This is a summary of our first 5 trips of 2025. I generally do a separate report for each trip, but this has been an unusual and busy year for me.
On Feb. 22nd we went to Ole One Lane Bridge on the middle fork of the Nooksack river for Dunite and Gneiss. The river was extraordinarily high due to warm rains and the resultant melting snow. Our usual picking area was covered by the river. But thankfully Noelle and Paul discovered a great unpicked area down the fisheries road about 1/3 mile walk. We had a group of 20 people on this trip.
On March 29th we went to Saddle Mtn which was a change from the originally scheduled Baker Lake / Swift Creek trip. I figured the high water would prevent us from getting to the gravel beds and snow is still covering all of our mountain sites so the best alternative was Saddle Mtn for petrified wood. We had a beautiful spring day and a group of 25 people on this trip.
On April 29th we went to Saddle Mtn again. I originally wanted to start this outing with an educational session at the Ginkgo State Park but I didn’t get enough interest in that. The group met in Mattawa for breakfast and then went up to a new dig area that John & Dave suggested at the previous outing. We had a group of 12 people on this trip. I unfortunately missed it due to illness, but Noelle led the group up. I can’t get enough of the pics in the Tumbler, but our Facebook Group page has a lot of great pics from Scott & Laurie, Michelle M., Noelle, and Julie. If you’re not a FB Group member, it’s a fun place to share our finds.
On May 4th Loren M. led the group into First Creek. This is a 2-mile hike on good road-bed but with a few significant hills. Then one has to navigate some steep slopes. But the payoff is nice jasper, agate, and geodes. We had 12 people on this trip.
On May 17th we went to Rufus, Oregon for Biggs Jasper. This is a private quarry where we pay $5/pound for the rock we collect. We had a beautiful spring day on the hills above the Columbia River. 12 people joined me on this trip.
No pics for this post since I’ve summarized them. My intent is just to record our activities.
Submitted by Roger Danneman CMS Field Trip Guide