I wish I could say I found yet another blue poker chip pocket for two days in a row, but I cant, cause I didnt.  I did find yet another pocket the very next day after the blue hole though and on the other side of the lower level.  As we were driving down there we came across this nice scene in a valley nearby….

…and once we  arrived, the clouds were once again very noticeable…and even though it was a little warm, there was a nice breeze blowing through thanks to the clouds.

…I had decided to try and dig down into that pocket and see just how deep it would go and if anything was in it…I stopped in Steelville at Casey`s,  and purchased a cheap flashlight, having gone off and left my really good one at home again. As it was, I didnt need it for this pocket, cause after digging down a little ways with the mini mattox, I bottomed out real quickly….

…so I backed off and tried a different route, thinking maybe there was a deeper pocket there nearby and I just wasnt sitting in the right spot for it. I dug down into every hole I could see and never did find a deep pocket anywhere, just lots of little shallow pockets and a few crystals.

..so I took a break after digging there for a couple of hours and drank some water, as it was starting to heat up again, and then decided to move about ten feet north and try my luck again….

…and as luck would have it, after scratching around and finding some signs of calcite….

…I soon had another pocket scouted out and quickly taking shape…

…and I no sooner had a small pile of crystals growing than  the pocket started moving in that direction and I had to move them to the right about three feet…as it was, I had to move them twice to the right….

…this pocket formed up fairly fast, with a large and extensive base plate that had a couple of clusters on it, but each one was about six inches thick and then attached to a thick shelf of rock underneath. I tried chipping out the clusters just to make it easier to access the holes leading to what I figured was a deeper pocket underneath the clusters, but the rock and calcite the clusters were attached to, wore me out fast. I finally decided to just go on and dig out around the edges more and see where that might lead to…

…holes were opening up all over the place when I was digging and scratching around. you can see a hole above, this one only led down to the side of the cluster there, but then when I got down to the side of the cluster, another hole opened up, leading me to think there was either a pocket underneath the cluster or off to the side into the rock….

…so on and on I dug…sometimes stopping to pull out a plate of druse or a poker chip….

…and pretty soon, more holes along with ledges, were opening up so I was exploring more and more, thinking eventually I might find a big pocket somewhere nearby that was chock full of crystals.

…I wish now I had had my little paint brush with me to sweep away the loose dirt and gravel, that would have made things much easier, something else to put on my list of things to bring along…in the next few minutes, a huge cluster revealed itself to me and a large hole opened up next to it….

…I reached down into this hole, it was pretty big…and I pulled out a couple of nice crystals…so I naturally continued to dig some more...it would have been nice to remove this huge cluster, but as I said before, it was firmly rooted to the base of the pocket with thick calcite. I hear so much about calcite not being very tough, only having a hardness of four, but let me tell you, when you start driving a chisel into it, you would swear it was more like a hardness of eight ! Wears you out real quickly.

I took another water break and then started trying to dig this cluster out, see how big it was, and in the process I discovered yet another pocket to the right of it, under a ledge of rock….

…and yet another hole opened up on the left side, right by that cluster of crystals…

…by this time, I was starting to wear down from the heat and the digging….I had tried to break into the clusters and chip them out and that alone wore me down…and I was going from hole to hole exploring and trying to find a way down into what I assumed was a pocket off to the side of those clusters, but I wasnt having much luck getting into any pockets yet. I started scratching around again and low and behold, an even bigger hole opened up right in front of me and not near the cluster either…

…I went back to the truck and grabbed my new flashlight and aimed it into the hole and it appeared the hole was fairly deep….

…so I started digging out the pocket on the left side and making my way toward the hole in the pocket to the right….

…and as I did, more ledges and holes appeared. I started pulling more crystals and druse plates out right and left….

…including one very nice large twin….

…the pocket finally joined up with the other pocket, and sure enough, it was a deep one….

…I kept pulling large crystals out of it and chipping off the roof to move it back…prob moved it back at least two feet before I ran out of gas….

…I laid down on my side and set the camera down on the floor of the pocket and using the flash, shot this photo of the interior of the pocket….

..it was jammed full of large poker chip crystals…no I did not leave those inside the pocket intentionally…yes I ran out of energy, but if at all possible, I still would have reached in and removed them…had Mother Nature let me…they were firmly rooted to the bottom of the pocket like superglue…so that is how I left them….for another day.

On the way out, I shot some beautiful sunsets of the thunderheads overhead in the sky….

I decided to take my short day off the first weekend of July, after a long week of brush fires and a fun filled week at work, and drove down to the secret spot again to see if I could locate another pocket.  Missy and I arrived and I decided to do a little walking around to see what I could find in the rockpile first. I found a huge boulder with some pockets on it right away….

