As field trip coordinator for the Southern Appalachian Mineral Society, I scheduled a field trip to Corundum Knob and Buck Creek on Chunky Gal Mountain in Clay County. I invited the Rome Georgia Mineral Society to come along. Of course, Chrissy was there to help me out having been to the Gal many times herself. Opal also got to tag along to add her own comic relief to the day.

As a collecting area, Chunky Gal is best known for corundum in various colors, including pink, gray, white, red and blue. On and near Corundum Knob, small pink to blood red corundum can be found widely disseminated in a beautiful pale green to emerald green rock called smaragdite, which is composed of mostly olivine, calcic plagioclase and aluminous amphibole (edenite).

It was raining steadily when we left our house near Asheville that morning. However, the radar image on the weather channel indicated that the rain clouds would soon pass to the east. Sure enough, the rain and fog were gone by the time we made it to Franklin. I stopped at a lookout on US-64 near Winding Stair Gap to take the above picture.

Our group of rockhounds gathered at a pre-arranged spot at the intersection of US-64 and Buck Creek Road at 9:30 AM. Chunky Gal is a wide area with dozens of specific collecting spots. All, but one individual, had never been to the area before, so my plan was to show everbody a couple good collecting locations on the east and southeast flanks of Corundum Knob.