Idaho--August, 2017

[ynot]

Hey Ken,

Sorry to hear that You failed to find any "glory" holes on this trip. Better luck next time.

Remember that the unsuccessful trips make the successful trips so much better.

[digit]

We spent nearly two weeks hunting for different types of material all along the western edge of Idaho and got to see some terrain that is unfamiliar to us which was a treat. Many of the sites mentioned in the book seemed more promising than they turned out to be. I don't know if that was intentional build-up by the author, due to the fact that the book is 7 years since print and things have changed, or if we were just unlucky or not properly experienced in hunting in these habitats. We found the advertised materials at the two pay sites we visited (leaf fossils and garnets) though it seems repeated visits to both sites would be necessary to pull out more spectacular finds--just like any other site where the good stuff usually only comes with effort and experience. Many of the other sites seemed over-hyped as we did our best to explore the given localities with very little return. It will serve as a lesson not to get my hopes up too high while reading rockhounding books at night in bed with a highlighter marking up what sound to be drool-worthy locations jam packed with low hanging fruit. If it were that easy everybody would be going there (or maybe they did? ).

 

Always fun to be able to pepper a trip report with images of spectacular finds to encourage others to go out and hunt for similar materials. That didn't pan out (literally) in this case but everything beyond seeing a total solar eclipse was gravy anyway. And speaking of panning out--I did seem to be able to reasonably efficiently get down to garnet and black sands in the creeks that I was able to make use of my new gold pans so I think my technique was not too lame (for a relatively rank newbie) so I think I'm just not good at identifying gold traps in waterways. The fun is in the learning so I think I have a lot more fun in my future.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Wrangellian]

In your situation I might not have been sure that was a stromatolite either, but given that it stood out among all the solid (not finely layered) rock at the site I would have probably taken it. Seems to me it could easily be a piece of a larger rock which might have been wavy if there were more of it to see. Oh well. The larger piece I have from NW Montana is similar but with a slight curve to it. If it were straight over many feet like the finely layered Eocene deposits then IO would have no trouble dismissing them as just finely layered strata. I don't know!

The quarry site you show looks to be Libby Fm, but the one you collected at looks like Mt Shields. The Mt Shields sediments are described as pinkish, any my ripple piece is indeed pinkish (the stromatolite pieces are limy like the one in your pic). They are both part of the Belt Supergroup.

I think the striking wavy yellowy/black examples that you are seeing in the Google Image search are from Bolivia and Cretaceous from what I understand. The reddish stuff with tiger eye in it is from Australia (Archean? I'm thinking of starting a topic about that stuff to find out just what age it is, as the info online is mixed).

I wonder if the Mary Ellen mine in Minnesota is still producing, and open to collectors?

[digit]

I was part of a team that collected (with permit) an extant stromatolite from the Exumas (Bahamas). I never managed to get a piece of that one when it was sliced up for study. I think it would be interesting to have a specimen of virtually the first of all collectible fossils (chronologically/stratigraphically). I'd want one that has some style so maybe there will need to be a trip to Bolivia or a return to Australia sometime in my future. Thanks for the pointers. I've got a lot of other items on my fossil bucket list ahead of stromatolites and I'll research localities now but wait till it naturally fits into my travel schedule to try to collect.

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[digit]

Have you ever heard of the expression "dumb as a box of rocks"? I find that I now fit that description more aptly than ever. You'll recall the last image of my trip report above included these to packed boxes loaded with 25 pounds of rocks each headed toward the post office in Boise, ID. What I didn't know then but have learned this morning is that the post office has two sets of Priority Mail boxes that are marked very similar with the exception of one key phrase "FLAT-RATE BOX". Turns out the two boxes I grabbed to ship these rocks back home (though it turns out I did actually have spare weight room in my 4 suitcases--thanks Southwest for being the last airline with a decent baggage policy). I thought I'd be picking up a lot more rock on the last day which turned out to be a bust when the creek bed that was supposed to have gravel bars filled with jasper, agate and opalized petrified wood turned out to be virtually all chunks of eroded lava.

