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Saddle Mountain 9-11-008
Saddle Mountain 3
September 11, 2008
It was another great trip to the mtn for some pet wood. It all started out as Jim, Jimbo77, had a question about the GPS coordinates listed on the WA state dig areas on the National Directory. Man I am glad he had a question. lol
Andy got this trip put together for us, thanks man. We meet at the Lep-re-kon Harvest Food Grocery store on the west side of Mattawa. We all met each other and of course guess what the ol’ agate miser had with him, agates. There was plenty of ewws and awws, especially from me since I don’t get to see or find such great treasures.
The group included Andy, Andy’s son Jason, Andy’s friend Willie, Jim, Sharon and Tim Rockhound5555, Jeff and myself. Oh yeah, Sharon and Tim’s trained pet rock digging’ dog Karma (I hope I spelled it right) who helped me quite a bit. I needed all the help I could get anyway. Karma sure knew who threw the largest shadow. She was in mine a lot. lol That is one neat little dog. I had a kick!
We caravanned up the mountain to the diggin’s. The road is still in good condition except few soft sandy areas on the last stretch to reach the top. We were the only ones there at the parking lot so we had tons of area to dig. Man some of the people were out – well I should say Andy and a couple of others were out of the rigs before the engines were shut of searching for wood. lol You see any of them with a bucket??? I Told ya!! ;-)
I think Jeff, Andy and Jim went right after the reds, Willie took off up to the top of the hill
and started digging, Sharon and I went up to dig near the T and J mine. Tim is a bit worn from the trip and took a short rest and later met Sharon and I up where we were digging. Jason took off to the East where Dave and Rockpuppy had dug on a past trip. For a small group we had the area well covered. I start workin’ were I digging when I hit a pocket of good stuff last time TallTom was at the mountain with us. Sharon was tickled pink as she sorted the material left over of the past digs. Pretty much anything I found I gave to Sharon, though I think I kept 2 or 3 pieces while there.
It was getting to be lunchtime and most everyone went back to the rigs. I decided to mosey on down to the red area to see what I could find. Man if some one wanted tumblers you could fill up buckets full in very short order. I found where Jim and Jeff had been digging earlier, this is the same spot where TallTom worked last time he was here. I puttered around and decided to start a new hole. The reds are shallow, generally with in the top foot. The hole I started was pretty bleak at first. I almost gave up at the spot when I finally start hitting some wood. This is larger wood than we normally had found in the past.
So I was getting a little excited. I started a scrap pile, which in past trips would have been in the bucket and would be plenty proud to take it home. I really intended on going down to the mountain on this trip and only getting a few select pieces wood. I put a couple of baseball/softball sized pieces when I noticed a red nose sticking out of the wall. I tried to move it and it was solid. I kept digging and prying and it was growing. Now mind you I have really never seen many large pieces of the reds. Most pieces are small and people are mostly looking for limb casts. These aren’t the 1’ rounds or anything like that. Anyway this thing has great character, solid and heavy (Not like an 83 lb agate. lol) It just may end up being a specimen.
I saw Jeff coming over the hill to me and I yelled at him to make sure he had a bucket. Hehe He did like any good rocker would. He saw the couple of pieces I put in the bucket plus the pile of scraps next to me and he start digging like crazy.
Shortly there after Jim came back and was digging where he was earlier.
Andy came down did a little digging and lookin’.
Jeff and I could have continued as it was fun to find big stuff. But everyone was ready to take off. We had a bucket and a half of nice large pieces and I sorted the bone pile for the best pieces and topped off the other bucket. Poor Jeff had a long pack out. Andy and I were there for good support! lol Luckily when we got close to the rigs we called Jason over to haul a bucket to Jeff’s relief.
Once at the rigs we took pics of the finds and visited. What a great group of people and a good time. Tim was pretty beat, I can hardly wait until he back to his normal self. He did great and I think had a good time. Just give him a few weeks and I imagine that he will be getting stronger and ready to really get back to rockin’. Jim, Tim and Sharon (Karma too) and Willie it was great to meet you and Andy and Jason it is always a pleasure to break a few rocks together! Thanks you guys for a great time!
I must apologize as I didn't get pics of the other's finds. Hopefully they will post their pics.
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, Sep 13 2008, 1:51 AM EDT
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Petrifed Wood
Saddle Mountain
Washington
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