The final field trip of the year has come and gone for the Owyhee Gem and Mineral Society.  This field trip to Succor Creek, Oregon happened last Saturday.

I met Gene and Scott at 7:00 Saturday morning.  Before we left Gene and I discussed cutting a large thunder egg (about eight inch diameter) that I found last spring.  This thunder egg came from Succor Creek but from a bed a few miles away from where we were going that day.  By 7:15 we were on the road heading to ION Junction to meet up with the group.  ION Junction is where Idaho highways 95 and 55 meet.

Succor Creek Thunder Egg

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About two weeks ago I started finishing many batches of rocks that I have been tumbling for about two months.  These batches have been going so long that I lost track of how long each batch spent in each stage.  As I worked with these batches I had to go by look and feel to decide when to move them to the next stage.  This worked out very well because some of the rocks would be ready for the next stage while other still needed more time at the current stage.  By the time some of the rocks were being finished all the batches were well mixed up.  I am now starting each batch in six pound drums and moving the rocks to three pound drums for the later stages.  I have one three pound drum of these older batches left to finish.

Recent Rock Tumbling

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Saturday I joined a couple of friends, Jason and Peter, on a search for precious opals.  The location we went to was just off of Sommercamp Road in Owyhee County, Idaho.  The weather was overcast and cool which was perfect for digging.  Actually, I thought it was a bit cold at first but after digging for a few minutes the jacket was coming off.  We ended up digging for a good four hours before we moved on to our next stop.

Opal Digging Location

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