Recent Trips and Finds

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jay bates

10/13/09 at 02:28 PM

I just got from the Road Camp fee dig for benitoites. On the way down we saw deer, quail, wild turkey and Tule elk. We camped over night at a Fresno County campground just over a mile away from the Road Camp. That night there must have been a dozen owls hooting and carrying on.

The Road Camp was originally a prisoner camp for California state minimal security inmates. Some have come back and said going to the Road Camp was the best thing that ever happened to them. They learned how to work and straighten out their lives. There is barn at the Road Camp that was accessible by crossing a large pipe spanning the river. Some of the working girls from King City used to walk across the pipe at night to meet up with prisoners that had money in the barn. The warden found out what was happening and had the pipe greased. That night some of the working girls got an unexpected bath in the river.

I worked hard washing and screening for benitoite and found a nice 3 carat rough stone that is chunky enough to perhaps cut a 1 carat gemstone. That is about a $1000 gemstone, not bad for a fee of $70 per day. Cannot believe they are not getting land office business. Now is the time to go there and find your benitoite before it gets popular and prices rise. Here is a picture of my 3 carat rough:

Here is a picture of a pile of other benitoites I found:

Attached Images:

Joe D.

10/13/09 at 02:52 PM

Jay,

Great find. The rocks are pretty also. Did you try and cross the pipe? That rock that is orange and green reminds me of radioactive rocks from the desert of Utah around the Thomas range.

Joe D.

jay bates

10/13/09 at 03:03 PM

The other three pictures are of a geode with stalactites, petrified wood and Christmas Agate that I found in the Black Rock Desert.

I spend eight days there with Scott Paradis exploring and find a number of agate and petrified wood sources. Scott got stuck once in four wheel drive. We both had towing straps and luckily I was able to pull him out. We saw wild horses, chukar and plenty of sign of big horn sheep. The night sky in the desert is something everyone should see at least once in their lifetime. I even joined in a sunrise serenade with the coyoties. I am afraid I didn't quite measure up to a big dog coyote, but I sure had them yapping about the new intruder.

After a hard day hiking and exploring we enjoyed soaking in the hot springs and sipping a few brews. The weather was pretty good mostly in the ninties. We didn't see too many folks during the week. Scott found a rattlesnake hiking to the top of a ridge and darned if he didn't nearly step on the same snake on his way down.

We did find some moss agate seams at the top of the ridge and I found a nice piece of red moss agate on the way up.

Scott told me about a billy goat he had on a rope in his yard. He lives at the top of a remote ridge in Napa County. It seems this billy goat knew just how far he could go to the end of his rope, because a mountain lion was stalking him and he waited until that cat got within rope distance and charged and butted him at full tilt. The painter just staggered around dazed

, until Scott came running out of the house with his rifle. With Scott closing in, that painter took off not to be seen again. Scott said that billy goat was as proud as a peacock prancing around and bleating and carrying on.

After following me up and down the ridges, Scott started calling me Billy Goat. I am not sure it was a compliment or not

Gemhunter

10/13/09 at 09:50 PM

Hi Jay,

Nice finds you got there. Did you find any facet grade stuff this time?

KOR Carl in WI

ScottP

10/14/09 at 12:06 AM

Jay
Calling you the billy goat is a compliment. It is hard to believe how far he gets in such a short time. I would be looking at the ground picking up rocks and look up and Jay would be gone. Then he would pop up on top of the ridge or be coming around the hill from the opposite direction.
If any of you have rock hounded with Jay you know what I'm talking about.
That was the best trip I have been on to date. We found some nice material and saw a lot of the Black Rock Desert.

Scott

Tom K.

10/14/09 at 04:10 AM

Hi Jay,
Very nice finds!

Any sphere material?

Tom K.

Mike Streeter

10/14/09 at 06:11 AM

Hi Jay,

I really like the stalactitic thunderegg/geode - nice formation. Of course, the benitoite ain't half bad and the Christmas agate looks like an excellent cutting material.

Thanks for the pics and short story.

Mike

jay bates

10/14/09 at 12:22 PM

Joe, I didn't try to cross on the pipe. I am not as steady and as I used to be. The Road Camp was set up for the prisoners to work on the road with picks and shovels and dynamite. They also built several bridges. It was just like the movies with guards riding around on horseback with shotguns. As I understand it, it was pretty laid back as any prisoner stupid enough to escape soon found himself out in some pretty rough country without food and little water and soon returned. The Road Camp was closed in 1965 and sold to private individuals.

Carl, The big benitoite is certainly facetable. I probably got one or two others that are facetable into small gemstones.

Scott, thanks for inviting me along and hanging in there. Neither of us could have done what we did alone without too much risk. I am sorry you couldn't make it down to the Benitoite Road Camp trip. there was also some huge specimens found including a large boulder shot through with naturalite seams showing beintoite and neptunite.

Tom, I got a fifty pound piece of Christmas agate that has already been cut up into quarters for spheres. The picture I posted is of one of the quarters.

Mike, here are some more pictures of some Black Rock bubblies and geodes. The calcite in most of them pops out under a black light.

Attached Images:

Joe D.

10/14/09 at 01:22 PM

Jay,

My wife still talks about the "Road Gang" we saw when I stopped at a small town in Georgia back in the 60's. All those fellows were chained together and seemed happy to be outdoors. I remember the tails of the guards I encountered around a small enclosure at Fort Huachuca, Arizona in my travels with the Army. They said "we don't worry about deserters here, you can look over the wall and still see them 3 days later in the desert".

