Today I decided to do a little more exploring of the Skokomish River.  I called most of my rock hound buddies, and they were all busy, so I had to go by myself.(not always a good thing)  I wanted to explore downstream from where Garry and I ended up last Thursday.

I checked out all my maps and any online resources I could find, and located a side road off of Forest Road 2361that would put me right on the river.  This point would be about 4 hours hike from the upstream put in point.

Parking on the side road in the shade.

At first I was going to park at the end of this side road and ride my Mountain bike up the main road to the starting point.  After much cogitation I decided that it would be easier (ie: downhill bike ride) if I reversed this route.  So I drove to the up river point and dropped off my bike, and returned to the side road parking spot.  I then hiked down an old abandoned logging road to the river.

This turned out to be the best thing I did all day.  The trail I hiked was brushy and downhill, which would have meant a long hard hike uphill to the truck.  There was also a 20′ deep washout 200 yards from the truck(extra work after a long day).  After crossing this washout I was constantly having to bust my way through downed trees and brush.  Thank goodness for thinking over my decisions.

The trail ended up right at the river.   There was a low bank and plenty of gravel.

The river always looks so inviting.

I put my waders on, and immediately found a nice sized chunk of jasper.  It didn’t have any orbs in it though, so I left behind.

The river was clear and not too fast, and there were plenty of places to cross safely.  I also found some interesting nature created items.

The river is a great artist.

The wild flowers are so colorful against the gray river rocks.

I was able to find a few Orbicular jasper pieces, although they were few and far between.

These are some mighty small orbs.

I  broke off the small section of orbs in this first one, so I wouldn’t have to carry extra weight.  Garry would have called it “making gravel”  The orb area actually went through out the rock, at least on the one end.

Here is one I found high and dry in the middle of a large gravel bed.  It doesn’t look like there are any orbs in it, but it is almost all orbicular.

Got to wet this one to see the orbs.

The last one I found was also high and dry.  I ended up spashing water on it to see that it had plenty of orbicular areas.

Too large to haul out.

I left this one mostly intact and where it was found.  It was quite large and I still had a ways to go before I reached the mountain bike.

I met two men who were on their way down river.  They were doing a steelhead survey, and were moving quite rapidly down the river.  One of them worked for the Fish and Game department.  They were both considerably younger than I am, and I thought it was unkind of them to display such youth and vitality.

I ended up taking 5 hours to cover this short distance on the river today.  The weather was sunny and beautiful.  Nature at it’s finest.

Thanks for joining me.

chasfire