Lake George diggings of amazonite and smoky quartz

Welcome Back it's 2014!

Well, after a seemingly endless winter my rockhounding buddy and I finally got out to Lake George to check the conditions. We did a lot of walking around, checking areas for claims as well as prospective sites to dig this year. As you can see there was a lot of snow still clinging to the shadows and on the north sides of hills, but sunny areas were abundant and a few newly unearthed quartz fragments suggested crystal laden pegmatites below.

There was one area we were headed towards that I had been eyeing for a couple of years. The area was not claimed, but so close to the road that I doubted there could be much of anything there. Plus I don't like to dig near roads where others can hijack my dig before I am done. This day was different, it was very quiet and snow across the roads prohibited curious prospectors from driving down this particular road and seeing fresh dirt from a dig. I was drawn to this area because of previous digs, as well as a couple of recently fallen pine trees. The "Tree Root Pocket" on the Two Point (http://www.minfind.com/mineral-83909.html) is always in the back of my mind, so when I see a freshly downed tree I go check it. I walked about 20 feet from the truck to the fallen tree and there around the broken roots were fragments of amazonite.

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Root ball of downed pine tree

I couldn't believe my luck, here it was my first day of the season and I'm already in an amazonite seam. At first I thought it might have been previously dug, but as I got past the initial dirt disturbed by the fallen tree I ran into quartz pieces that fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. Onward and downward I went, digging ever so carefully between pieces of quartz and fragments of blue/green amazonite.

Rich pocket material  of quartz and amazonite beginning to show

The dirt began turning a yellowish color and I was certain I was digging into a pocket. The excitement quickened as the amazonite had good color and there was considerably smoky quartz shards also showing. Finding a nice sized amazonite and smoky quartz cluster would be a real prize for my first day in 2014. Unfortunately as soon as I found the pocket it disappeared into scree and white quartz. The pocket was very small, though typical of miarolitic cavities of this type in the Lake George pegmatites. Oh well, I got a few nice pieces and will return some day to see if I can pick up this seam again in search of other pockets of crystals. Below are a couple of pictures of some of the finds. These pieces are not all cleaned up yet, but they do show promise.

This grouping appears to be the nicest, approximately 3x1.5 inches. Always get a kick out of seeing established dealer prices on stuff like this.... and of course they always measure their specimens in millimeters.  So is it 2 inches, 5cm or 50mm. Fifty is more impressive number I suppose.