You did very well with the rocks you made a home for in your collection. Do you get down to Wiley's Well in California? they look like some stuff I picked up down there the last time we visited that desert, it was only 105 in the shade of my SUV. We didn't do any digging but just picked up from the surface. We visited a few out of the way places mentioned in one of the Peterson guides. We were in Utah the next day, battling a snow storm, in late May.

Have you ever tried to make a sphere from any of that Oplaized Wood from the Diatomite mines up in Washington state? That stuff is hard to work with since it's very brittle.

When my wife used to accompany me on collecting trips we had to carry "Walkey Talkies", since she would tend to wonder off in the opposite direction then me. It sure helps in keeping track of each other. I have this built in direction finder and have never been lost but my wife would end up in the next state if I didn't keep track of her in the desert, woods and mountains I enjoy exploring. She even managed to get lost for about 20 minutes on Topaz mountain in Utah. She refused to wear a bell around her neck either. Walking fast has it's drawbacks if you have a direction deficiency.

Keep up the great reports on your travels.

Joe D.

jay bates

10/14/09 at 01:54 PM

#10

Thanks Joe, I like to add a little local color to my narrative and include some pictures of what I found so others might know what to look for in the general vicinity of my travels. I have been down to Wiley Wells and found a nice geode at the Hauser beds. We (my brother Lee and I) also went to Opal Hill for fire agates. We were on a California Federation Field trip led by Dick Pankey, a real gentleman and topnotch field trip leader.

I did make a sphere out of the opal from the Diatomite Mine near Ellensburg Washington near where my brother Lee lives. It did not turn out too well, poor color and brittle cracks. I gave it away to my club for the Holiday party auction.

I would like to see the California Federation sponsor a field trip to the Road Camp benitoite tailings fee dig site. I hope any of the state federation biggie-wiggies reading this consider that benitoite is our state gemstone and should be given due consideration for a field trip.

I don't like walkie talkies as there is too much chatter that distracts from my wanderings. I usually take one along and turn it off as soon as the chatter starts. I have never been lost, only slightly bewildered a couple times to dense dog hair lodgepole pine stands, where you only have the sun to guide you.

Joe D.

10/14/09 at 04:23 PM

#11

Jay,

I have never heard another soul on my walkey talky, that includes my wife who always turns it off. I guess the times that I visit the remote areas there just isn't anyone else around. I never go out collecting on week ends so I tend to miss all other collectors. I have never seen anothr collector at any place we ever visited during the week. Taht includes all over North America. I did get buzzed by 3 jet fighters and a cruise missile once back at the Dugway Pass. They were so low I could see the pilots faces in the planes. They were following a cruise missile that must have strayed from the Dugway Proving Grounds.

Joe D.

jay bates

10/14/09 at 05:34 PM

#12

Joe, the chatter on my walkie talkie are fellow club members on our field trips. Sorry if I didn't make that clear.

A cruise missile, how cool is that! You didn't happen to see Slim Pickens riding on it did you? I have seen flares dropped in Area 51 during a military exercise and heard plenty of ordinance going off in the Chocolate Mountain bombing Range, but no missiles. I did see the X-15 dropped from a bomber and fire up into the upper atmosphere and a underground hydrogen bomb go off at Yucca Flats, but that was many years ago.

We found some 50 caliber clip remnants in the Black Rock this trip. Not unusual to find a 50 caliber live ammunition out in the desert. I always leave it alone. Patton left quite a bit of junk out in the Mohave.

ScottP

10/14/09 at 09:11 PM

#13

Jay
I wanted to go to the road camp but decided I had better stay home and get ready for the rain. We got around 10 inches yesterday.

The belt clips we found are for 20mm rounds. I have 2 dummy rounds from my days in the service that will look real nice in the belt clips.

I cut a few slabs off the big piece of moss agate from the ridge spot. It has some basalt running through it. I think it will make some nice cabs, someday.

The brown and yellow jasper you didn't like is some nice stuff.
A couple of the pieces that I have cleaned up look like moss agate also. Has some real nice patterns just not a lot of the clear, again will make some nice cabs some day.

Scott

Joe D.

10/15/09 at 10:53 AM

#14

Jay,

The East coast also has it's militia members, like out West. Here in Pa. they like to shoot their weapons in the old strip mines. It's not unusual to find brass and lead from all sorts of weapons, even the "Cop Killer", plastic tipped rounds. They put up plates of 1/2 steel and shoot holes through it. Also they love to shoot old 25 lb LP tanks to see them go boom. Automatic weapons seem to get their jollies off. Even 50 caliber weapons. I wouldn't be surprised to see them shooting at old buses with "Law Rockets", the old M72 variety. They destroy all the trees by shredding them with automatic fire.

We have a Game Lands that was an old field artillery and tank range and testing facility for the Army. Anyone who gets off the paths is looking for trouble, they are still finding live ordinance in lots of places open to the public. Just because the post signs of danger they think that's O.K. Then again when they dredge the ocean, down in New Jersey, to get sand for the beaches they are starting to get all kinds of ordinance that was jettisoned after WW I and WW II into the ocean.

Joe D.

wschrimp

10/16/09 at 04:34 PM

#15

Hi Jay. It looks like everyone had a great day last Sunday at the road camp hunting for Benitoite. It was good seeing you. After you left, Dave when thru another persons finds and found another large cutter, might have been slightly larger than yours, but yours may have been cleaner. Oh, by the way, if your rough cuts a clean carat stone and all you want is $1000 for it, send me an email. I will by that piece of rough from you right now for $500.
There were some great finds that day. Take care.
Wayne, Capistrano Mining Company

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