 |
| 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.
 I |
| 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. |
