Another Day Another Walkabout

[Scorpion68]

A couple of days ago we had a toad strangling gully washer rain all night long. Today the weather was beautiful so it's time to go walking. Instead of my usual artifact hunt, I've decided to look for lithic material that might be used for knapping. I'm still keeping an eye out for anything unusual but my priority is lithic material. I'm going to follow the creek below the falls and see what I can turn up.



This is the top of the falls and the closest that I can get without dropping about 25 - 30 feet into the creek below. So - climbed down the right hand side and had to cross under and behind the falls in the rock house to get to the opposite side of the creek. Couldn't walk the right side cause it's too steep and way too much debris.



At this point I'm walking behind the falls and you can see the creek that I'm going to follow down the mountain side.


This is a look at the falls from about 40 feet down stream.



You can see some of the debris that makes this hike a challenge.




And at this point I've hiked about 300 feet down the creek which isn't very far for 45 minutes walking/climbing. That brown/white spotted critter in the lower left is my daughter's almosta dog who loves it when I go walking.

[2ndoldman]

You are a freaking mountain goat Chuck

[Havenhunter]

Love the cascade. Is that bloodroot blooming?

[Scorpion68]

Right on Deb. They are the first blooms I've seen on the mountain and they're all over the place. It's a good medicinal plant for a variety of ailments

[Scorpion68]

Continuing on with the hike. Found the little flowers out all over the place.

After about an hour of climbing over debris - I decided to follow a side creek that feeds into the main creek. At this point I've hiked down from 1,380 feet to around 900 feet according to my GPS. I came across this weird rock on top of another rock. At first I thought it had fallen from the cliff side above but upon closer examination, not so. It was actually, partially protruding from the larger limerock.



Now I'm really curious. I can't move the larger rock, actually more like a boulder, so I decided to whack the top piece to see if I could get a sample of it.

This is what happened. What do ya think? It looks like the outer surface had a heavy patina and had a thin cortex. Could a lithic material be part of a larger rock?? Also found this piece in the creek and when I got home I whacked it with a hammer.

All in all it was a pretty strenuous trip. According to the GPS, I hiked a little more than 1.5 miles and spent more time resting or not moving than walking. When I got home I felt like my legs were quite a bit shorter. Nonetheless I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[willjo]

Love that hill country scenery, don't get better than that.

[Hi-Lo]

Great tour Chuck. Thanks.

[BabaORiley]

Chuck that is beautiful country there. Even if you don't find anything the walk alone is just so picturesque. That stone that you broke open looks a lot like a lithic that I saw Ron post a pic of recently. The surface looks just like an old fieldstone but the inner core is a very appealing color. Thanks for the walk thru the hills...

[Ron Kelley]

Thanks Chuck, very interesting walkabout. It looks like the limestone eroded away over the millennia while the harder material did not. You live in a beautiful natural environment.

[Scorpion68]

I was wondering about that. I keep finding all manner of chert like material but can't find a vein anywhere that resembles the material I'm finding. I'm trying to figure out where it's coming from - if it's indigenous to this mountain or if it was carried in by some earlier people. Kinda makes me want to try to see if there's more of it remaining inside? Don't know if I want to carry a sledge hammer that far : )

[SDhunter]

Thanks for another nice walk.

[rock ON.]

Chert is rare to find in my area but where it is found it occurs as nodules in limestone similar to what you found there, but up hear its black.
Here is a link to the site where I got this pic. if your interested. http://www.turnstone.ca/rom76ch.htm

[Scorpion68]

Thanks for the link rockON. This was the first chert that I've seen that was an outcrop from limerock. Glad to see it's a normal occurrence.

[CoachG]

Looks like you're getting some good exercise Chuck.

[Scorpion68]

Yea Coach but on this day it was a bit much. I'm gonna have to tone it down a tad, especially when I go out by myself. Heh!