GMS Field Trip

GMS Field Trip
Quartzite, Jasper, and Slate in Georgia
Saturday, June 28, 2014

We were a splishin' and a splashin', rockin' and a rollin', movin' and a groovin' Saturday all day long! The creek was filled with a huge turnout of excited juniors and rockhounds. As the juniors explored every part of the creek, the adults collected some nice pieces of colorfully stained quartzite, a few rare pieces of jasper, and lots of smooth, stripey slate that actually shimmers in the sunlight. Even a few lilies were carried away.

Casey set up a tent and went to great lengths to get electricity to the collecting area so Charles could use his portable saw and cabbing unit to cut and polish everyone's finds on the spot! It was so much fun for juniors and adults to have a peek at what their rocks would look like polished. Some pieces were summarily returned to the creek but most became prizes that day.

New member Cameron found some gneiss with amphibole that was interesting as it was, but once Charles cut and polished a piece it had everyone else looking for more!

Along with their pretty rocks, juniors found several crawfish, salamanders, a pudgy green caterpillar -- pretty much every "critter" around. They also became "rock beavers" and built three impressive dams. One was a community effort, meticulously attended to by one little girl, while the other two dams were either the boys' dam or the girls' dam. The girls had special game names including Star, Tulip, and Rosie. One of the Nims' was a saboteur named Gollum who would surreptitiously remove rocks from the girls' dam, but also collected some sand for me once the dam raised the creek over my boots (an excellent and well-collected sample of sand I must say).

A yummy picnic lunch was but a brief respite before we all piled back into the creek. Even though temperatures probably climbed into the low 90's, the beautiful canopy of trees surrounding the creek plus the clear cool water kept us perfectly comfortable. We could even relax outside of the creek in a screened tent complete with oscillating fan that Terrie and Casey set up for us!

As the day drew to a close, it was exceedingly difficult to convince the juniors they should go home someday, but clever parents prevailed so we all went away wet, happy, and toting baggies of polished rocks.

Many thanks to GMS members Terrie and Casey for inviting us to their wonderful property and Charles for organizing another fun adventure!

Lori Carter, on behalf of
Charles Carter, GMS Field Trip Chair
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