Discussion Topic |
|
This thread has been locked |
Fritz
Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Jun 7, 2018 - 05:28pm PT
|
Cragar: Thank you for your kind remarks. Pur was great to work for & they later got bought by Swiss water-filter giant Katadyn, which was also a kindly employer. Between earnings from them & the other small outdoor clothing & gear companies I worked for on commission, I was able to retire in 2015, with decent savings.
With your Idaho knowledge, I suspect you already know about the somewhat-preserved ghost towns of Bayhorse, Bonanza, & Custer near Challis. By all means continue up-canyon past Bayhorse & bike or hike to some of the old mines near the top of Estes Mountain.
A little more off the beaten path is the Livingston Mill & Mine up the East Fork Salmon. The lower mine is "off-limits", but the decent road up to 10,000' Railroad Ridge leads to more mines & some great scenery.
South, down Hwy 93, is Mackay with it's plethora of old mines & structures on "Mine Hill." They do get a lot of tourist traffic & I like some of the less-visited spots nearby, including Upper Mammoth Canyon & mine-covered White Knob Peak.
A little more off the beaten track are the many mines near the still-occupied mining town of Gilmore. I'm fond of the high mountain scenery & numerous mines just south of Gilmore, up Spring Mountain Canyon.
Miner's cabin at 10,000'
|
|
WBraun
climber
|
|
"..... the somewhat-preserved ghost towns of Bayhorse, Bonanza, & Custer near Challis."
NO photos of ghosts ...... thus "Fake News" ......
|
|
Fritz
Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Jun 7, 2018 - 07:24pm PT
|
W Braun! I'm honored to have you contributing to this thread!
Do you have any "gud" rocks you might want to share?
|
|
Fritz
Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Jun 12, 2018 - 06:23pm PT
|
Heidi & I took a spur of the moment trip to Ketchum/Sun Valley & hiked a couple of well-manicured trail miles up Greenhorn Gulch with my high-school "old" friend Stein on Tuesday afternoon. Then we enjoyed the good-life in Ketchum with a room at the Limelight Hotel & dinner at the Pioneer.
On Weds. Morning, Heidi & I drove up Warm Springs Cr. to the mouth of Thompson Creek. I hadn't been up Thompson Creek since about 1967, but my parents & I had camped there & hiked & fished the somewhat challenging canyon up Thompson Creek. We had also hiked up to old mines, far above the creek, to look for bottles & other artifacts in the early 1960's. My older brother had discovered the mines while hunting & had carried off a pair of early 1900’s hand-made 8’ long wooden skis, with bindings, made from a piece of tire.
I’m working on an article about those mines & others nearby, but I needed some good photos, & Heidi was willing to hike to them with me. About 200 yards up the Thompson Creek trail, which was never a manicured trail, it abruptly ended. Heidi & I went to plan B, which was to climb steep slopes to a user-friendly ridgeline, that would take us close to the mines.
The 2007 Castle Rock Fire, which ended-up burning to the edge of Ketchum, burned hot on Thompson Creek, but most of the ridge we climbed had only occasional burnt trees. Heidi climbed like a Gazelle & we knocked off the 1,000 or so vertical feet to the same elevation as the mines, in a surprising short time. Then we just had to traverse steep & burnt forest about ˝ mile to the main collection of mines.
Unfortunately, in the challenging terrain, Heidi “tweaked” her already sprained ankle & she called a halt, but kindly let me proceed to the closest mines for photos. We beat the incoming thunderstorm back down to our vehicle & made it to Ketchum for a 1:30 lunch at Desperados.
Burnt forest from 2007 fire, north of our friendly ridge.
Fritz, with the largest mines in the background.
The remains of a 1800's miners cabin, with just the tumbled fireplace rocks left.
This dish likely survived until the 2007 fire broke it.
I confess, I did not find a rock worth carrying home, but I still have some specimens from the 1960's.
Pyrite & quartz.
1/2" Pyrite crystals in matrix.
Galena, likely with some silver content.
A 13 year old Fritz, at another miner's cabin, at the Thompson Creek mines, back about 1963.
Heidi, limping her way back down to the road.
|
|
Fritz
Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Jul 3, 2018 - 04:59pm PT
|
Last week, during our City of Rocks climber's gathering, four of took the hottest day off and drove to the top of nearby Mt. Harrison. The temps were in the 60's & the views were glorious, although somewhat hazy.
Here's Stein enjoying the view north, back towards "The City."
We did an easy hike along a 9,000’ ridgeline east of Mt. Harrison & enjoyed the views.
The wild flowers were at their peak bloom.
Here's a Bitteroot.
However, we also enjoyed the views of the rocks on the ridge, since they were mostly a micaceous quartzite, known as Oakley Stone.
A weather-worn Oakley stone.
Heidi & Stein, lunching with the Oakley stone.
Nice stone!
From Wikipedia: Oakley stone is the trade name of a building stone The stone is quarried south of the city of Oakley in Cassia County, northeast of the three-state border with Nevada & Utah. The quarries are located on the west slope of Middle Mountain in the Albion Mountains, northwest of the City of Rocks National Reserve.
