On Sat. Oct. 19th we went rockhounding at Crystal Mountain north of Ellensburg. Loren went up early that morning to check the access road and met us as we were arriving. He deemed the 2 mud holes too risky to attempt to drive through. Even walking it was very sticky and slippery he said. There was a lot of standing water in the potholes from what must have been a heavy downpour the night before, as they had been having good weather there all week. We decided to hike in from the NW direction on another service road. I wasn’t sure of the distance. It turned out to be a tough 1/2 mile up hill and another 1/2 mile down hill to get to the site. On the bright side we were finding pieces of agate the whole way and we had nice temperatures (upper 50s to low 60s). The site yielded beautiful multi-colored agate and crystal clusters. We had a great group to be able to flex an impromptu and difficult hike like that. Had it not been for the mud, we would have driven in right next to the site, but we’re in that time of year where the weather is getting more volatile. About 3:30 we were on our way to site #2. We found surface agate there, but no luck with the geodes. I think we were all too tired to do much basalt busting. Although Annie did find a nice big seam agate with a crystal pocket.
The group consisted of Annie S and dog Tess, Noelle B., Loren M., Dan G., Kerri-Lynn D. and John, Kelley G., Michelle M., Jason S. and his two sons, Gina M., Julie M., and me.
Peggy S. & Paul A. were at site 2 all day, but were done before we got there. We could have used their expertise on finding the geodes.
We do have one more field trip on the schedule to First Creek on Nov. 9th, but it’s very weather dependent. Keep your eyes on e-mail announcements.
