Lone Pine, California, Rockhound story submitted by Eva Part 1

Cool days and warm nights, what better rockhounding weather can one ask for! On
Friday
morning, I headed north along the same freeway that I was stuck on for 3 hours
in the
spring due to a large brush fire. I was intrigued to notice that the grey ashen
hillsides
were already beginning to recover with at least a foot of new growth spurting
from the
base of the laural sumac bushes even before the first rain of the season. Their
own burnt
cinders will serve to fertilize their next life.

I arrived at Lone Pine, CA in under 5 hours, which was a new speed record for
me, and
settled into my usual hotel there. Dogs are allowed but only on leash and never
on the
lawns! The next morning, I would meet the rest of the crew early at the
visitor’s center
just one mile down the road. Waiting there, I fed my dog and gave him his
medicine while
the others discussed who was supposed to be coming, how long we should wait, etc
etc.

Finally, 5 vehicles full of people were off to the famous Cerro Gordo old mining
town for a
tour. The road was of good quality but long, winding and steep. My 2WD truck
only
skittered slightly in a few places and several intrepid folks in cars even
managed to make
it up there, even if a bit nervous while doing so. No rockhounding is currently
allowed at
Cerro Gorder except once per year carefully organized through a local club, so
the
smithsonite and other fabled local materials from that area would have to rest
in their
soily graves without hope of any escape by me. We were only tourists there,
absorbing the
old stories of mining days gone by, regional water wars, and the checkered past
of the
wild wild west. If you think politics are unsavory now, just remember that in
Cerro Gordo,
two people were once shot in the back over an argument over politics!

After a few hours of local history, we eventually traveled on through Cerro
Gordo and out
the other side, looking for an area that is known for marine fossils. None of
us has ever
actually visited the site so we were left to interpret our scant directions and
find the exact
location ourselves. Unfortunately, fossils won’t often jump out at you and are
often the
same color as the surrounding rock so one can easily stroll right by the best
spot without
realizing it. What we did find was hills and dales of shale each looking much
the same as
the other. We split up and tried different locations, some up the hills, some
by the trail,
some nearer the trucks, some further. After several hours, I knew I for one was
getting
bored with cracking open and inspecting boring old grey shale for faint signs of
ancient
life and instead finding a whole lotta nothing. The only thing I found was
some cute little
white quartz crystals so I bagged those and finally walked back toward the
trucks to eat a
snack and do some very important chatting about nothing whatsoever while we
waited for
the last stragglers to finally give up.

Eventually, we saw our last two intrepid adventurers who had gone the furthest
trudging
back down the hill. When I saw that their packs were laden with something, I
quickly
began to suspect that they had had more luck than I! Sure enough, they had
walked quite
far until one had finally stopped to sit down for a rest. Looking down, he then
realized he
had found a good fossil location right there under his butt! Sometimes luck is
the most
important rockhounding skill of all. Together, the two of them were able to
find a number
of nice fossils embedded in a matrix that looked more like tan sandstone than
shale. Next
time, we will know where to go right away without all the fruitless searching.
But for now,
it was time to tackle the rocky road back, an easy task for the 4Wds but a
little bit tricky in
my low clearnace old pickup which skittered and shuddered in a few places and
was
pummeled by several of the higher protruding rocks.

Soon, we were passing through Cerro Gordo again, waving goodbye to the friendly
caretakers, and then were back on the smoother dirt road home. I figured I had
made it
out of the rough areas by then and so there would be smooth sailing all the way
back
towards camp. Oops, famous last words! It wasn’t long before I realized the
wheel was
pulling strongly to the left and I was having to hang on it to keep it straight.
I rolled down
my window to look out and realized my left front tire was almost completely
flat, so I
pulled to the side of the road. Getting out, I teased the driver behind me,
“Why didn’t you
tell me my tire was flat!” Yeah, it was all his fault, that’s the ticket!

Luckily, I had a nice fresh inflated spare tire ready to go and the biggest
inconvenience
was digging under the dog and all of my camping stuff to get to the jack and
tire iron
storage area. Why do they always put those storage areas in the most hard to
reach
places! After that, I went around the back to let my spare tire down only to
see a freshly
flattened young rattlesnake right there on the road. Gross! I proceeded to
kick the stinky
corpse away from me when one of my cohounders said, “Hey! Don’t do that!!” He
wanted
to take a picture of it and then take it’s rattle. Me, I think I’ll stick with
rock collecting
thank you.

Meanwhile, my pooch, Gecko, kept trying to slink under the truck while I was
trying to jack
it up. Each time I pulled him away, he would slink back. I didn’t want him to
be in a
dangerous place and so suddenly he insisted on being there! I finally put him
back in the
truck where he proceeded to stomp all over my discombobulated camping gear in
the
back. Darned dog!

Eventually, I got into a rhythm with the jack and got the offending wheel off
the ground.
One of my cohounders had been kind enough to stick some rocks under the other
wheels
so that the truck would not suddenly shift on the slight hilly incline and do me
in a similar
way to that rattler. However, by the time the group of burly motorcycle riders
drove by on
their way up the hill, it was only me appearing to do any work, thus making all
my male
cohounders look sheepish and embarrassed as they stood around watching. Yup,
you
gotta have some fun any way you can on these rock trips!

Gecko continued to slink around, trying to climb under or into the truck each
time I tried
to put him someplace else. For quite a while, I couldn’t figure out why he was
acting so
strange and ornery until finally I remembered that I had last year taken him to
rattlesnake
avoidance class and since there was now a rattlesnake right nearby, albeit now
dead and
tailless, Gecko was only attempting to do as he was trained and avoid that
little sucker!
Good dog! I should have been praising him instead of getting irked with him!

With everyone’s help, the tire was quickly switched out and we were on the way
back to
camp in no time. It was the end of day one and so far I had almost no rocks in
the truck
to add to my collection. Sometimes I can’t decide if that is a good thing or a
bad thing! At
least any day out in the desert, even with one flat tire, will beat most days in
the city. But
what would day two bring?

(to be continued)
-Gecko Pooch and Eva