Lunch on the mountain. Bob is pointing to Kelly Mountain (or Kelly? She's on the left and Christine is in the middle).We spent 2 days doing very long day hikes and camping out of the world-famous Fox Creek campground. Fox creek is a great campground- clean water to drink (not always a given), pit toilets, spacious campsites. Nice, right?
We spent 3 nights at Fox Creek before yet another backpacking trip. During our 3 nights we experienced some very interesting neighbors. First we were joined by a large family of pyromaniacs. They came in, parked, and promptly started chopping at every log in sight. Their children spent a large amount of the evening hacking at a big, rotten log with the back end of a hammer. Whatever floats your boat, I guess.
We went to bed and were awoken by the smell of gasoline and a large explosion, followed by another explosion. This aggression would not stand, my friends. I got out of my tent and said something along the lines of "would you please be quiet?". I was tired, I can't completely remember what version of that statement I used. Another explosion followed a few minutes later. At this point we were all up.
Word to the wise- geologists carry 3 pound sledge hammers everywhere. We sleep with them. You remember that scene in Full Metal Jacket about the rifle? That's how we are with our hammers. So when crazy people start blowing things up around us, we pick up these hammers and things get serious.
The pyros had already ran into their tents, so no battle ensued (bummer?). Best we can figure, these wannabe rocket scientists filled glass bottles with gas and blew them up.
nice. Luckily they left the next day.
Two days later we were preparing to leave for our backpack when a car pulled into the same campsite as the pyros. Out came the largest plumber's crack I've ever seen. It had legs, arms, a semi-automatic rife, and a 24 pack of Budweiser. The crack walked to the river, sat down, and proceeded to pour each can of beer into the water. This took about 20 minutes, after which he walked back to his car, wiped away some tears, and drove away. Funny or sad?
We left for our backpack up the Tommy Creek Trail. This is a multi-use trail- it's open dirtbikes, horses, and hikers. Dirtbikes and mountain bikes are the bane of our existence- if you've ever hiked on a trail open to wheeled vehicles you know how awful they are- the constant erosion from the wheels turns the trail into a bowl, which as you can imagine isn't easy to walk on. Plus dirtbikers are lazy. And ugly. And they smell bad.
Maybe I want a dirt bike.
Our camp on the Tommy Creek trail was a dry camp, which meant that each day as we walked back we had to stop and pump water and carry it back to camp.
Bob pumping water for the walk back to camp. Kelly and Christine are stoked!
We did some great geology in a large plutonic (intrusive igneous rock- like granite) body called the Seven Fingered Jack. We found some white rocks and some very dark rocks (called hornblendites). Hornblendites are shockingly made of a mineral called hornblende. They are quite rare. They are quite heavy. They are quite necessary to date when you find them.
Bummer.
We did two and a half days of mapping along the trail and the ridge. The 7FJ (or the Jack, as we call it) is an elusive pluton- it's often hard to tell that you are actually looking at Jack, as opposed to its neighbors. Jack is pretty tall and skinny and is bounded by both older plutons and younger ones. Our job was to do some recon for a pack trip next year where we'll bring the whole crew (Adam, Scott, Jonathan) for more detailed work (like what we did last week in the sheeted zone). I'll date the samples we collected so we have a better idea of what rock types to look for next year (we're only interested in the 90-million-year-old Jack, so we'll pay less attention to older and younger rocks).
Meadows=Mosquitos. So many mosquitos.
Nice views.
Have you been exposed?
Bummer.
We did two and a half days of mapping along the trail and the ridge. The 7FJ (or the Jack, as we call it) is an elusive pluton- it's often hard to tell that you are actually looking at Jack, as opposed to its neighbors. Jack is pretty tall and skinny and is bounded by both older plutons and younger ones. Our job was to do some recon for a pack trip next year where we'll bring the whole crew (Adam, Scott, Jonathan) for more detailed work (like what we did last week in the sheeted zone). I'll date the samples we collected so we have a better idea of what rock types to look for next year (we're only interested in the 90-million-year-old Jack, so we'll pay less attention to older and younger rocks).
Meadows=Mosquitos. So many mosquitos.
Nice views.
Have you been exposed?
I've been there for some geology myself. You're right. Those trails are really haphazard and there's always interesting campers that far out. But it's a beautiful place to call your office.
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