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Revelstoke, The Crystal Forest

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Written by: Rod Boyle

Category: Blog

Published: 07 July 2022

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Sunday night, done work early and I'm off, break like the wind, my first day off in about 8 weeks. 

I'm off to Revelstoke. South of Revelstoke, check out some areas on the logging roads south. 

It's raining - the week forecast - the whole month, actually - to be one big wet monsoon, unseasonable - but I have to go.

3 hours later and I'm there, up 25 KM into the woods.

The next morning, begin. Checking every roadcut, there's pegmatite everywhere, the abundant sapphire claims tell me it's here - and while I'm finding pegmatite galore, feldspar, quartz, a little bit of mica and black tourmaline - I'm not seeing it. 

Still, drive the 25 KM out, check the road at every cut - always the same. 

Now I should note the pegmatites go all the way up the mountains, to the very top, and the paying ground could be anywhere. A lot of is covered in overburden. And it's raining, and to step into the chest-high ferns and bushwack through wet brush - well, not today. So I explore, go further up a few of the roads - more brush, more pegmatite get maybe 35, 40 KM off road and I start to get a little nervous, this is a 2 day walk out, through miserable weather with minimal supplies - and my trust in the jeep is so far reasonable but cautious. 

Soon enough I'm sure it will be abandoned, but - given the weather I'm not taking chances. 

The road up, abundant pegmatite. Fields of it. Pull aside the moss, admire the feldspars, quartz, occasional patches of schorl, but - a lot of room for searching. 

The mosquitos - given the weather, soon make any expedition maddening.

Eventually the day is done, and by Tuesday I've resigned myself that this is not the week for finding. My planned detours for the route back are thwarted by possible flooding and so it's the straightforward valley tour. And coming through Winlaw I spot this:

Of course I stop. Maybe somebody found something on their property and is operating a fee-dig?

The truth is far more boring. The owner of a rock shop in Nelson has simply sprinkled some crystals and pretty rocks around their garden, you find what you like and pay by the pound.

***

Nelson, after the long weekend, is busy, the tourists clogging the streets, gawking, squawking, walking into the streets against lights, line ups grown unreasonable long at every restaurant and cafe, it's intolerable. I was better off in the forest. And the homeless, now raging in the street, only now there's legions, the seasonal influx of homeless people must crowd out the local homeless population, vying for their begging $$$, who knows but if I'm losing patience with tourists how are they feeling about being displaced by the more belligerent populations from other centers?

By odd coincidence my youtube recommends a local (BC) "celebrity" prospectors' video on finding Star Sapphires, and - LOL - I recognize my old pal **** from the Chamber of Mines, and the location - which I'd hammered countless times before in a fruitless search for unremarkable crystals I'd passed over a dozen times before. 

So - watch the video, see what it was that I was missing - stop by and rib **** - this 'celebrity' prospector, most likely a very nice guy, certainly his videos seem to promote this, but I rather resent him coming to our turf, if you know what I mean. And I'm generally of a mind to despise any sort of celebrity who needs to sell merch and get likes to fuel his dreams - but to each their own.  

The dentist today and the week is over...