PYRITE / SOAPSTONE TRIP

SEPTEMBER, 2007

Rain becomes an annual event

In case you didn't know, it's become an annual event - rain on the date of the soapstone field trip. If you allowed a little predicted rain to keep you from the September field trip, you missed a great time. 9 vehicles and 19 people met in Coulterville for the hour drive over dirt roads to Soapstone Ridge. Everyone had a good time getting dirty, digging out nice material for themselves and several extra buckets for the soapstone carving booth at the show. After two hours of digging, darkening skies and rain won out and we headed down the hill, where we stopped a short while later, for a half mile walk to view Bower cave. Local lore has it that this area was the site of many interesting parties during prohibition in the 1920's. As we were leaving, Andrew Mendoza's sharp eye alerted us all to a beautiful baby rattler that gave a nice hissing show before slithering away. We then caravanned on, to an area above Lake Don Pedro, to collect serpentine with pyrite, where lots of nice material was collected, including several extra buckets for the Wheel of Fortune at the Show. We all had a great time
collecting, learning about geology and rocks and
getting to know one another.

This trip was organized by Field Trip Chairman, Al Troglin, who by the way has several other interesting trips scheduled this year. Thanks for a great time Al.

by Terry McMillin