Saturday I didnt have anything better to do and after sleeping in til 8 am and having getting some fruit loops and frosted flakes down, Missy and I packed up and headed south to do some digging and collecting. I had originally thought about heading to Eminence again, but for some reason decided we were on the road too late for that trip, didnt want to settle for just three hours of dig time, so we headed to the new druse spot and then the secret spot. I was sooooo glad later on, lol.

We turned the corner on one of the county roads to cross the tracks and all of a sudden fifteen wild turkeys were crossing the road in front of me…before I could grab my camera, they were using the road like an airport runway and taking flight over the marsh ponds…

It had rained a few days before, so I wanted to see if any new bubble pieces had washed out.

 

I parked and left Missy in the truck, rolling the windows down so she had good natural air conditioning…she had dived into the mud the last time we were there and it took me thirty minutes just to wipe as much mud off her as I could before letting her back into my truck…another reason I take alot of towels with me, but it wasnt gonna happen this time if I could prevent it. I switched to my boots, grabbed a bag, gloves, and my mattox and set out to checking the usual areas…within minutes I was spotting small bubbles all over the place. Within about ten minutes, the first bag was full and I was starting to see football and softball sized pieces of bubbles all over the place on up ahead. I returned to the truck and grabbed two more bags, with some wrapping cloths. It was another good move on my part. I didnt get any farther than a hundred feet from the truck and within the hour, I had four bags full of bubbles of druse and had even walked a few beach ball sized chunks with bubbles all over three sides, back to the truck. It was at this time, that I decided to stop and head over to the secret spot.

We arrived there about noon, and found things quite laid out quite differently than the last time I had been there two weeks earlier, actually alot smoother entrance to it and easier to walk around now…the path up to the blast pile was even ramped up and made for much easier walking around. I could see right away that I would be able to access at least two of the walls better, so I grabbed tools and a bag and headed to the cornered wall on the left side….

…it was obvious that they had removed alot of rock in the past two weeks, to where I don`t know yet…and deposited alot of Streeter boulders over on the right side where I normally park….

As I walked up to this new wall, I started seeing signs of calcite and pockets all over the place, so I returned to the truck and grabbed two more bags and my hammer and chisel, for just in case….

…within minutes, I had found some pretty druse pieces and a few with calcite attached to them on that lower bench area above where you see one of my gloves to the left of the blue bag…

…and yes, thats an orange dogtooth crystal laying on top of one of the pieces above….I then took a look up above that bench and saw alot of druse pockets and….

….this nice little poker chip attached to one of the druse pockets right in the center….

…and looking up about another six feet, I saw this spectacular sight…..I was like whoa….

hold on to your hats tho….things were about to get even better….I climbed up on a narrow ledge and saw this just above the lower bench area and below the mass of crystals, in a very accessible location for me….

…and this cluster perched right in front….

…I climbed up and found another ledge so I could have both feet up there and not be hanging on with just one foot firmly attached somewhere, and started pulling some loose crystals out and brushing away some loose dirt on the right side, and discovered another pocket on the side….

…and zooming in with the lens, I saw this at the opening of that side pocket….

…and started to get excited….I took a closer look at everything in front of me and started seeing crystals all over the place….

…and the next 2 photos show the top of the pocket, left side….

 

…so I sat my camera down and began pulling whatever was loose, out of the pockets, starting at the bottom and working my way to the sides and above slowly and carefully….within ten minutes, I had this pile accumulating already….

…and I began working in a circle around that big chunk you see up above in the middle of the pocket. Luckily I had a few flat ledges that I could lay crystals down on til I had amassed several and then would climb down and transfer them to the lower ledge. I continued to clean out around that big chunk to make room to bring it down as well….

Many crystals and combos were coming out of the loose dirt around the big chunk quite easily and I even removed some nice twins and big single crystals as well, some were four to six inches long and three to four inches wide even. I really liked this big cluster in the front though….

…and really wanted to get it out of there before I removed that big one hanging over it, to prevent any damage to it, plus there were still so many crystals just hanging around underneath that huge chunk, so I kept on removing crystals under and around it first….

…you wouldn`t believe what all was under that chunk alone…you can see several in the middle and the two medium sized chunks on the left and right were both nice bubbles of druse on the faces, the faces turned in toward the pocket itself and not visible to you or I, and poker chips attached to the faces and bubbles….I was amazed each time I climbed back up there to remove more….

…after climbing down and moving more crystals and combos and plates to the bench once again, I climbed back up and decided to see what all was in that pocket to the right and after clearing quite a few loose crystals embedded in the red dirt in front of it…this is what I saw up close….

 

…again, totally blown away and even more exited….then I pulled those two facing pieces out from under the big hanging chunk…another HOLIE COW moment…..

…and I climbed down and added them to the bench with the other accumulated goodies….like that cluster of crystals on the right side of the pile….

…seen here up closer…..

…I took a short break and returned to the truck for some gatorade, then came back and bit the bullet and removed that hanging chunk…it was loose and didnt require any effort to pry it away, just effort to keep it from falling down on that cluster below and damaging or even decimating it….once it was out of the way, you can imagine my surprise at what lay behind it….

….an even LARGER pocket opening….and just wait til you see what was inside there…. I then pulled some more loose material out of the way, and OILA !!  there was a very large crystal cluster sitting loose inside all the other loose stuff….take a look at the next photo, you can see it just in front of the bubbly facing pieces…..and even bigger than the one still in front that I would have to chip out….

…and even bigger closer up….

…I continued to pull more loose stuff out of that front area, that the hanging chunk had been protecting well, alot of combos with bubbles of gray druse and poker chips attached as well as single crystals, in very pristine condition…was laying them on the small ledges as I pulled even more out….

 

I now had a view of more bubbles of druse plates attached to that big piece on the right side, and poker chips attached to it…

…and after removing more loose stuff just above the end of my mattox handle above, for reference, you`ll begin to see what I saw in the larger pocket opening above after I removed that large hanging chunk of rock that protected most of this pocket….

…and a closer up view reveals even more….

…and the next combo I removed from inside this pocket was absolutely stunning…no damage to it, pristine condition…I was just totally blown away….but as I said before, it gets better…..

…I removed some more of those hanging chunks above and some of the looser chunks on the left side of the pocket, which by the way were harboring some more loose crystals and combo plates, and this is the view I had inside the pocket showing the back wall of it….

and trying to get a closer view for ya….

 

…when sunlight hit the back wall, it lit up like a christmas tree…the druse is actually a silvery gray druse with alot of sparkles in each bubble and valley..and there are dogtooth crystals embedded in there as well…I immediately thought of Docia when I saw them, lol…more ornaments for her gem trees. 🙂
I`ll stop here and updated it tomorrow with the rest of the story. You might be like me, need a little extra time to digest it all before you see more.  🙂