Field Trip Reports

Green Mountain Field Trip report for March 20, 2011.
By Dennis Branch. Photos by Robert Klickman, last one by Dennis Branch.

We met at the Kalama Chevron, our usual meeting place for this outing, and everyone got a chance to get gas and stock up on coffee and other items before we left about 9 AM.

Our trip up Green Mountain, east of Kalama, was joined by a lot of members. We had so many cars and pickups heading up the mountain that it must have looked like a convoy.

We entered the area through a locked gate that Emmett had the key for, and drove on up to the agate field. Once there, Emmett Johnson got us all together and made sure we all understood the rules of where we could dig and about filling our holes back in and so forth, so we could enjoy coming back there again in the future without problems. Then he returned to unlock it at 11:30 for those who wished to leave at that time. The rest of us stayed on until about 4 PM when we all called it a day and headed back down. That was good enough timing as the wind had picked up, the temperature was dropping fast and it had started to rain.

Early on, while I was picking my way through a tangle of branches with muck and mire underfoot, I went over backwards and found myself bent backwards on a high point with deep mud on both sides, my arms and legs sticking out and my head pointed downhill, and while I lay there trying to figure out how I was going to turn over and stand up without getting covered in goopy mud in the process, a younger fellow than me came over, took my hand and hauled me upright. He said I looked like a turtle, which had to be accurate because I sure felt like one.

If you scroll on down to the 2009 Green Mountain trip pictures, it looks like we're in a totally different place as it had been completely logged off and new little trees planted this time around. It took awhile for me to get my bearings, it all looked so different from when it was fully forested.

From what I saw it looked like most if not all of us did pretty well. Many of us, including myself, didn't dig but just wandered the hillside looking for float and found some nice specimens. Pat Swinth did his usual Human Backhoe thing and soon hit a nice pocket of yellow jasper or jasp/agate mixed in with some very nice carnelian, and he got quite a lot of both. Generous as always, Pat shared part of his find with other members who came around to watch or dig nearby.

Emmett and Vickie Johnson put in a lot of time and effort making this field trip possible and we all owe them a heartfelt Thank You for it. It was a great field trip and I was happy to see so many members avail themselves of the opportunity, and that all the Johnson's effort wasn't wasted by a poor turnout or uncooperative weather.

This last one is of my pickin's for the day. Lots of tumbler size nodules and pieces, some quartz crystals, the yellow jasper is part that I found but mostly from Pat, and one big chunk of quartz crystals with what looks like an iron deposit on them. That one piece of deep red carnelian is going to cut some fine cabs. The quarter is for size comparison.

Green Mountain, Kalama, April 18, 2009

by Emmett Johnson. Pictures taken by Robert Klickman.

We met at the Chevron Station in Kalama at 9:00 AM on Saturday April 18, 2009. This was one of our larger trips with 21 vehicles and 37 people in attendance.

Upon caravanning up to the new entry point at the end of China Garden Road, we could see the weather was going to be very nice, no rain.

When we arrived at the digging location everyone scattered to see if they could find a special place to get material. With some people walking around and others digging, we covered a large area. I saw some very nice materials collected,with a few very nice specimens.

The weather stayed good for the whole day. Everyone seemed to enjoy this little outing. What a good way to get to know and talk to our fellow club members.

At the end of the day we all got out OK, and no one got lost. Good News!!

Return to Saddle Mountain

by Emmett Johnson with pictures taken by Phil Brill

When we returned from our trip to Saddle Mountain, Dave Furuli and I knew we had to go back to get a piece of the log we found. We knew we needed some diggers, so upon making some calls we got them. The day after our Kalama Trip we went back with Bill and Lisa Brill, Phil Brill, Pat and Shirley Swinth, Leonard Thrush, Dave Furuli and me.

After a leisurely four hour drive, we arrived at the site on Saddle Mountain. We couldn't wait. Even though it was 4:00 PM, we decided to start digging. We got down to the log pretty fast. That was easy digging. We knew we needed some more room. Shirley and Lisa dug from one side to get a bigger area to work in. Shirley dug down about two feet and found another log. Boy was she excited! In the meantime Bill was digging between Dave and Shirley and found a stump. We dug around Shirley's log to get an idea of the size. It was 19" in diameter and headed pretty much straight down.

End of Day One

The next morning we went back up the mountain when we arrived. Pat and Shirley had gotten one piece off. It was about 20" long. Under it was a better piece that was a nice round.

At this point in our digging we were chipping rock with our picks with very little shoveling. We managed to get one more piece of this log, a perfect round about two hundred pounds. At 6' deep by this time we were reluctant to move the amount of material needed for another piece. We turned our attention to the stump and the original log. With Phil, and Bill working on the stump and Leonard, Dave, Lisa and I working on the log we managed to get three rounds and several other very good pieces of wood.

About three o'clock we knew we had enough, so we filled in our hole, like good rockhounds and left the log for the next trip, That is another story for Pat to tell.

What a good adventure we had finding two logs and a stump. What a great adventure we had finding two logs and a stump. With such good company and great weather, it was almost a perfect outing. The best part was burying the hole to preserve our find.