Excited by our initial finds, we soon returned to our new-found hunting grounds; this time armed with a few extra tools to make the process easier on our bodies. We also brought Daniel's 11 year old daughter, in hopes that she would be able to enjoy the adventure of hunting nature's treasures with us. Unfortunately, crystal hunting was too tedious and dirty for the likes of the young'un and eventually we called it a day, determined to return soon and recommence our adventures.
Most memorable for me from that second exploration, was that I found my very first Amethyst. It was small and not very dark, but even covered in dirt and oxidation, I knew right away what I had found and it was thrilling!
When we got back to the car, we decided to do a little more driving to see if we could spot the location of another hunting site, purported to be in the vicinity. Unfortunately it was getting dark and all we found were winding roads, with beautiful vistas, littered with a carpet of bullet casings.
We returned a couple of days later, this time without the kiddo. The hike in felt like it took forever, since we were all-the-more excited and now had heavy expectations. This time, however, we got a much earlier start to the day, so that we could really explore and not feel rushed or constrained for time. We brought lunch, extra water, buckets for carrying supplies and crystals, and rubber-reinforced gardening gloves (these are so key!). After a couple of hours scouring the hillside, we were again enchanted by the subtle breeze and the cheerful song of alpine birds, but we were ready for some new adventure.
I had beefed up my research and felt pretty confident that we could find the other site. It was much further up the mountain than I had initially understood, so we just pressed on until the road ended and our only option was to park and hike. It's amazing now to think that we were on the right trail the whole time, for as we hiked, every step was unknown and every bend held the potential of a wrong turn. Following our frail clues we eventually came to a minor break in the brush lining the road and a small pink ribbon told us this was the start of the trail to the hunting grounds. My directions indicated that the trail had once been an old forest road that was no longer used, and so was flat, but completely grown over. Our clue was to follow the rough, rocky path through the overgrowth until we reached our destination. I kept thinking to myself - thank goodness Washington State doesn't have a plethora of poisonous plants, like poison ivy or poison oak! Reluctantly, we dove in and kept our eyes on the ground, following the rocky trail as our only indication that we were headed in the right direction. In the back of my mind, I was remembering the story I had read of a father and son who had attempted this same trail, only to encounter a sleeping bear, and abandon the adventure entirely. It was almost more difficult to maintain a positive attitude, than it was to push through the thick brush.
Finally, the overgrowth cleared and we were treated to an exquisite view, down into a remote valley, flanked by rocky slides pouring down the mountain. It was gorgeous!
Still uncertain of where our hunting grounds were, we walked with caution, pausing every now and again to examine the crumbling boulders along the path. Again, it was difficult to avoid wanting to stop and examine every stone. A voice in the back of my mind was nagging, "What if there are crystals here and you're moving too fast to see them?" But finally we rounded one last bend and we knew we had arrived. The crystallization was everywhere!
Boulders glittered with quartz remains. The ground literally sparkled. It was like nothing I'd ever seen. Clearly, others had spent time here, hunting as we were now. Mineralized rocks were heaped together - fun to examine, but too damaged to bring home. I realized we were hunting on an actual rock slide. It didn't take long to figure out that we needed to be extremely careful - one unintentionally placed step could start a deadly chain-reaction. For the next couple of hours, we scrambled around, turning over rocks and marveling at the plethora of sparkling quartz shards. Unfortunately, very little of it was salvageable... until Dan made a discovery.
He had the bright idea of making for the shade, and beginning his search there. He had found a small muddy pocket, exposed above a heap of loose rock. He had discovered a vugh! For a while he poked around and was finding some broken crystals. Even though they weren't totally intact, many had nice terminations, which can make all the difference in the presentation and value of a crystal point. It was a precarious location and required him to crouch awkwardly to reach inside the pocket. We made a team effort of it - he would reach in and scoop the loosened dirt and crystals toward the opening and I would retrieve the small piles and sort through it. After a while we switched, but I didn't last long. Lying on my belly on a pile of precarious rock, I plumbed the depths of the pocket with a dental tool, fastidiously scratching away dirt, in hopes of uncovering more crystal points. Unfortunately, most were broken, as the vugh had collapsed, and my belly couldn't hold out much longer on the sharp rocks.
Dan picked up where I left off and I spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around and sifting through alluvial washes, where rainwater flows between rocks and rinses crystals clean so you can see what you're picking up.
When we paused for lunch, we took a moment to sit and take in the outstanding view. It's not often, in our modern world, that we get out to places where the sounds of the cities and the highways, and people are non-existent. Even up there, so far away from it all, we were hearing the echoing returns of a firing range in the valley below, or the occasional jet cruising over the pass, heading to or from Sea-Tac airport. I've flown that route before and looked down on these very mountains. From above, their scale can be fully appreciated - a seemingly endless maze of crags, mountain lakes, and snow-covered peaks.
When we decided our aching knees and backs couldn't take it any more, we readied for our descent and basked in the glow of our exciting finds all the way back to the car. It's funny how the hike back is actually the hardest part, because in addition to all the supplies you're carrying, you now have 20 lbs of crystals to add to the load. Thankfully, there's a sense of relief that you will be returning to the car and its comfortable seats, and that yummy snack you stashed in the glove compartment as a bonus for making the trek. It's the type of exhaustion that has an edge of sweet fulfillment - even if the next couple of days are spent aching and stiff.
When we got back to the car, we enjoyed our snack and loaded in our gear. I was too excited to examine our score, so I reached into the bag and pulled out a couple of the points from Dan's vugh. I filled a camping bowl with water and scrubbed the mud with a toothbrush. Eventually the smooth faces of the points could be felt and I pulled it out of the cloudy water to examine our treasure. Right away I saw these were special. They had even and geometric bands, running the circumference of the crystal, about half-way down. Amazing! I washed a couple more and found the same. We realized that every one of the points that Dan had recovered from his pocket had this awesome pattern. We jumped for joy! We had seen what is known as "Chlorite inclusion" before. It's a type of iron inclusion that usually appears as green spots within the Quartz of this area. But we had certainly never seen green banding before. And there was something else there - something that took a moment to understand what we were looking at.
When I held the crystal in a particular light, I realized that deep inside, hovering above the green band, was a ghostly, translucent pyramid. A phantom!
You can check some of them out here: Phantom Points. A few of these even have little bits of pyrite glitter in the tips!
Our minds were totally blown as we examined each crystal to find that every one, above the green band, had its own tiny, perfect pyramid in the center of the crystal.
To this day, that find remains one of our favorites. Unfortunately, because the vugh was collapsed, most of the phantom points that came out of that pocket are broken.
Nevertheless, when the sun rose the next morning, despite aching muscles and torn fingers, we were too excited to waste any time. We had even left all the equipment in the car, knowing we simply had to return the next day. We spent one more afternoon on that crumbling slope and every sunburn, bug bite, and glorious crystal point was entirely worth it!
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