Oakley stone is micaceous, meaning it is a mica-bearing stone. This mineral gives the product a fish-scale-like sheen. The stone is noted for its great variety of colors, ranging from white and silver to browns, yellows, and golds. The original sedimentary rock from which the quartzite formed was a quartz-rich sandstone. During the metamorphic process, the pressure caused the layers of clay within the sandstone to thin and flatten into the mica-rich layers.
The outcroppings of the stone usually lie parallel to the ground and occur in large plates that can be easily split into thin veneers. Beginning in 1948, the stone was mined and sold in large quantities throughout the United States. It used for interior decoration, fireplace mantels, decks and patios, or facing buildings. There are about a dozen companies in the Oakley area quarrying the stone.
Archie Boyd Teater's Studio, near Choss Creek Idaho, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright used the stone in both the exterior and interior of the building.
Happily, a good friend owns the above historic structure & I just happen to have some photos of its Oakley Stone construction.
Oakley stone detail.
|
|
Fritz
Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Jul 22, 2018 - 04:48pm PT
|
I'm not going to be connected on Tuesday, so I'll post on Sunday.
The U.S. Weather Service forecast said zero chance of rain in the mountains above the Birch Creek Valley for Tuesday – Thursday last week, but their report was wrong, as I found out after driving 170 miles. Big thunderstorms were savaging the high mountain mines I wanted to visit & as an old lightning-phobe, I had no desire to risk it. I visited a low mine, but found nothing of interest & drove to another drainage where I could go fishing & hope the skies cleared for the next day.
I found a nice streamside camp-spot, but between 20 mph plus winds & high off-color water from several days of thunderstorms, fishing sucked. The clouds went away in the evening & the wind stopped, & over wine I plotted continuing on to the next mine I wanted to visit.
Ah wilderness!
The next morning I drove deeper into Idaho, to the Ima mine, which had first been mined for silver, lead, & copper in the late 1800’s, then for tungsten, up until 1957. It had been a big producer & likely deserves a super-fund clean-up, but hasn’t had one due to its remote location.
The mine doesn’t have anyone in residence, or any No Trespassing signs, so I freely wandered around steep mountainside ore dumps. I had made a brief visit to it in 2013, but now I knew a little more about what I could find there.
Since plenty of mineral collectors visit the Ima Mine, I figured my chances of finding good specimens increased with the steepness & danger of my looking. Since steep terrain is the norm, I had plenty of opportunity.
First, I worked my way up this mine dump.
That got me pretty high.
Conservative cabin on the mine dump (right-leaning).
The line of railroad ties once had railroad tracks & ore cars were winched up & down, from the mine portal at the top of them. Hiking up to that mine, to the left of the old railroad, was somewhat interesting. Hiking back down, was even more interesting.
The chief mineral mined is Huebnerite, a Manganese-Tungsten oxide. The redish-brown mineral in the photo is a 1" Huebnerite crystal in quartz, above some pyrite. Ain't it pretty!
There was a fair amount of shiny massive Molybdenite around, but it wasn't a mineral of interest to the miners.
There was a little Azurite.
After some research on copper minerals, I have a, new to me, copper sulphide, Brochantite. I seriously pushed the limits on my little Canon's Macro setting taking this photo of 0.5 mm tall Brochantite micro-crystals.
There was lots of pyrite, both massive & in cubes up to 1" in size, but they were not that wonderful. I did like the massive pyrite with Molybdenite in quartz.
|
|
Minerals
Social climber
The Deli
|
|
|
Aug 28, 2018 - 09:00pm PT
|
Tuesday bump. Good stuff, Fritz.
|
|
Delhi Dog
climber
Good Question...
|
|
|
Aug 28, 2018 - 09:12pm PT
|
Hey Fritz what is it with the wine + gun all the time?
You ferd them idahoians think maybe drinking wines fer sissies...?
:)
|
|
Fritz
Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Aug 28, 2018 - 09:25pm PT
|
Minerals! Thanks for the bump. It was starting to feel lonely on this thread.
In my last post, I mentioned that the specimen I found of the copper sulphide Bronchantite, was a new mineral to me. I meant I had never found any of it before. A few years back I bought this nice specimen of Bronchantite from the Milpillis Mine in Sonora, Mexico. Of course, I cherish the micro-crystals of Bronchantite I found, more than this classic 12 x 10 Cm specimen.
|
|
Jim Clipper
climber
|
|
|
Aug 28, 2018 - 09:26pm PT
|
Good stuff! Regarding the gun and wine: Western hospitality? Something to shoot at, after you drink the wine?
|
|
Fritz
Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Aug 28, 2018 - 09:34pm PT
|
Dehli dog! Per your question:
Hey Fritz what is it with the wine + gun all the time?
You ferd them idahoians think maybe drinking wines fer sissies...?
I like red wine after a day in the outdoors & the gun is some cultural baggage I carry from growing up in "deepest Idaho."
My Idaho friends & I feel better about having a pistol or two close, since you never know what might threaten you in "deepest Idaho."
