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Pilchuck Creek Jade Gallery Page 1
All Pictures link to Photobucket slide-show to aid in identification. Profile Jade Gallery 2.0 Pilchuck
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| Pilchuck Creek Jade Gallery Page 1 |
Trip Report July 20, 2009
High Hopes, Low Waters
Well summer has hit hard and the near record breaking dry spell is showing on the creeks. It was in the 80's when we went down to the creek, repelling rather than bushwhacking to my favorite area. So much of the creek bed was showing that even the areas that were still underwater were fair game for hounding. Unfortunately my son and I had gone to Pilchuck with the hopes of a little swimming to beat the heat but the water was actually too warm in the pools we ran across. And the sun! The sun made it really hard (tiring on the eyes) to search for jade well. None the less I searched hard, and I did come out with some nice pieces, but not as many as I would expect with so much area to search. I even managed to find the other "half" of a rock I found under three feet of water earlier this year. It's not jade, but it's still interesting that I found it. After hitting Pilchuck we planned to hike up Bear Creek just up the road, but at the last minute I decided to instead go to Deer Creek (Oso) to make sure I came out with some jade for the day as I didn't feel I had at Pilchuck (until I got home and examined my haul).
High Hopes, Low Waters
Well summer has hit hard and the near record breaking dry spell is showing on the creeks. It was in the 80's when we went down to the creek, repelling rather than bushwhacking to my favorite area. So much of the creek bed was showing that even the areas that were still underwater were fair game for hounding. Unfortunately my son and I had gone to Pilchuck with the hopes of a little swimming to beat the heat but the water was actually too warm in the pools we ran across. And the sun! The sun made it really hard (tiring on the eyes) to search for jade well. None the less I searched hard, and I did come out with some nice pieces, but not as many as I would expect with so much area to search. I even managed to find the other "half" of a rock I found under three feet of water earlier this year. It's not jade, but it's still interesting that I found it. After hitting Pilchuck we planned to hike up Bear Creek just up the road, but at the last minute I decided to instead go to Deer Creek (Oso) to make sure I came out with some jade for the day as I didn't feel I had at Pilchuck (until I got home and examined my haul).
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 OtherHamHalf Only one shot of this, more to come if warrented...not likely:-) It's actually in three pieces as it broke in transit...I usually don't have to worry about that.  And here is the other half: BoneInHam see Other Rocks Gallery for description | |
 PitchBlack | Pitch Black OMG this is so beautiful!!! My wife can't stop holding it...I'm starting to get jealous! I had no idea how nice this was while I was on the creek and only realized while photographing the haul (as is often the case). As the name says, this is a pitch black solid piece of jade. I know a picture can't express the quality of this rock, you just have to hold it in your hands to understand that, wow, I want some more please! This is my new obsession when I hit Pilchuck. |
 BotSlice? | O.K., I think that's what this is. Like a perfect slice, the vertebrae of a divine jade creature. You can't tell what the jade color in pieces like this is, only infer...and I haven't cut enough rocks to do well on that...but trust me, you will be surprised every time (sometimes negatively though;-)....let's let...let us see.... No, I'm not going to cut it! This would be a display piece after a really good polishing/grinding. But let's see what I can tell you... There is no tug from the magnet, the black is just soft enough to scratch with a knife (Swiss) the green "scratches" the knife simple rock-scissors-paper. but see 'LuckyBotKin' (JG v.2.0Deer Creek, Oso pg1) a great lesson in this reasoning and invaluable for identifying jade. This side showing looks opaque, but the other side looks sub-translucent, so I would conclude that the internal jade is sub- to translucent. |
 UglyBot | So very ugly...but it is jade...either white inside, white opaque with green streaks or spots, or an ugly dull sub to translucent green. This is heavily weathered or easily weathered. It may be that some varieties (based on their impurities) are more easily weathered under certain conditions. You have to remember that some of the recently exposed jades have been away from the creek, buried under very chemically active soils for a very long time, having been deposited by past creeks' flows through the Travel Channel :-) Variations on a cobble's cycle through these various weathering conditions plus time from initial exposure to those conditions, creates a plethora of looks and tells for rough jade. On this piece you should note the dark black crevices of the serpentinite it was formed in (in the slide-show). |
