June 2015 Lake Superior Agate trip

[EricTheCat]

Greetings. I just got back from an agate collecting trip up North and this cat is purring. It was such a good time. I thought I would share some pics of what I collected. I found these all in one day at 3 locations.









I found this one within about the first five minutes at the first location (first photo for scale). Funny how that can happen.







Some early small ones



I have a really hard time taking a break when I am out collecting. I was even looking during lunch. I found this chunk while I was eating, walking around with a turkey wrap in one hand and a handful of "lunch agates" in my other hand.






This might be my favorite agate of the trip. Oddly enough the side with crystalline quartz is remarkably similar to a nice agate I found earlier this year.










This red with white eyed one was also among my "lunch agates". It is almost perfectly spherical on the rough side.






This one has great potential. The quartz does not appear to run very deep. I will probably cut or polish it in some way. The side opposite the quartz has some eyes trying to show through the rough surface.






A nice small agate is still a nice agate.




Some water level banding no this one. The other side has a thumbprint fortification pattern but that pic did not turn out and I figured I have enough pics here. lol




Another small


Bullseye






Much quartz in this one, I might cut it.






More smalls








and some pretty rocks for the garden.


Gotta love the geology around here. I hope you enjoy.

Happy hunting,
Eric

 

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[BurntBear]

Man, what a collection! I want to get some of these. I especially like the water-level specimen. -Luke

 

[EricTheCat]

I am glad you like them. Generally I prefer the fortification style banding (concentric banding that forms from outside to inside) over water-level banding but I will admit water level banding has grown on me a little over time. A particularly interesting thing about water level banding is that you get a hint as to the orientation of the rock when it formed.

Thank you for the comments.

 

[meMiner]

Very nice. Thanks for sharing. I love the bit about lunch agates.

 

[wolfdog]

Silly? does it cost to hunt these?

 

[EricTheCat]

It does not necessarily cost to hunt for Lake Superior agates, as there are public places you can hunt for agates. The vast majority of my agates, including many of the best ones did not cost me anything but time and energy. The ones on this thread though I did pay about $60 for the opportunity to visit three gravel pits as part of a field trip put on by a rock shop. The cost also covered a required safety training. I have been on 4 of these trips and never regretted it.

The other examples where I have paid for the opportunity to look are the Moose Lake gravel pits ($3 last I checked for a season permit to get access to 3 county pits. The pits are well searched but you never know when something good might wash out). Also I have paid a few $ to the local farm store to search their gravel pile.

By the way, if you ever go to the Moose Lake pits in the summer or fall watch out for poison ivy. I know that probably goes without saying for anywhere but I happened to notice some severe patches of it the last time I was at their Soo Line pit. It can still get you after it has turned red in the fall.