…but I didnt attempt to liberate any.

I moved around to the other side of the rock pile and looked around at some areas where the foliage was growing and decided to start digging into those areas to see if I could find another pocket. We have discovered that the foliage usually takes root in some deep pocket holes,  and they have led us to some nice pockets in the past. I started digging here first…

I started digging down by this small bush…

and within a few minutes, I had found some signs of calcite off to the side of it, so I moved over to the area of the roots….

…and within a few minutes of intense digging, I pulled out these two plates, which is a better sign of a pocket very closeby….

I was surprised, not expecting to find roots so thick and long, and began wishing I had brought a saw or an axe with me. These things were long and getting in my way fast. I continued to dig and expand the pocket despite the long and tough roots….

…after expanding the pocket around the bush roots, I started finding little ledges down underneath and then some holes started opening up as well, usually an indication of a pocket underneath the ledges….

…so I started digging out the ledges and within a few minutes, I was rewarded for my efforts with this beautiful poker chip….

…after taking a short water break, I began the task of taking on the roots once again….

…and boy were they tough….couldnt even bend them to move them out of my way…

…I soon got tired of fighting these roots and so I moved to my left about five or six feet and discovered yet another pocket area and began working it…no bushes or roots to deal with there…and within about thirty minutes of digging it out, I had a nice pile of crystals….

…this pocket started on the left side, where I hit the calcite base pretty quickly and then it moved to the right where it went deeper….most of the crystals in the pile above came from the deeper end of the pocket…

…and I was pulling a variety of plates and crystals from it….

…and pretty soon I was wore out and ready to wrap up everything and head for home…it was hot and I was soaked in sweat and dirt……think those roots prob wore me out more than anything.  As I headed home, I began to see storm clouds forming to the north near the interstate and I sure hoped we would get some more rain soon after….

…and here is the storm moving east along the north side of the interstate as I am driving home…it did rain about 30 minutes later and we received about half an inch of rainfall. it was a welcome relief, but we definitely need more, as does most of the country. I have never seen a drought like this before. I sure hope we all get some good rainfall soon and a break from this excessive heat spell, too.

I rearranged my schedule twice this weekend and drove back down to the secret spot early Saturday morning…they were calling for a high of 106, so Missy and I got up at 4 am and were on the road forty five minutes later. Docia wouldnt be able to make it down, she had a memorial service to go to for an aunt, so it would just be Missy and I this trip down. I hoped for a good five hours to work that pocket over some more after Tuesday evening. We arrived just after 6 am and got started on the north end of the pocket…..

…within a few minutes, I hit a shallow pocket, that contained a few single chips with a black center, and then a twin with black colored centers popped out as well….

..the pocket stayed shallow and didn`t go very far, trapped between two larger pockets as it were….

…and produced these guys…..

…after a few minutes, it didnt appear to me that the pocket was going anywhere on the north end, so I switched to the south end and began digging once again and pretty soon it appeared that I had chosen the right path….

…pretty soon I started seeing crystals and holes again started appearing…this time I decided I wasnt going to get my hopes up…if a hole led to something bigger and better, so be it, but if now, oh well….

…one thing was for sure, I was finding some plates and chunks of a pretty orange colored bubbly druse…..

…and within a few minutes, the pocket was expanding and filled with poker chip crystals nestled in the clay mix of dirt and mud, just like the day before….

…I was pulling them out of the pockets right and left, until all that was left were bigger ones, some attached to the side walls and some loose but in the sticky clay mud…..

…after a few more minutes of digging out the crystals and chipping out a few of the larger ones attached to the sidewalls, I found a large chunk right in the middle of two pockets…it had some chips attached to the base of it, but I wasnt sure if it was going to lead to something else or was an end to the pocket….

…I grabbed ahold of it and found it to be a bit loose, so I dug around the back side of it, which was no easy task let me tell you…that dirt on top attached at the back was like concrete, due to the dry heat we have been experiencing lately. After ripping it back and away though, it was looking like I might be able to move this huge chunk out of there soon…..

…I grabbed it again and this time it came right out…I turned it over and was like….HOLIE COW !!!!!

…a very happy guy….and was beginning to think it was Christmas in June, lol….removing this druse combo opened up another nice pocket of crystals behind it….

…which at first appeared to me as an endwall of the pocket, but the next plate I pulled out, changed my mind again…..

…and closer up….

…and then I took a short break, got some water, and chipped this twin with a base to it out…..

…pretty soon though, it was apparent that I was nearing the end of the pocket, plus I was getting tired, and the heat level was rising. I took another short break and got another bottle of water, and put Missy in the truck and turned the ac on…it wasnt going to be long before I would be joining her so I wanted it nice and cool when I got in there.

