Return to the New Pocket in October

I had the weekend off once again, after returning from my trip to Colorado and decided since I didnt get to do any rockhunting out there, I would head back down to the secret spot and see if I could expand that new pocket some more. It seemed to be deep and going in about three different directions, and I wanted to see if I could open it up some more and see what it might hold. Missy and I loaded up and took off down there about mid morning, cause this time it was a bit cool and I wanted to give it a chance to warm up a bit before I arrived. I walked in and started digging with the mini mattox after clearing off some of the loose gravel mixture surrounding the existing pocket….within minutes I had worked up a pretty good sweat and took my jacket off and went to get my bailing bucket and some more tools and bags…..

…the pocket was full of water and it was obvious at some point today, I was going to have to bail some water…but I decided to clear more surrounding gravel and rock and see if I could find more pocket openings instead…

…and it didnt take me long to find a soft spot once I had some area cleared back toward that back wall….

…so I began lightly scraping down with the mattox and pretty soon, I had signs of another pocket beneath me opening up….

…and pretty soon, this pocket really started to open up….

…and you can see the growing pile of crystals from this new pocket above and close up below….

I took a water break and then cleared some more rock and gravel away and decided to do some serious digging in the new pockets on top of the week old pocket….

…and closer up…

…you see that somewhat round piece that my chisel is pointing toward up above ? I took that out and it turned out to be a nice chunk of druse hanging upside down with some poker chips attached…but first I`m going to show you that top pocket closer up…

…as well as a close up of some of the crystals lurking under the surface water in the bottom pocket….

…and here is the growing pile of crystals and plates…

…and the floor of the week old pocket is laced with crystals as well…

…and in the mouth of the pocket as well….I was reaching in and pulling as many out as I could…a bit hesitant at first, remembering what Docia told me when she said she couldnt make it today…and wishing me lucky reaching into the cold pocket water. What was really funny was that the water in that pocket turned out to be fairly warm, not in the least bit cool at all, and I was pulling several crystals out, and many were firmly attached to the walls and floor of the deep pocket too…this one seemed to be at least ten inches deep, I was often in up to my elbows…

…I turned my attention to the week old pocket and while pulling some of the crystals from the bottom of it, I ran across yet another small pocket off the floor of it…

…and closer up you can see crystals lurking inside it as well…

…I followed this one til it deadended into a wall and then decided to stop here and return in a couple of weeks and see how much further I could go in the wall direction. I covered up the other end with some flat rocks to keep any stray stuff out…..

…I was curious to find out how deep this pocket was going to turn out and whether I would be able to widen it and bail it down to find some clusters to chip out…guess we would find out the next time I was down…here are the ones I wrapped up to take home…some nice druse plates of gray and some pretty ones with poker chips attached, I also pulled out several single and twin crystals….