Sheridan Anderson, more or less, agreed.
|
|
Fritz
Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Aug 28, 2018 - 09:47pm PT
|
Jim Clipper! Per your question:
Good stuff! Regarding the gun and wine: Western hospitality? Something to shoot at, after you drink the wine?
Our first rule is: no shooting when drinking & the second is no shooting in camp. The last time I fired one of my pistols, was before our 2012 Middle Fork Salmon 7 day whitewater raft trip, into deepest Idaho & bear country.
I realized that although I had shot both my 22 & 357 magnum pistols enough to get very accurate & somewhat deaf, back in my teens & 20's, I had not shot the 357 Magnum for over 20 years.
I found a remote spot during a mineral-collecting trip, put in earplugs, & rapidly fired 6 shots at a 12" paper plate about 50' away. All 6 bullets hit the plate & 4 were within 6" of its center. I didn't practice more.
|
|
clode
Trad climber
portland, or
|
|
|
Aug 29, 2018 - 08:54am PT
|
(Quiet, sshhh, don't tell anyone it's Wednesday!).
This one is Wallowa Batholith granodiorite, with secondary quartzofeldspathic veins.
|
|
mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
|
|
|
Sep 21, 2018 - 07:09am PT
|
It's Tuesday somewhere.
|
|
Fritz
Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Sep 21, 2018 - 11:56am PT
|
Thanks for posting folks.
Mouse, those gypsum crystal concentrates are called "desert roses" by the public.
|
|
Fritz
Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Oct 1, 2018 - 12:03pm PT
|
I took off Weds. morning & drove to Birch Creek, then up a steep & somewhat challenging road to a long abandoned copper mine I had been wanting to visit all summer. The mine sets at about 8,000' in an area with nearby summits above 10,000'.
My first view of mine dumps through the trees.
Cabins dating to about 1900 below the mine, with an ore chute in the background.
The afternoon of mineral hunting was pleasant, after hiking a mile from the end of the road, I was willing to drive, to an adjacent mine. My mine campsite had late sun & I was very happy.
Campsite sunset looking out at Idaho's 4th highest peak.
It did not freeze that night, but it made it into the mid-30's by dawn. The next morning, the sun never came up. I finally got up at 8:30 & the sun was still not up in camp, when I hiked back down to the adjacent mine for round 2 at 9:30.
A large chunk of rock stained with Chrysocolla.
I would have identified the white crystalline balls as Smithsonite, except Smithsonite is not listed as occuring at the mine. A simple test with 10% HCL confirmed they are botryoidal calcite.
Decent Malachite crystals are somewhat rare in Idaho, so I was pleased to find some nice Malachite micro-crystals. This 5" x 6" specimen has numerous pockets with crystals.
Here's a closeup of a 1 cm. area of crystals.
Azurite microcrystals on quartz. 1 cm. area.
I thought these crystals might be an exotic copper mineral, but since they fizz when I put 10% HCL on them, they are likely copper stained calcite.
|
|
Fritz
Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Oct 30, 2018 - 08:38am PT
|
During October I kep busy on our ranchette performing "honey-dos," but I broke out last Tuesday & drove to Northern Nevada for one last collecting foray before winter. I first visited the scenic valley east of the Ruby Range, but was deterred by the many NO TRESPASSING signs.
The next morning I drove to un-scenic Battle Mountain & looked south of there. Galena slumbers up a steep side-canyon about 12 miles south of Battle Mountain. The ghostly remnants date from the mid-1860's to the mid 20th century. There were a number of 20th century cabins & ruins, but I was only able to find one stone cabin that likely dated to the 1860's. The clouds & fall colors were very good for me, but the local mine dumps did not reveal any minerals of interest.
Old stone cabin at lower right.
Mid-20th century buildings at a mine.
Later that day, I found some colorful copper minerals after a good hike up a rough road to a high mine.
Since it was hunting season, I dress bright to not look like game.
A large piece of copper ore showing Azurite (blue) & Chrysocolla (aqua). I left it for eco-tourists to marvel at.
Malachite left & Azurite right.
Mostly Chrysocolla with a spot of green Malachite & small sparkly pyrite crystals.
Microcrystals of Azurite.
The next day I drove home, through the left-over huge fire that burned much of the area around Mountain City Nevada. I did a brief stop-over at the big-mine in the area, the Rio Tinto. It had been "reclaimed" but there were trailers & vehicles parked at it & I decided not to bother the locals or hunters camped there. I did find an interesting, somewhat charred, old truck nearby.
The next mine I went to was festooned with No Trespassing signs & it seemed a good time to start the scenic drive home.
|
|
Gnome Ofthe Diabase
climber
Out Of Bed
|
|
|
Oct 30, 2018 - 03:52pm PT
|
542? twice? yup.
I just want to say I'd hoped to be active regularly posting to this thread. Yet hope to too,
but,
focused, dedicated, finding a drive to dedicate,
Find space, the place in one of the silly drives
already full up with BS?
|
|
Ksolem
Trad climber
Monrovia, California
|
|
|
Oct 30, 2018 - 04:14pm PT
|
|
|
|
SuperTopo on the Web
|
Let us know!