It only took me 37 years to realize I’m competitive by nature and that I’m not immune to physical labor. Go figure.
Yesterday Josh and I tried our hand at Avant Mining’s Fischer Mountain Claim. Following the theme of the entire trip, it was once again hot. For seemingly the hundredth day in a row the heat index was over 100 degrees and the radio stations warned of heat advisories. Luckily the air today seemed easier to breathe and wasn’t as “thick”.
That direct mf sun though 
.
The Fischer Mountain Mine is in the same area as the Twin Creek Mine. You know, the mine that got my ass sweat infused knickers in a knot the prior day.
From the get go this trip was seemingly much easier. We woke up around 6, made a fancy little breakfast, packed and then prepared for the 45 minute drive to hit the mine. It is critical in this heat to hit morning hours for mining. Once that 1pm-ish sun hits, it’s all downhill from there. I cannot reiterate that enough. If you mine in summer, start early.
The check in for this mine was not a broken down camper ran by a bitchy lady at the top of the mountain. Instead, you turn into the parking lot of a gorgeous museum at the bottom of the road. The vibe inside is clean and aesthetic. The most beautiful pieces the Avant Mining Company has pulled from their 35 claims are sitting proudly and beautifully displayed for others to enjoy (and to purchase, but I was reminded frequently that I’m unemployed and to not even think about it 
). The pieces were clean, crisp like a Polar Pop Coke when you need it the most and so neat to look at.
The friendliest young man checked us in and helped us with directions and briefings before we ventured off into the mountain. He let us know we were the first people of the day. I let him know I was proud of my husband for actually being on time for once in his life.
Must have been yesterday’s post that inadvertently helped
He asked *us* if we had any questions about the company, the mine or any of the safety and area briefings he went over twice before we left. Yesterday, just asking the woman in the busted up camper at the top of the hill if that’s where we checked in at seemed to set her off so this young man’s friendliness was much appreciated.
The road to Fischer Mountain is hairy in spots, much hairier than Twin Creek. There were a few times I just closed my eyes and made peace with the Lord; only to open them and to bark driving orders from the passenger seat. For the first time in our relationship Josh jumped, sighed out loud and said, “Gd, Amanda. You are going to cause me to have an accident one day. F*ck.”
Whereas I firmly believe it has been my passenger seat reminders that have kept us accident safe thus far. Knock on wood.
Once at the mine we were surprised to learn that we could literally park right next to it. This was so helpful because it gave us the shortest of distances to walk to cool down in the car. This, by far, was the best perk of the mine. We would frequently be able to take 20 minute cool down breaks which was amazing.
We found our shaded area and began to dig. Fischer Mountain’s soil just looked better from the get go so we already had an idea this this mine might just pay off a little better than the last. The soil was enriched with iron and was the deepest red of color. This is a good indicator that the tailing piles (piles of dirt the trucks bring up to move out of the way for the commercial mining area) had the potential for great finds.
I’ll stop here for a second to get geeky with you real quick. Twin Creek has beautiful crystals - but to get to them, you need to tap into pockets. Pockets are the areas in the quartz seams or veins that hold the crystals. To do this, you need a chisel and hammer and need to chip away at hard rock.
It’s 100 degrees outside. There would be no rock tapping for us. I’m built like a lumberjack but I sure as hell can’t function like one.
Tailing piles are what are mentioned above. Twin Creek’s tailings seemed stagnant (meaning it seemed like they hadn’t brought truck loads up in a hot minute - but then again we never moved from the shaded area to really get the full scoop). Fischer Mountain’s tailings seemed fresh (meaning it seemed like trucks had just dumped piles). Twin Creek’s tailings were a darker orange color. Fischer was a deep red. By theory, Fischer’s tailings should hold some neat material.
The area we worked had been untouched. We could tell by many reasons. I’ll jot those below in case any of you ever explore the crystal mines here:
1. The soil was packed. There was no loose dirt like someone had sifted through it.
2. The minerals were all still in their original layers. The clay was deep red, which turned into gray material (“look for the gray in the clay” is a common crystal finder piece of advice - that’s where you find the goood stuff), which turned into matrix, which turned into crystals. It was like a geological sandwich.
3. We had to dig about 3 foot down to get to it.
We found the most beautiful of pieces; clusters (lots of crystal points making up one piece), double terminated points (crystals with points on both ends) and giant “heart breakers” (broken pieces of giant specimens).
Now I’ve been a rock hound since I was old enough to walk our alley in my childhood home. My Pap would come in from work, tell me the city had put new gravel down in the alley and away I went. I would walk that alley for hours looking for fossils and minerals. I once had a basement wall lined with 5 gallon buckets.
Josh’s love for hounding only came about a year ago when there was nothing on Netflix and I forced him to watch YouTube videos of people finding minerals one night. Now, it’s a nightly ritual.
So imagine how ironic it was that he found pocket after pocket of large, beautiful crystals. I mean this guy was pulling out crystals that I was salivating over.
Only slightly butt hurt I made the comment, “I’ve been the rock chick my whole life and look what you’re pulling out.”
To which he mic drops with, “Makes up for all the times I have to put the worm on your hook and take the fish off when we’re fishing.”
Touché.
We worked from 9am to 5pm on the dot digging crystals. I was so surprised that I was able to go longer in the heat than he, but I was fueled ever so slightly by my competitiveness - and that was enough for me to keep digging.
When we finished the day our body’s were so sore and dirty. We had raked, dug and hauled soil and rock until we were weak in the arms and were completely iron stained from head to toe. It was the most physical labor I had ever been involved with in my entire life. I kept telling Josh I felt like the 8th dwarf (refusing to ask him what my name would be). He kept asking me to stop whistling while I worked.
When we got home we washed ourselves up, cooked ourselves a modest dinner and relaxed in the cool air before deciding to take our poles to the ponds. Our legs already looked like brail literature with the amount of mosquito bites on them from the night before, but we thought, “ah, what the hell are a few more?”
And then Josh caught a 15lb catfish on 4lb test and I caught a series of 2 inch bluegill - that I had to have him take off for me.
Imagine that.
No comments :
Post a Comment