Amateur Rock-Hounding

Hi All,
While Lana was off at school this past weekend, I was crawling in around the woods of Virginia looking for pretty rocks. This is the story of my weekend. And yes fellow readers, I have once again stolen control of my wife's Blog to bring you this tale of my exploits.

Now, for anyone who has seen my homemade wooden pirate chest of treasures, I like to collect rocks. Usually pretty ones - or at least - neat looking ones. I couldn't tell you where half of them came from, when I got them, or - in some cases - even what they are. But they look cool. But at any rate, I like finding new specimens for my collection. Always have.

Lana and I have recently been swapping ideas for ideal "weekend warrior" trips that we can take. One of mine has been to do those gem-mining things where you buy a bag of mud, and sift through it with a sluice-box looking for a quarter-sized amethyst or even gold. "Thar's gold in them thar bags!" uh-huh. shure. I've done it a few times in the past. The last one was at the North Carolina State Fair maybe a dozen years ago. I didn't find much. Some pretty quartz crystals and a few reddish bits of maybe-garnet. Some of them could have been part of a 1972 Ford pickup for all I knew.

Anyway. I did a little research on-line (All Hail Google!) and found the Roanoke Valley Mineral and Gem Society (or is it the Gem and Mineral Society?). And they were having a mineral specimen gathering trip! Membership required, of course. I could easily afford the $12.00 a year family membership fee. I read what little they had on their webpage, and contacted the trip organizer for more details. At the time, I didn't have Lana's class schedule memorized and was expecting that she might be able to come with me. But, Longwood University had conspired against me, and I would be going on this trip alone. Oh well.

I did LOTS of research online to see what people brought to these expeditions. Some of the trips I saw pictures from had people wading in creeks, and crawling through mud-filled mines. Those trips seemed to be a whole lot of trouble just for a bit of rare crystal, but I was interested. I made up a shopping wish-list of things that I would need to get, and started packing. Believe it or not, I wound up filling the Murano with shovels, picks, mattoxs, little brushes, and water. I was ready for a trip with Dr. Jones. No, I didn't have a bull-whip - don't have much use for them.

Well, the big day finally came. The vehicle was packed, and I was stoked. I kissed Lana goodbye, and headed off. I met the group in Lynchburg at the Jumbo Family Restaurant. There were all sorts of characters there. And one guy who I swore I recognized from GE. I met a bunch of people, shook most of their hands, and forgot most of their names. But names almost didn't matter. We were all there to find some pretty rocks. All told, there were probably thirty vehicles there. Several families, groups of friends, bunches of loners - like myself - and at least one dog.

We saddled up, and headed north. The weather was forecast to be rainy, cold, and maybe even sleet. The trip there was uneventful, although it was humorous watching this long convoy of pickup trucks - one of them a 1972 ford pickup with a missing piece from the tail-light - cut through these little po-dunk towns on the way to the quarry. We probably tripled the annual traffic through some of them. Half a soda later and Eighty miles from my garage door, we finally pulled onto Rutile Lane.

The quarry was last used to mine for Rutile (Some kind of Titanium crystal) about sixty years ago. Today, it is somebody's backyard. The trip organizer knew the family that owned the land it was on, and had gotten permission for us to explore the land, and hunt for blue quartz crystals. The quarry itself is now a muddy lake - and not easily worked. But there were dozens of discard piles dating from when the quarry was producing rutile. Those were our targets.

Some of the rock-hounds took their four wheel drive trucks down the muddy path - loaded down with empty 5-gallon buckets and shovels. I didn't trust my "all wheel drive" down that path, so I walked. Of course, I carried way too much junk with me. I didn't know what to expect, so I loaded down with water, snacks, shovels, a sledge-hammer and a bucket. I'd learn. I passed a few groups of people who had laid claim to this pile or that cliff-wall. They were friendly, but had a definite "this is my spot - move along" aura to them. I picked out a rock pile that had a cedar growing out of it. If this quarry was truly 60-years abandoned, a good sized cedar might be guarding some goodies. I poked around, and found a few very pretty specimins of white feldspar. Not a very interesting rock on its own, but when some of them were broken open, they revealed baby-blue smears of blue quartz within. I filled my bucket halfway with these samples. Before i knew it, the bucket was almost too heavy to move, and that wasn't counting all the tools I had brought with me. It was time to take it all back to the truck and re-equip myself. It took quite awhile to get back to the truck. I had to take many breaks.


When I got back to the murano, I proceeded to re-evaluate my expedition. I stripped down the equipment to a chisel, my trusty rock-cracking sledgehammer, a mattox, the bucket, some safety glasses, my awesome kneepads, and some G.O.R.P. as a snack. (All hail G.O.R.P.!) "Ahh, much better. I could carry four or five of these now!" Oh, and my hat. Can't go wandering through the wilderness without one.

Thus re-equipped, I trudged back down the hill to find me some rocks. I picked a new spot in the quarry and got down to business. I must have cracked three dozen rocks open looking for good specimins before I realized that I missed lunch by an hour. Instead of going back to the truck (again) and eating the lunch I brough, I munched on G.O.R.P. instead and kept going. I had adjusted my strategy a little too. I had enough Big White Interesting Rocks, and was mostly focusing on smaller specimens - so even after hours of rock-hounding, I hadn't filled the bottom of the bucket yet.

At one point, I looked up to see one of my fellow rock-hounds telling me that they had found the mother-lode of blue quartz farther up the hill, and that they needed help getting it out. Well, I was there for blue quartz, so I packed up things and headed up. When I got there, I found a guy working a steep cliff with a tiny chisel and a hammer. "Mother-lode" indeed. It couldn't have been bigger than my shoe. But, it was much bluer than the rocks I had been finding, so I stayed and helped them expose more of the vein. After awhile the guy with the toothpick gave up, and offered to let someone else work the lode. A big-armed guy with a pick-axe went down next, and proceeded to remove quite a bit of rotten rock. It was crumbling before him, and rolled down the cliff-face. He was grinning when he pulled the first chunks of blue out of the mud. They were the size of a good sandwich - and just as wonderful looking. (Well, I did miss lunch...) We worked in shifts clearing the debrii, and fished out enough blue quartz to fill four five-gallon paint buckets. I even got a chance to dig in there. I was pulling out chunks of crystal the size of my fist - and the vein kept on going.

We finally had to give up when the cliff face started showing signs of being unstable. I'd pound on it with the mattox to dig away at the rock, and the vibrations would cause stuff higher up to shake. We took it as a sign. Besides, we had run out of buckets.

We started packing up to leave. One of the guys had managed to back his truck all the way to where we were and offered everyone a ride out of there. Some of the bigger specimens they found took three people to load onto the truck. We got everything loaded, and headed out. It had been a long, dirty, cold sucessful trip with lots to show for our efforts. I can't wait for next month's trip!
When I got home, I cleaned the dirt off of all the rocks. The big ones went out into the gardens, and the smaller ones are currently living on an old towel in the kitchen. One of these days I'll have to build a better rock display. But not this weekend.

Until next time,
-M