Rockhounding the Rockies: Indian Paint Brush Pocket #quartz #fluorite #goethite #Lake George

After a cool wet spring, flowers are in full bloom

This post is a continuation of the previous post. I was going to list all my June trips out to Lake George together, but this visit was significant enough to have it's own post. I was pretty sure that my previous visit to Lake George had exposed a fairly interesting pegmatite. I went back to dig in my spot. This particular grouping of Indian Paint Brush flowers (Castilleja Indivisa) marked my spot. I told Bob, my digging partner, about what I had found during my previous visit with Austin and despite the forecast for rain we set out. Arriving at the claim I sat in the truck for about 10 minutes as a rain shower moved across the claim. The rain stopped, I got out, walked back to my dig and went to work. I mucked out the dirt and rock I had used to cover my hole and was soon digging again. Immediately I found where I had left off and two fluorite crystals tumbled into my hole. The crystals were not as big as the previous visit but I really like fluorite. Soon I hit some fairly large quartz shards with faces. Large quartz shards don't always mean crystals will be found but it's a good sign. I found where Bob was digging

Large smoky quartz segment (1 of 3 pieces Rats!)

and he seemed more interested in the fluorites I had found than the quartz. Bob came over to see what else I could find. Bob said I might very well be the entertainment for the day. I told Bob I might have invoked the curse of overconfidence by showing him my paltry findings too soon. Seems like nearly every time I invite Bob over to see what I'm doing everything shrinks and disappears. Haha. This time that didn't happen. Goethite chunk after goethite chunk was taken from the hole. I occasionally find float goethite which has rounded needles but this batch was well ensconced in the pocket. Very little damage or dings were visible on the goethite. Soon a couple of smoky quartz crystals appeared. I had a fairly nice chunk of crystal quartz in one of the sidewalls but quickly noted it was fractured. I still hoped for a nice termination on this specimen and carefully excavated around the spot. I noted more goethite in the side wall and pulled out what I thought was a chunk of country rock to get at the goethite sprays. Turned out I pulled out the only plate in the whole pocket! Bob was shocked by the careless manner in which I had removed the plate from the sidewall and managed to not ding any of it's associated crystals. I thought it was

Favorite crystal plate from this pocket with Phantoms to 5"

country rock I was removing... As some fairly large quartz crystals came out of the hole, the goethite seemed less important to me. Near the bottom of the pocket, near a large fractured quartz crystal, I found the termination of another crystal. I carefully removed all the rock and dirt around it and gently pulled it straight out of it's position. Nice--a doubly terminated smoky! I continued to work on the big smoky in the sidewall. Slowly I pulled it out by pieces. Unfortunately it was broken in three spots (which I knew prior to excavation) but was hoping for a nice termination. Alas, it turned out to be yard rock.

Excavating the Crystal Pocket

Pit nearly 5 feet deep and ready for remediation

I continued digging some smaller smoky quartz crystals out of the middle of the pocket. Most of the pocket wall was lined with goethite chunks except for that one plate of crystals. Very odd. Anyway, first I got fluorite, then below the fluorite was microcline and goethite and then mostly at the bottom was the smoky quartz crystals, then fluorite again. Around 1PM I noticed clouds were gathering so I sent Bob in to pinch hit for me in the dig while I wrapped 72lbs of crystals (goethite is heavy). Bob found one interesting microcline group down near the bottom of the hole. The pit was now over 5 feet deep and despite the occasional crystal still coming up from the depths, I decided it was time to fill the hole and head home.
The rain began to pelt down as we meandered back to the truck. The temperature dropped to 42F and a bit of ice was mixing into the rain. I wondered on this day if summer would ever get here. Bob added a few goethite specimens to his collection. We got 3.5 hours of digging in between showers and managed to clean out a fairly large elongated (beach-ball size) pocket. As we drove home we noted Pikes Peak had yet another coating of fresh snow on it. It's 23 June! This pocket ranks in my top 10 ever, which is significant as I've found close to 200 pockets of crystals in the 12 years I've been prospecting for crystals.