So we walked to the creek and viewed another zone of totally dug up mess. Holes and deadfall and brush and huge gravel piles just everywhere! Some trees had to be ducked under and other had to be climbed over to get any distance out there! Rick and I picked out spots to try the new location. After digging under the bank with my rock hammer and shoveling out the gravel for inspection; I found quartz pieces coming out and some low quality smoky chips but nothing special. Still, I felt I was getting the hang of what needed to be done! My mentor came by and indicated I had the right idea. I knew I had the whole next day ahead of me and I was psyched and geared up for it! Here's Rick at a 'creek' site.

In camp I had to peel off a set of grit covered mucked cloths and throw them in a heap into the pickup bed with a big splat. I was sure glad I had thought ahead and packed another set to dig in for the Big Day! We retired early and slept well in the wonderful high mountain air. It was so much cooler than home! I did look out into the dark and noted the stars were 'pretty good' but after the stars over the Alvord desert last year, I didn't feel the need to stargaze. I already was stiff and hurting, so sleep was what I needed!

Thursday morning I let the sun hit the top of the tent before I emerged to boil water for my coffee. I felt great and totally ignored my aches. This was the day I was going to work my tail off, in a promising situation, and Get My Crystal!!! Well, I had found an itty bitty chipped one the day before and even had the sparkling little clusters from 10 years ago in my collection; but those were not what I was After! I was after a pendant size or better 'Classic' 'Location Type' Dismal Swamp very dark smoky quartz crystal! I was going to get one like the pictures I'd seen or else I was going to STAY until I did and be-damned with our schedule!!!

Meanwhile Poor Rick was having a hard trip and not feeling very good. First the flies bloodied the backs of legs and then the next day infected splinters from plywood made his hand swollen. He had to seriously disinfect and wrap up a finger and was feeling sour about the creek water and hand tools required. He is much fonder of hiking and picking up chunks of agate and wood than of this situation I had him in. All the fine dust underfoot irritated him too, puffing up with each step. He was mumbling about making a tarp floor for this sort of camp site and I was thinking a rug that trapped the powder would be nice! I'd armed myself with hay-fever pills I rarely need because of remembering Dismal's dust. Hay fever was part of what had ruined my first trip to this place and my advice is Never caravan in or you'll be choked half to death!

Heading out that morn I'm sure Rick was appealing to all the rock gods of all the ages as well as our ancestors to 'please let Rhonda find her crystal'! I think he truly feared never seeing home again or being forced to leave me clinging to a root screaming 'I Won't Go Without MY Crystal!'

We walked a ways along the torn up creek bed, greeted a Robert and found our own spots. I got to scraping and digging and ended up sitting right in the creek; then laying in it. I didn't care. It was a warm enough morning. Some time went by and I was aware of the other two Roberts arriving nearby. No one could see each other through the piles and deadfall and I kept scraping and digging. The son of a Robert (Kelly) came along and showed me a beautiful half glassy clear, half milky white crystal he'd found in the dirt of his camp! I remembered my mentor saying that a person can find a whole beautiful crystal absolutely Anywhere out there while camping or walking. He had found one of his only large double terminated crystals on the surface in a camp!

At some point there it was, a real whole crystal, nearly black, coming forth from the stream gravel I'd just scraped out into the open with my arm. In all my scooping wasn't even sure exactly where it had come out! It was small but pretty, termination intact and no big dings. YAY!

I whooped not caring who thought I was nuts but also as a signal to Rick that I was satisfied enough to let him drive me home the next day. I hoped he'd found something too but I knew if he had it was quietly tucked in his pocket. I worked awhile longer with no luck and moved to another spot and got two more, one little and one an interesting rehealed half. After only a couple of hours I was pretty sore and took a break.

I made my way back to Rick who said he hadn't found anything at all. I felt bad and reminded him that he was the One who got a limb at McDermitt! When either of us is feeling morose from being skunked, we need to be reminded by the other, of the times we got 'the find of the trip'! He was ready to go back to camp and eat something but didn't expect me to go yet. As we talked we saw a hole with a tool laying there and he said he'd take it back to the Robert who had been there. Those guys had left and were packing up for home. Rick left too and I stared at that hole. It had yielded many crystals in last 3 days to our neighbor who had showed them to me. He had really done Great & what the heck! I sat down and started scraping.

