Monday, an early start, back to the Smoky Mountain. On the 6:30 Ferry to the East Shore. The Ferry, packed with Alberta Plates. Me and Chris, we're the only BC Plates on it, and this - when the locals are advised to minimize travel, are under lockdown - it's infuriating. Albertans have a bad reputation, but has any other province ever worked so hard for it? Fucking Albertans. I'll come back to that, another post, I promise.
We make the site, begin the dig. Frantic shoveling, sifting dirt, repeat. Some good finds, large crystals, some an inch and a half wide, 3 to 4 inches long. But no great quantities, of digging, cutting through roots, tossing 100 pound boulders down the mountain. This is OK, but the motherlode isn't here. Maybe close.
Chris finds an old pipe - maybe 140 years old, more even, in some of the dirt he's sifting. Small bowl, missing the mouthpiece. Cool.
A long day, shoveling, sifting, then home, clean up the finds:
The photos are poor. The crystals - big, but - well, not enough, and I've found better. The good crystal shapes can advertise the cut-and-polished stones, which might be the way to approach it, but - I'm thinking -next trip, more pick-axe - less shovel, less grief with the roots and topsoil, and it will get me into the bedrock a lot quicker. And more walking around and exploring, because for sure we haven't gotten into the good stuff, these are just the early showings...