May 15th, 2021 First Creek Field Trip Report

On Sat. May 15th we went over the mountains to First Creek northeast of Cle Elum. It was a gorgeous spring day. Maybe a little too hot (80 degrees F.) We had 20 people on this trip making the 2 mile hike in and digging for the bluish agate nodules and crystal filled geodes and geode fragments. Wood ticks were not an issue this trip. I only saw one on my glove. Robert M. dug out a very nice big crystal plate and Tim B. hammered out a nice geode from an outcrop. I collected 1/3 bucket of agate and geode pieces.
Phillip found some nice partial geodes and clued me into a couple other spots worthy of checking out next time. Beautiful material here, but the hike is long, especially in warm weather.

Next trip is scheduled for June 12th at Little Naches for thundereggs and lilypad jasper. The DOT is well on their way to clearing Chinook Pass for a Memorial Day weekend opening.

Submitted by Roger Danneman CMS Field Trip Guide.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Updated: May 26, 2021 — 5:44 pm

Presidents Message

  • Digging It!  Thanks to everyone who came to the club camp out at Teanaway campground near Cle Elum last month. After a brief spell of rain the first night, we were blessed with sun, clear skies, and rockhounding the rest of the weekend. And a big thanks to Roger Danneman for doing all of the trip organizing, and keeping us all warm and well fed during the weekend. This month I’ll be giving a talk at our club meeting about how to use Gaia for rockhounding. If you have specific questions, please bring them along or feel free to email …

Meeting Announcements

  • Noelle Barnes will present Using Gaia for Rockhounding, an overview of the features and tricks associated with the app Gaia and how you can use it for GPS, saving waypoints, navigation, photo tagging, trail recording and more. Show and Tell: Bring the rock(s) that have the best “story” – and tell everyone how you found them and where!

  • Club board member Paul Ahnberg will talk to us about the impact of wildfires on our lives – from protecting your home to staying safe while out rockhounding – and what we can do today to help mitigate our risk. Paul will combine his knowledge gained from learning at both the WSU Green School (Master Gardener) and WSU Climate Steward programs. Show and Tell: Bring something you found, from a place that you know has since been impacted by floods or wildfires – or was impacted shortly before you arrived. Tell your story!

  • December’s date and time is coming soon. We will update this page as soon as we know more.

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