In the last couple of years I have seen a slow but steady
influx of critters into the Lake George area.
When I first got started prospecting at Lake George, it had been only a
couple years after a large fire (Hayman) burnt out thousands of acres of forest
land. Nearly 10 years went by until I started seeing large animals on a regular
basis within the forest. Today we had
a turkey trot. Seemed two toms were
seeking the attention of one hen though they may have been a bit shy around
us only displaying their plumage briefly.
Coincidentally I’ve had good digging results when I see out of the
ordinary animals. Eagles, bear, turkeys,
elk and coyotes seem to foreshadow good crystal hunting days. Deer are too common as we see them nearly
every trip out except during hunting season. Today was no exception to the “correlation” between animal
siting and good crystal hunting.
I had been
digging in an area exhibiting a fairly strong mineralized pegmatite but hadn’t much
to show for my efforts during the last couple of visits, perhaps today a turkey
siting or more probable persistence would pay off. After digging on the pegmatite for a few
hours I decided to move my digging up the hill a few feet on the same line as
the pegmatite was running. The pegmatite
was still exhibiting shards of well-formed quartz with a few faces so I decided
to work the new area awhile. As I dug I hit a spot that had numerous microcline
crystals and some quartz but the matrix holding the crystals together and the
crystals themselves were very fragile. I’ve
run into this situation several times and it’s nearly impossible to remove
specimens without breaking them. The microcline cleavage planes seem exceptionally weak. Bob and I have called these crystals “half
baked”. The crystals fragment easily and
we believe something was not quite right during the formation of the crystals
within the pegmatite as they lack normal cohesion and fracture quite easily. I worked
this spot until it was nearly exhausted with very little to show for my
efforts. Sometimes these areas of weakly
formed crystals firm up but not this spot. Instead of continuing up the hill,
the quartz seemed better formed and solid to my left so I dug down and left.
I got a bit excited when I hit some quartz with a vug behind it, but the vug
was nearly empty containing only a few quartz shards and scree.
Empty Vug with microcline in hand |
I continued
digging along this rock wall when I was finally rewarded with a couple 3” smoky
crystals. It was at this point that I
knew I was close to a pocket and decreased my digging tempo and deepened my
approach into the hillside. Soon more
crystals were evident so I called my digging partner Bob over and he got in on the action by helping
me remove overburden around the pocket hole.
As I was digging, a few amazonite crystals also began to pop up. Getting some smoky quartz crystals with
amazonite is the prize we always look for and I did manage a couple of small combination
specimens this day.
Pocket opening up with quartz crystals |
The amazonite was
small and paler than I would have liked but the amazonite also stood up nicely
out of the matrix with sharp crystal edges.
While I don’t believe the Smithsonian will be calling me anytime soon
for these crystals I was happy with this find.
Persistence, prospecting and careful digging were rewarded with some
nice crystal. I’ve dug with folks who seem to jack-rabbit around a hill looking
for a crystal pocket near the surface. I
check on these folk’s progress and wonder why they quit digging on a good
pegmatite. Of course I have all summer to
dig and I know others can only get out a few times a year so time for them is a
limiting factor. I may dig two holes in one day while I’ve seen others dig 10
with no results.
Amazonite plate in hand (cold day) |
Little combo cleaning up nicely |
Nice post Kevin, I don't know why I'm writing this on here, but I don't understand why I'm never there when you guys find these, maybe it's not the turkeys giving you good luck, maybe I'm giving you bad luck, or as you would say, bad "chances" . ...haha
ReplyDeletecheers!
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