I came back and dug a little more and finally hit the end wall and removed what I could…I was fast running out of steam and the humidity just kept climbing….it was sapping my strength quickly…

…I returned to my truck and retrieved another two bags full of cloth wraps and returned and wrapped as many of the nicer ones and then filled two bags full of poker chip single crystals alone….here is what the pocket looked like after I finished digging…from three feet long at the start to now over nine feet long….

…and after wrapping up the goodies, I took one last look around and saw this spot, with a big weedy looking shrub growing up out of it and dug down a little ways…wanted to see how deep the roots went for one thing, not very far I found out but did find some signs of calcite down below…so maybe a good spot to explore further the next time….…sure hope its cooler by then…luckily we did get a spotty shower this evening and about twenty minutes of rainfall, but it didnt rain many other places….hope everyone is staying cool and hydrated out there this summer. As soon as I get some cleaned up from yesterday`s dig, I`ll post some more photos.

I hadnt been down to the secret spot for a few weeks, so Tuesday evening,  Missy and I loaded up and headed that way at 4 pm…this was before the record heat levels set in, so the evening temps were cooling down instead of heating up. By the next day, everything reversed and that all went out the window.

We arrived a little after 5 pm and the pocket I was intending to expand, was out in the direct sunlight, so I opted to check out other areas instead. I briefly walked around the pile of rocks to see if any new disturbances showed signs of life, but I moved over to a shady area, that I had previously worked before all the blasting occurred, and decided to try some of the areas where vegetation was showing….

…I`m not sure why we never checked these strips of vegetation before, but I sure plan on doing more of it now….

…we have found alot of pockets going where the vegetation is at and there were rows of vegetation in this area between slabs of rocks…if there is one thing we have learned, its that the floor here appears to be chock full of pockets in various areas….

…and while sometimes it takes a bit of time to find a pocket, today it didnt take long at all before I found some promising signs of a good pocket nearby…..

…I kept on digging down and pretty soon was seeing poker chips all over the place popping up in the clay dirt below…in fact, I found the clay dirt so tightly packed around these crystals, it reminded me of the way the clay dirt protects Arkansas quartz crystals too….

…and in some ways, this pocket was completely different than others I have found nearby…each time a hole would open up like the one below, I got a bit excited and anticipated a pocket or cavern opening up below….

…so I would back off and widen out the pocket area, thinking maybe I would get some indication of whether or not there really was a cavern of crystals below that hole…..

…and while I would pull a nice variety of poker chip crystals out of that widening detail….

…and while it gave me good indications of which way the pocket was going to move in and how wide it would go…..

…and how deep it might extend…..

….despite all that, and the fact that even more holes opened up throughout all this effort, as shown below, there were no caverns or cavities or pockets down below at all…..

…but I was never disappointed the whole time in as far as what I found during the three hours I was there…lots of bubbly druse plates, some with crystals attached, and some beautiful poker chips in singles, twins and triples….

…and within a few minutes, yet another hole opened up…which basically turned out to be a hollow spot under this cluster of poker chips that was attached to the side of the pocket, but since it was hollow underneath, I had high hopes of chipping it out later….

…and as it was…I was able to chip it out and it turned out to be a nice cluster, although it doesnt look like it here. I kept digging and the pocket kept on expanding in a seam like fashion…..

I stopped to take a water break, and returned with my four pound hammer and chisels, and was able to chip out a few nice clusters….

…as well as a few nice plates of druse and chips combined….

…and so the pile continues to grow….

…and pretty soon I had a pile of clusters big and small sitting nearby as well….some days you can chip them out and some days you only tear them up it seems like…today was producing some nice ones….

…and I was even able to chip out a nice druse plate with a chip or two attached…I gave this one to my friend Kaye…she wanted to come with me but had to go to a memorial service instead this evening….

..and below are some of my finds after cleaning them up a bit with soap and water….

this next little guy was kind of unique…it looks like another poker chip attached to a plate of druse from this side….

…but when you turn it over, here is the backside, which I normally dont get to see…..

…and this next one was actually laying loose below a huge chunk of bubble druse…I had reached under the chunk and tried to wiggle it back and forth and bring it out by itself…but it wouldnt budge, and not wanting to risk damaging it, I left it alone. Instead I took my hammer and chisel and knocked the back end of that chunk loose and then was able to retrieve this beauty afterwards….

…after taking a closer look at it, one might say it has damage, and maybe it does, maybe it happened with that chunk came down, maybe it happened before when it possibly fell off on its own…doesn`t matter to me, I still like it….even if they don`t.

…and between these beauties and this twin below…I was convinced that I needed to return and see if that pocket would expand and produce more than it did today….

…so I decided to come back a few days later…..stay tuned….