 

The boxes did not show up when expected and were returned to my local post office without any explanation. I ran over there this morning while doing some errands and inquired as to why these boxes were held up as last I saw online they were out for delivery to my address. Turns out they were being held for $120 of postage due! By inadvertently grabbing boxes that were not flat-rate, the shipping was being charges as weight and distance (very far and very heavy). I told them reluctantly that they could simply toss them as a couple of boxes of rocks for my tumbler were in no way dear enough to me to pay that ransom. The woman behind the counter agreed that the boxes were confusing and that the agent at the post office I shipped them from should have inspected the postage to verify it was correct. She said that the post office has installed the self-service machines and encouraged people to use them to help automate shipping but that this results in errors like this quite frequently. Apparently, these boxes were a bit larger than the flat-rate ones so she offered the option to pay for a third "virtual" flat-rate box to make up the difference and that they would hand them over for the difference in payment--an offer that worked out as well as could be under the circumstances.

 

The moral of the story is that if you are going to ship back your treasures from a collecting trip, double-check the boxes you ship in to make sure you see that they are flat-rate. Humbler but wiser now.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

 

[Monica]

We've all been there, Ken - I find that I have so many more things on my mind as I get older that I can't remember if I've done the simplest tasks, including locking the front door when I leave for work in the morning!!! (I think that I get out of the car at least 3 times out of 5 in order to double-check that I've locked the front door - you'd think that I would have learned by now to be more present/aware/focused on what I'm doing but no - I'm as unfocused as ever! ).  I'm glad that you got all of your rocks back home, safe and sound - can't wait to see what they look like post-tumbling!

 

Monica

[Wrangellian]

On 8/28/2017 at 6:34 AM, digit said:

I was part of a team that collected (with permit) an extant stromatolite from the Exumas (Bahamas). I never managed to get a piece of that one when it was sliced up for study. I think it would be interesting to have a specimen of virtually the first of all collectible fossils (chronologically/stratigraphically). I'd want one that has some style so maybe there will need to be a trip to Bolivia or a return to Australia sometime in my future. Thanks for the pointers. I've got a lot of other items on my fossil bucket list ahead of stromatolites and I'll research localities now but wait till it naturally fits into my travel schedule to try to collect.

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

Don't get one from Bolivia, I hear they are Cretaceous in age. You'd have to go to Australia for the earliest - that is if there is anywhere they allow people to collect stromatolites! There are a few other places in the world with old Precambrian (maybe no older than Paleoproterozoic?) stroms too but not sure of collectibility.

I've had that idea too - collect the earliest available examples of of everything... that results in my focusing on things Precambrian, Cambrian, Lower Paleozoic. It doesn't help that I don't live in an area any older than Pennsylvanian and can't travel so I have to buy them, as it appears everyone and their dog is also collecting the same stuff...

[digit]

Luckily, I collect with no rhyme or reason. Rather than have a purpose-built collection and trying to fill in the puzzle pieces with rare or hard to collect specimens, my collection is rather free-form. I hear about fossils that sound interesting (or look drool-worthy) and try to organize trips focused on obtaining something that catches my interest at the moment. Alternatively, when I have a trip planned somewhere I like to see if I can get in some good "treasure hunting" days along the way. The Idaho trip to see the total solar eclipse was one of the latter. The primary purpose of this trip was to see an awesome site with my own eyes (and a lot of expensive camera gear ) but that didn't stop me from extending the trip before and after the eclipse to try to take in some days of hunting for treasures out in the field.

 

This trip was less productive than I'd hoped but I still enjoyed following the "treasure maps" to get to remote places in Idaho that exceedingly few eclipse watchers (or for that matter, Idahoans) ever get to see. Gold panning was great fun (though quite chilling at times). I'm happy that my technique was reasonably sound though I was better at finding black/garnet sands than gold flake--need to learn to read rivers better to figure out where the gold may be hiding. I've got a nice collection of Miocene leaves and I was able to collect at a new spot and experience seeing 15 myo colored leaves reveal themselves (before oxidizing to a rich black). Though I unwittingly tried to sabotage my creek collections, I do now have a fair bit of material to keep my rock tumbler busy through the end of the year. Not optimal, but I'll take it as a fun week and a half of treasure hunting in new surroundings.

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken