Docia and I decided to beat the heat once again and return to the lower level secret spot and see if we could find a few more pockets last week. I knew how early I could get up and get down there, but checked with Docia to see what time she wanted to get up and go, and decided we would meet there about 6 am and get as cool a start as we could on digging and exploring. While it was probably around 77 degrees when we arrived, it was obvious it had rained recently when we got there, which makes digging alot easier.
We started digging and clearing off areas near the pockets we had located a few days before, studying the low spots and root areas and digging in those areas, but didnt find much. After about an hour of clearing and finding little to show for it, I decided to take a break and check downhill in a mudhole depression that was even with the blue pocket I had found last fall. I grabbed my mattox and hand rake and a bag and started walking that way…walked about fifty feet and looked down toward the blue pocket hole and stopped dead in my tracks…astonished….speechless for a minute…and then turned around to Docia who was still digging in her spot and said…hey does it look like to you that there are some rocks missing ?
She got up and walked over and we both stood there in total amazement….
….that big pile of rocks in the middle was new to us, so was that big hole in front of it…and that pile of smaller rocks on the far left side used to continue up to the ridge on the right in varying slopes and degrees….while we were somewhat elated that we had some new areas to explore…I was a little down because the blue pocket was GONE…eradicated and completely gone….I was down for a few days earlier this week and I think it was because the blue pocket was missing…no longer could I go just even look at it and dream of what might lie under the surface and no more could I think of what might possibly be within my grasp if I simply exerted a little more effort at extracting some more crystals…for a few hours each day I couldn`t even think straight…I was walking around in a daze….I even told Docia, if I could just find out where they took that load, and go there to look through it, I would be much happier.
Even the depression mudhole I was going to check, is gone as well, left in its spot is a big depression of gravel and rock, which we explored as well as we could…it was filled with water so we didn`t explore much, but did find some massive calcite in it and a few crystals, possibly the bottom of a pocket left behind…after looking around the new area and finding a few clusters, I explored one of the ridges of this depressed area while walking back and forth to the truck and discovered an area of some loose crystals and decided to explore it more…
…and started seeing loose crystals just under the surface of the rock and gravel…
….and you can see the small pile of crystals uncovered on top and to the right there….
..and the next photo shows crystals in the mix right under the surface…
..and even more indicators…
..and pretty soon I thought I was on top of a possible pocket, but alas, it was just not meant to me…Missy even came by to check on me and let me know how much she is enjoying her new hairdo…
..and while I found some really nice singles, and doubles, and twins, and plates with crystals attached…
..once I dug down to a certain level, I struck massive that soon went nowhere fast….sometimes you can hit massive and be really close to a pocket, but don`t think so this time. So after a few minutes of bagging up my finds and taking the nicer ones to the truck to wrap later, I walked over to check out a pocket that Docia was extensively working on…
..or I should say, Docia had worked on….quite a nice pocket that flowed into yet another pocket and another pocket…she was holding up some nice finds, some beautiful yellow druse plates with hematite balls attached to them…and when I walked over and saw the base of crystals in the pocket, I was stunned by the sheer beauty of them…
…I remember when she started at the bottom of the photo and it was just a few crystals popping up and she followed it up to the bigger pocket at the top of the photo where the big druse plates were hanging upside down….
..with some beautifully colored crystals in the base of it…Docia took off right before I snapped these photos and I left shortly after…first I scooped up some crystals and plates she left behind for me.
Here are some of my finds….
…all in all, a pretty nice day. 🙂