This evening I was supposed to pick up my wife, and to kill time, I decided to go the North Stillaguamish and look for Jade. I found a very nice piece about a month earlier and I wanted to go and find more from the area I found it. I left home about 3:30PM and arrived at around 5:30PM. I knew I would only have a little over an hour to hunt, and on my way along the North Fork I saw a spot AgateNut wanted to hit on a previous trip. I had heard that the North Fork was pretty good hunting around a mile East and Wes of Deer Creek, so I stopped, and figured if it sucked I could always drive a few more miles and hit my planned spot. Immediately on my walk down to the river, I noticed some peculiar things. The trail was covered in sand, as was everything around it as well. There was no sign of man what so ever, and halfway to the river in the center of the trail was a beautiful piece of serpentine, just laying there. I picked it up and it was floating on the sand. I quickly realized nobody had been there since the record Flood in January. The extent of the flood was obvious as the flood level is 13 feet, and the river reached well over that height. Upon reaching the rivers edge, I started finding beautiful green stones all around, and of course sand coating everything. Much of the rivers edge was washed away, and reaching the rock bed I saw from the road was going to be difficult.

I would need to climb up a sheer 10 foot high mud ledge, with a straight drop into the river, and climb through a mess of trees, and branches that were left from the storm. I unhooked my backpack from one arm in case I fell into the river so I could quickly dispose of it. I climbed through the tree branches and once I reached the other side I noticed some huge cat tracks, and they were fresh. There was obviously a large cougar in the area. The tracks were the largest I have ever seen. It made me a bit uneasy. Once I reached the rock bed I stared finding Jade everywhere. This spot was untouched since the storm. There was one set of boot tracks I assumed were from the property owner next door. I started finding huge dug out holes in the sides of mud and sand. I started thinking the Cougar dug them out to lay in. I quickly filled my bag and had an had far to many rocks, so I decided I would take one more trip, even though the Cougar tracks made me nervous, greed can make a person do crazy things. As I was walking back up to the fallen trees on the ledge, and branches I heard a rustle behind me, and something caused my bag to get yanked from left to right real fast, and pull me down a bit. I immediately thought of a cat jumping up and swatting a string. As soon as a turned around nothing was there. Finally, I reached the fallen tree, and branches. Have you ever seen a cat sharpen its claws on a door, or on furniture, and scratch it all up? Well, approaching the tree, I realized over 4 feet of it had been clawed away, it was covered in deep claw marks. That big cat had been sharpening its claws there for a long time. At least a few weeks. That sent chills down my spine. I made it a point to leave my Rock Hammer next to all the Jade I let there so I wouldn't wuss out on coming back for a second trip.

The problem was I hadn't planned on finding that log, or a stealth cougar using my bag as a yarn ball. As I approached my vehicle I tripped and the rocks pulled my over. I decided to land back first since the rocks were so heavy and didn't leave me a choice. I landed in mud, and water. After struggling to get up I made it to the truck emptied and went back for more. It was the most successful trip I have had, and exciting. I wonder if the reason nobody stepped foot over there was because they knew there was a large cougar living there.

I whacked no rocks on the first pack trip. On the second load I realized I brought more rock then I could carry, so the whacking commenced. I must admit this trip I brought a secret weapon in my Jade hunting arsenal. I brought my portable Dremel with a 1/2 inch diamond wheel. The reason no whacking on the first load, is I held the dremel up to an area on the stones with a rind, and ran the wheel for a couple seconds, so not to disturb the shape of the rock, but it does 2 things. On Jade it instantly creates a smooth glossy finish on Jade, and if I pick an area on the stone that has a thin rind it will often create a window into the color of the stone without damaging it. So the first load was all good. The Dremel was dying from all the testing I did so the second load wasn't so lucky. I had many that had already been tested, and a select few stones received the hammer test. Luckily, the large stones I hammered were duds, and so I left them behind. Only about half of what I hammered were good, and so I am glad I did it. One reason I am glad I did the hammer test on some of the large stones is because I found a couple large agates I got to bring home in there place, although I did leave a couple as well.

I barely scraped the surface of that area. One could spend weeks hunting there and not find whats there. I collected from a very small area. This is the largest rock bed I have seen on the North Fork hands down, and it appears it was all underwater, and new stones were deposited. Unless, it were wet I never would of noticed all the large stones standing upright and sideways from being dropped in place by the river. I am not exagerating the slightest bit when I say the best specimins I have seen are there, and literally what was falling out of the bank from the deposited sands and erosion was amazing. I didn't mention alot about the area. One example was a metal shed was completely dropped and crushed then buried in a foot or more of sand., and since the river went down it is half sticking out of the ledge. I also found a newer sleeping bag entirely filled with sand buried in the hillside, and a large mans pair of sweats hanging out as well. That flood destroyed alot of property. Very sad.

Aaron