BC Wagonmaster Field Trips for 2010
Check out the Tools page for a description of the tools needed for many of the field trips
BC Wagonmaster's report, April 2010
At the recent Abbotsford Gem show, the BC Wagonmaster group settled upon several trips for the spring and summer season.
First up:
April 25th, Harrison Lake fossils. This trip is
up the WEST side of Harrison lake for clam, and belemnite
fossils. For tools, please bring a hammer, chisel, and perhaps
heavy cracking hammers if you are eager to break open some larger
materials.
As this is some distance into the logging area, bring a lunch, snacks, and beverages.
The meeting place is the Sasquatch Inn parking lot in Harrison Mills,
on highway #7 at the turnoff for the Hemlock Valley Ski Area ( do NOT
go into the town of Harrison Lake ) Make sure you top
up your fuel, as this is 30+ KM in, and then 30Km+ back out again.
Meet the group at 9:00AM.
Leaders are Gord and Walt Pinder.
May 2: Harrison Lake East side for Garnets.
This is a relatively new location, with garnet schist giving up garnets
up to ½ inch in size.
For this trip, head from Agassiz towards the town of Harrison Lake, and
meet the group at 9:00AM at the Happy Prospector rock shop.
Tools are again hammers, chisels, cracking hammers for breaking up the host schist.
Bring lunch, and beverages. Top up your gas.
Leader is Cam Bacon..
May 21-23 Annual Rockhound Rendezvous in Lillooet.
This is the annual get together of the BC Rockhounds to go on multiple
hunts, have a great dinner, and a couple of other fun events such as
the bucket raffle, and live rock auction.
See the web site for additional details on the location, campgrounds,
B&B’s and motels nearby. http://www.lapidary.bc.ca/rendez.html
June 13: Whistler ( Black-Tusk) for quartz crystals with chlorite.
Cam Bacon has also volunteered to lead this trip. Meet the gang at
9:00AM at the A&W in Squamish. There is some walking on
old de-activated logging roads of about 1-2 KM from the cars. For
tools bring the usual rock hammer, and if you want to try hard rock
mining, bring heavier tools. A small shovel would allow for
digging through old debris to find loose crystals.
Again, since we will be some distance away from the closest Tim Horton’s, bring a lunch snacks and beverages.
July is a time for two events. The US rockhounds hold an
annual event called PowWow in Madras Oregon. This is
always a great event with lots of vendors and field trips.
Nearby is a couple of rock shops in Prineville, and just out of town is
the Richardson’s Recreational ranch for digging thunder eggs, and not
far away is the polka dot agate mine.
This is June 30 through July 4. The week prior is another show with field trips based in Prineville.
For tools, bring it all…hammers, big hammers, chisels, digging tools,
or just come with a rock hammer, squirt bottle and enthusiasm.
For a complete listing of the Washington State Mineral Council trips,
go to: http://www.mineralcouncil.org/ click on field trips
The second event is the BC Summer Camp. This is a week long
excursion in and around Little Fort BC ( north of Kamloops ).
See the web site for additional information, camp grounds, hotels, and other accommodations. http://www.lapidary.bc.ca/camp.html
Lastly, a date of September 26 has been set by the claim owners of the
famous Vancouver Island “Hill 60” rhodonite claim< for a field
trip. Once again they are offering to open up the claim to
rockhounds for modest amount of collecting at no-charge.
For this trip you will need hard rock tools to chip corners off of
suspect black oxidized rock looking for pink rhodonite. A
high-clearance vehicle is recommended as the road is pretty rough near
the claim site.
Meet the group at 9:00AM, on Vancouver Island, about 4-miles north of
Duncan. The exact spot to meet the group is the Park-n-Ride
parking lot across the highway from the Esso station at the
intersection of Island Highway, and highway 18.
For those of you who subscribe to Rock and Gem Magazine, the March
edition had an article about collecting carnelian on Weyerhaeuser lands
in Washington, at a location called “Lucas Creek”. Please note
that this area is closed to collecting, and Weyerhaeuser has posted the
area. Newsstand editions may not have this article.
Please see the above Mineral Council web site for other trips to collect carnelian.
As always, US rockhounds in good standing are always welcome to join BC Wagonmaster trips, rendezvous, and the Summer Camp!
Submitted by Harley Waterson, BC Wagonmasters
US Wagonmaster trip info at: http://www.mineralcouncil.org/
If you would like to get onto their e-mail distribution, just send a message to Glenn Morita at: gmorita@seanet.com
Travelling elsewhere? Check for local shows at:
http://www.rockngem.com/showdates.asp
ALWAYS CALL TO CONFIRM TRIPS. SEE CONTACT LIST BELOW
BC Wagonmasters - Harley Waterson: harley.waterson@hp.com
Lapidary Society of B.C. has a web site at http://www.lapidary.bc.ca/
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