
This day was just as successful as Tuesday, with all of us finding some nice material. ?My best find was this small complete limb.
This limb cast looks like it is filled with calcite.
The hike here was pretty steep, but there was lots of area to cover.
An almost vertical climb.
Becky found a really nice agate seam in the basalt. ?We worked on it until we were finally able to get a couple of nice pieces free.
This seam took about 30 minutes to free up enough for some nice pieces.
It finally quit raining about 1:00pm. ?We had climbed and hiked for quite a ways and were planning on meeting Garry sometime around 2:00pm, so down off the mountain we came.
Garry had decided to head out for a short scouting trip while waiting for us, but headed back to the truck when we contacted him on the radio.
We showed off our finds and then Chuck and Becky headed back to town, while Garry and I headed up to Maury Mountain to camp and explore.
Garry couldn’t pass up the green moss he was finding near this downed tree.
Garry and I continued to explore the Maury Mountain area until dark before heading back to camp and a well deserved dinner. ?We did find some nice Maury Mtn Green Moss so it was a successful evening hunt.
Thursday was one of those days that couldn’t make up it’s mind weather wise. ?It alternated between sunny and rainy most of the day. ?Fortunately the rain wasn’t very much so the ground stayed fairly dry.
Chuck ended up checking out the area we were in the day before, while Garry and I headed into one of our favorite spots. ?There is lots of petrified wood here and it wasn’t long before we spotted a previous digger’s efforts.
This log must have been at least 4 feet in diameter.
We left this one for other more ambitious people and continued our hike. ?Garry located this nice white agate log, but we didn’t bring the right tools to properly unearth it, so we left it for another trip.
This will be some nice material when we go back for it next trip.
We spent the rest of the day just exploring. ?We did find some interesting material, and we covered a lot of ground, so our day was successful. ?We drove back to Prineville for dinner and to discuss with Chuck and Becky some plans for Friday.
We all decide to spend a half day digging and then Garry and I would head home, while Chuck and Becky headed for their next destination.
Friday’s half day dig was also successful, with all of us finding some nice material. ?It also turned out to be the nicest day weather wise for the whole trip.
Thanks for joining us.
chasfire
I never made it over for my fall trip as to as my dad passed away so been pretty busy with family matters and all. Seeing your trip makes me want to bail from work and head head right over! Unfortunatly, I will have to wait until next spring for my next foray over the hill.
I like hounding after a big rain as it hepls bring thigs up and easier to spot but hate the 20 lb boots that come with it. Not to mention you cant get anywhere on the dirt roads!
I like your small calcite limbcast and have found several about the same size myself. I cut a few ends off them but not too exciting. Better off as just a display piece I would think.
The picture of the left hole and trash really makes me mad. Why cant folks fill in their holes and bring their trash out when they leave.Just wondered how this guy planned to try to get the rock out once exposed!
Ive always tried to make it look like nobdy had ever been there after I excavate a treasure. This is part of the reason why some public lands get shutdown to access.
Have a good winter and maybe we will cross paths over there again next spring
fosldog: Good to hear from you again. My condolences on the loss of the dad. I also like to hound after a big rain, but it is a lot easier when the ground dries out. I also agree rockhounds need to be responsible so that the areas we hunt will continue to be open to us.
chasfire
Thanks for the write-up. I hope to get to cut some of the material we found soon. All my stuff is still in the truck due to family health problems.
I learned a lesson – don’t go to this area if rain is predicted. The gumbo is awful but if you go there when it’s dry the rock hounding is awesome!
(BTW, I agree with fosldog about people leaving their trash behind. Based on the tracks to the exposed petrified wood dig all they would have had to do was throw the trash in their ATVs. Please carry your trash out with you folks, so areas like this don’t get access shut down.)
Garry: Rain is a problem anytime. I hope the next time we head down that way the weather is a little better.
chasfire