July 18th, 2020 Greenwater Field Trip Report

Field trip reports

On Sat. July 18th we went up to the Greenwater area for black agate and opal.  It was a gorgeous day for being in the mountains. 30 of us met in Enumclaw, all wearing masks – a sign of the times (I should have gotten a picture of that). 13 vehicles caravan’ed up to the black agate site, deep into the woods off of FR7222. We dug there for 3 hours (again, wish I had gotten some pics of that), all keeping our social distance per Covid-19 rules. It’s a wide area under tree canopy, so no issues with being too close. We had quite a few new members who were on their first trip. At 1:00 9 vehicles caravan’ed up to the Gov Meadows area for the opal and petrified wood. This was by far the largest group I’ve lead during the last 3 years of field trips, but a very pleasant and well mannered group. I’ve posted some pics of material I found on Sat. during the trip (pic 1-2 of scenery, 3rd of black agate, 4-6 of petrified wood 7-9 of opal) and pics 10-14 of agates and jasper found in rock slides on Friday when I checked out the roads and conditions.  My thanks to Roger Pullen for being the caboose of the caravan, as keeping track of 13 vehicles wasn’t always an easy task with all of the turn offs we needed to make.

I don’t have a scheduled trip for August, but if our picnic gets cancelled, I may have to slip one in there.

Submitted by Roger Danneman CMS Field Trip Guide.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Updated: July 19, 2020 — 5:58 pm

Presidents Message

  • From the Top of the Rock Pile Our annual club picnic went off great. The grass and Arboretum area was not wet or muddy, plus it didn’t rain while we were there. We had the usual club members attend, plus a few new faces. I forgot to count how many people attended, but I estimate around 40. Thank you, Angie and Brian, for shopping for the food and setting everything up. Thumbler’s Tumblers donated a tumbler for our picnic auction and another one for our holiday auction in December. The new double-barreled 15# tumbler sold for $120, approximately one-third the …

Meeting Announcements

  • We are going to show a video of the most unusual and amazing things found in Amber. It isn’t just insects. We are also going to have a recap of how our Gem Show did last month. Show ‘n Tell: An item that has something trapped inside or a picture rock, thunder egg, or geode that looks like it has an insect, animal, or face inside.

  • Maureen will speak on the geology and the movement of the Washington coastline over millions of years. Show ‘n Tell: Favorite rock or mineral from Washington

  • Glen Ripper is a leading authority on Obsidian. He is a walking encyclopedia which should make this an interesting and educational meeting. Show ‘n Tell: Obsidian – let’s see your colors.

  •   We start the day off with a potluck holiday meal. The club provides roasted turkey and ham. Members fill in with their favorite holiday potluck dish. We follow our meal with the election of officers for the coming year. Our final activity is our club auction. It is a great time to pick up great bargains on rough rocks, polished rocks, slabs, fossils, opal, etc. Our Young Tumblers can use their Rock Bucks to purchase auction items. This meeting is also our semi-annual food drive for the Kent Food Bank. Please remember to bring something. The Food Bank has informed us that they need feminine hygiene products and grape or strawberry jelly. People donate loads of peanut butter but never jelly. They also receive very few donations of feminine hygiene products.

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