Field Trip Report
End
of June field trips!
June 21st, 24th, and 25th
Diamond Hill, S.C.
Abernathy Mine, N.C.
Ray Mine, N.C.
What a great week it has been! Multiple field trips this week, I got to meet many new club members and visiting rockhounds from out of town. My week started on Tuesday the 21st, the Henderson County Club had referred a couple from Louisiana to me and the M.A.G.M.A. club to take them on some trips while in the area. Chet, the owner of Diamond Hill had invited me down to dig with him and Dave on We met everyone at the site around 9:30 that morning. Chet brought along a canopy for shade over the hole we were working. I showed my new friends around the mine and directed them to where they would find the different minerals and crystals.
Our new friends Jim and Bridget from Louisiana. Jim and Bridget are both Microbiologist Professors at the University in LA.
I have so much material from D-Hill that I just enjoyed watching the others dig and collect, this is the only specimen I brought home, a very nice cluster of skeletal crystals that I knocked off a large boulder in the hole. We spent the day working the area and recovering many nice plates of crystals, I headed home around 4:00. On Friday we had a trip planned to the Walker Creek Kyanite site, I called Paul Bradley (USFS) and was advised that the gate may be closed until around the 9th of July due to delays in the work there caused by the recent heavy rains. We decided to head to the Abernathy Mine instead, many of the members had never visited this mine so it turned out to be a good trip for them.
The herd heading to the mine. Jim and Bridget joined us again for another day of rockhounding. Grant Kidd was present back from his vacation up north. Jim Ellis, Steve Barr, Tom Wright, John Deney, and Colorado also met us for the trip.
Bridget and Jim at the entrance of the mine.
Colorado at the entrance of the mine. We spent the day on the other side of the tracks collecting in the dumps, many nice apatites were found as well as some nice almandine garnet. Jim Ellis found this interesting piece, it is a pink cube shaped clear crystal that I plan to have id'd for him. I think it may be a fluorite crystal, if so, it's the nicest one I've seen from this site, more later after the results are in.
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