 NotSoUglyBot | Better little "grape-clusters" here, but mostly the same deal as above. This is white, above is more of a brown- orange-yellowish hue. And there is more prominent serpentinite. Botryoidals are rarer than non-botryoidals, but are easier to pick out. I believe the sequence in the metasomatic/serpentization (rondinigization) zone is basically (often): SERPENTINITE-JADE-RODINGITE(&/or HGG) And that the botryoidal jades represent a frozen habit analogous to water when boiling, right on the contacts of the jade with the rodingite and the serpentinite. But what do I know, right? |
 OddSerp | Odd because I brought it home. Really its the oval spots on this one that I find interesting. That and with the translucency, gives this piece a special character. |
 ABWRon | Just another example of blackwall rodingite. Note the look of the tan, just like the white color of many jades. See, especially the tans of Grandy Creek, and the example here from THE STILLAGUAMISH. coming soon |
 1Break | 6 lbs Alright, I finally brought back this stuff out of desperation. Is it jade? Is it just a poor example of the "Stele" material? There is quite a bit of this just about anywhere there's jade. Compare with this little one from Deer 'NotWhat' (broken in the slide-show) (or look on JG v.1.0 pg 8). Actually I do have some more in the yard I never had the heart to toss into Junkite Creek, because I don't know what it is. It seems very similar to the piece below as well. Some of these have more green translucent areas, some more reddish or purple. It seems like if you cut away all the icky black stuff you might actually have something to work with in some of the larger stones. Please, if any one recognizes what's going on with these, edit this entry!!!! |
 2Breaks | 19 lbs Not quite like the one above, this one only has a shallow "rind" (brown), but like the one above I can't in good conscience call it jade with out further proof, and it may be quite common on the creek. |
 LittlePillyStele | 16 lbs Now this must be jade, yet it is similar to the two above in many ways, though maybe just in superficial appearance. This one is almost exactly the same stuff, but weathered differently, as the Jade Stele from Deer Creek (JG v. 1.0 pg 7), at least the patterned area. On this one the areas with the brown are translucent jade just as seen in the Stele photograph, but weathered. This begs the question, are the ones above just poor quality jades? Or just bad look-a-likes? I don't really think the two above are worth bringing home though. I only did out of frustration and to post my thoughts about them here and maybe get an answer to their mystery. |
 YeahJade! | 11 lbs Yeah, Jade! Notice the similarity to the weathering patterns of the 3 pieces above to this one...here you can see the green of a solid piece of jade. This is what you want to bring home. The internal color shall remain a mystery until I can put it to a large saw, but I know this is a good one with out any further testing. |
 VeryWedged | 19 lbs I really had to work to get this rock out from between two boulders, so irregardless of what it would turn out to be, I was going to drag it home. This may be a light bluish jade. Notice the black serpentinite. Compare this one to a botryoidal piece I found a long time back on the NF of the Nooksack River, 'NookBot' (JG v. 1.9 pg 2)....or it may be pure junk....I'll update for sure on this, it's either really great, or I'm a great fool. |
 SawFodder | Just one of many pieces of junk I'm going to saw into for fun on the off chance there's jade inside. This one is likely a tan rodingite. Notice the little green areas that I'm hoping make a pretty pattern when cut. |
 OldPilchuckRock | When I first hit Pilchuck about a year and a half ago, I picked up this rock. It sat in the back yard, neglected and forgotten until now. It is similar to another rock I picked up at the same time, Pinks, reds and green sub-translucent stuff...I'll break and/or cut into this soon to see how nice a material it is. it is a promising stone, and not that common on the creek as far as I can tell. |
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gamaliel114 |
Latest page update: made by gamaliel114
, Oct 20 2009, 9:57 PM EDT
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About This Update
Edited by gamaliel114
15 images added 15 images deleted view changes - complete history) |
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Keyword tags:
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| Started By | Thread Subject | Replies | Last Post | ||
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| gamaliel114 | Pilchuck Creek | 1 | Jul 25 2009, 12:28 PM EDT by pvjjh | ||
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Thread started: Jul 24 2009, 9:56 PM EDT
Watch
Here's the trip report for Pilchuck from the July 20th misadventure for those bored enough:-)
~Zeke |
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