Hail all fellow Rockhounds!

My name is Michael Adamowicz and like you i have taken an interest to the hobby of mineral collecting, which i prefer to call Rockhounding. We all started collecting for different reasons, i for one begun my collecting hobby when my mother bought me a quartz crystal when i was younger. This crystal is the pride of my collection due to its symbolic value and its clarity. I started collecting around 2000 or so. At first i collected limestone rocks, fossils & coral fragments which i found in nearby Credit River. As i took more interest in collecting i expanded my search to the nearby Niagara Escarpment for limestone fragments & micro crystals such as pyrite & calcite.

My main region for mineral searching is the Bancroft Region in Ontario. Its about a 3and a half hour drive one way from my home, so it is a trip that only take a couple times a year. So you can imagine that i look forward greatly to these excursions.

To me minerals are a gift from nature, and as such they are things of beauty, rarity, and should be cherished. When i go searching, i do not think of it as a search, i think of it as a hunt. The crystals found are trophies, i suppose it is a more humane ways to get a trophy. I greatly enjoy the journey to different sites since i look forward to seeing what changed there, or i try to find a new site. When i visit a location i have been to before, i usually explore the site a bit to see what has changed, sort of getting reacquainted with an old friend.

To me mineral collecting is an adventure of exploration and independence. These trips help we connect with prospectors and explorers, i try to understand their spirit to explore and their need to risk it all for the promise of great wealth. When i go to these sites, at some locations you are the only person there which can be eerie, but also you get a strong feeling of being alone & you feel empowered to be able to will yourself to go to such a place, away from the comforts of modern civilization. As you look on the ground for crystal fragments your thoughts wonder and you find a sense of peace. This is what mineral collecting is for me. It is a journey from everyday things to something old, forgotten, and laced with history. To me going to look for crystals & being out in nature generally is a spiritual experience, i feel as if i connect with God. Its hard to describe, but when i hear the wind thro the trees or the sound of the rain falling on quartzite cliffs i can almost hear something beyond the sound of the wind & the rain, its as if i can almost hear nature her self singing. Sounds poetic i know, but to me it truly is a very important experience and one that take very seriously.

I generally prefer to find crystals, such as apatite, schorl, corundum, zircons, & beryl. One of my goals is to find specimens of these minerals. So every time i got on my trips the chance of finding "the big one' is there. I do have some samples in my collection that i purchased but they comprise a very small amount of my collection, most i find by hand. As some of you may have noticed, i have a lot of "so so" quality images uploaded. This is because i am trying to show a wide variety of minerals from the same location. So you now know me a bit. Any sites that i listed or mentioned should be explored at own risk, with caution, & with appropriate permission if needed, but you all know that already right?. Thanks for reading about me, lets us all rockhound safely & with determination.