I worked and time went by and I found myself laying flat into the running creek with my whole arm and rock hammer extended under a big clay ledge. After about an hour at full reach under there, I suddenly felt a thump right on my arm! A stunning crystal had fallen out right on me!!! I rolled out of the hole holding it and looked at it in absolute shock and gratitude. It was truly a beauty and now my hope for this place had really come true! Silently I thanked that Robert for forgetting that tool so I'd know the area he'd been working! I scooted out of there and wonderingly looked at my long beautiful gemmy crystal. It was a double grown into the bottom but a lovely single on the top. I'd seen 4 or 5 much bigger ones in the hands of others the last couple of days, but to me, at that moment, that was the best crystal in the whole world! I happily got back to digging and another crystal came out. Not gemmy but nice and dark and fat. To my delight Rick returned and I had him take some pictures of me all grubby and happy.

 

Rick set to work beside me and still never got a whole crystal. I got one more small but lovely double terminated crystal before the sun hit me and I got so hot and tired and plagued by shooting pains that I had to stop. It was early but enough was enough. Back at camp we took our time cleaning up with clean jugs of cool water from home. We always haul at least 10 gallons around with us. I made big deli type turkey& smoked cheese sandwiches with sprouts and potato salad for dinner along with watermelon and chocolate chip cookies. Yum. It's forever hot when we are out camping in summer and big cold sandwiches with hearty wheat breads are standard fare for us. We always get worn out early and eat early, like around 3 pm, and then just hang out until dark, sometimes with a brew.

It was our last night and I told Rick I was going to walk in the hills before dark and say goodbye to the place. I can't properly do that on the morning we leave because packing up is a time consuming ordeal and I'm usually a bit sad. So I took my keeshond Kodiak, who had just loved this place because he loves water, and I headed for the hill beside our camp. I'd learned that some crystals had been found in the hills (thank you George) but as I walked I saw signs of previous rockhounds pretty much all over. I think if we'd made a day out of hiking a distance, we might have come across some good finds though. I stopped many times and picked around. Then I brushed pine needles off a large dirt slope in an open area and came up with a non-gemmy but nice looking partly terminated shard off a big smoky. I also found a busted matrix piece with partial termination of two crystals still on it that I liked enough to keep.

As I kept walking a noise off in the distance that had originally sounded rather like thunder or perhaps a jet was getting louder. Then the rumbling roar got alarmingly loud and I figured out that some huge piece of machinery was coming right into the camping area! Since I'd learned that nothing commercial is allowed in the area except for one gold claim owner, I figured that must be them! Standing on the hillside my mentor's words, that crystals can turn up anywhere, rang in my ears. In an amused state I left the hill for the road. I walked back to camp inspecting the huge dug out tracks. Can you believe this? A perfect unmarred smoky got kicked right up! It's a feat of physics how it wasn't smashed! Here's how I found it!

The next morning, Friday, I walked down the road to ask about the mining operation and thank them for unearthing a crystal for me, but no one was around. I took this picture of my benefactor! I was sure glad we weren't there for that weekend. I would have Hated listening to that thing while camping in the woods!

We packed up leisurely, completely forgetting the 'fry pan' we'd be driving into down from the mountains! Here's a shot of the typical road.

On our way again, it got hotter and hotter and we chose the quick and paved Pine-Featherville route on out to Mountain Home.This remote area that was sparsely populated now has million dollar houses sprouting up all over. 'Civilization' has encroached rapidly. I think it's the reservoir for boating and the wide beautiful clean river along that route, surrounded by forested mountains, that attracted all the millionaires. I don't blame them but it was a bit shocking to see out there. There was a lot of Nothing before!

On out to Boise the heat and smoke were both stifling. It was over 105 and we bemoaned not rising and packing at 4am. We endured the very long tedious sweating drive back and actually saw the range fire causing the smoke. A couple of hills off the freeway I saw orange flames jumping. Near Baker City there was a line up of ranchers with empty cattle trailers, standing by the road, staring off into the blackened hills, waiting to see if their cowboys found any of their cattle still alive out there. A full week later our air was still choked with smoke and sunsets bloody red.

Thank you Rock Hounds for reading my odyssey to Dismal Swamp! I'm very pleased to get this report up because information on this spot was hard to find online! Thank you as always to Mike Streeter for putting this into HTML and giving us McRocks!

KOR!

Rhonda & Rick (& our fuzzy companions Kodiak & Mason)