A Quick Collecting Story

Ray, are you sure it was a bear and not a mineral collector bleary-eyed after a full day of staring at the dumps? Maybe the "bear" left you alone because "it" saw you were only finding chips... Sorry, had to do it.

I also remember when there was a black bear that was hanging around near the top of Hurricane Mountain in Yancey Co., NC near the absolute top of the Ray Mica Mine dump piles for a few weeks in the early 2000's. I heard numerous collectors say they saw a black bear while collecting and one guy told me that a medium-sized black bear bluff-charged him but ran off before committing to the act. Accompanying those stories, of course, I also heard multiple recommendations to stay on the lower piles and watch out for the bear, and from the potential charge-target, steer clear of the Ray altogether as it might be a full-fledged attack next time.

I never saw the bear, but I sure found some amazing beryl and columbite during "Bear Watch: Early 2000's" (wish I could remember the year).

Guy

Just the other day, I had this nice Northern Water Snake join me for some sun along the banks of a creek near my home. He/she didn't mind me at all.

Hey Guy, was that a freudian slip??..."steer clear of the Ray altogether" I love it...especially steer clear of the
Ray if you are hoping to find nice beryls on those mica dumps cause he might snitch them all from you all...LOL

My favourite "Rattler" story -
About 1982 my former partner(in the business sense) and I and another geologist were examining an old underground mine west of Salome, AZ, accompanied by the mine owners. About a hundred feet inside the adit we encountered a rattler buzzing at us. One of the mine owners "killed" it with a rock. We passed by the snake, my partner taking a wide path around it as he was deathly afraid of snakes. We continued on along the adit and sampled the vein. On the way back out, the "killed" snake was buzzing at us again. The owner made sure this time. I was behind my partner and as we passed by the remains, I tapped him on the calf with my rock hammer - he screeched and jumped and has never forgiven me.

Nice water snake, David!
Bear with me a moment for a story that has nothing to do with rocks.... This story is hard to tell without body language....
Working at a plant nursery, I was the only one who wasn't afraid of snakes and who wouldn't kill them on sight. I was trimming a row of shrubs with shears, and my crew chief Henry (deathly afraid of snakes) was doing the same thing. We would meet in the middle of the row.
Suddenly I stopped, fixed my eyes on a shrub a few feet in front of me, and sloooowly put the shears down. Henry saw me, and knowing what was happening, started to cuss under his breath. He slowly backed away as I inched towards him, staring at the snake between us. My hands slooowly came up to the ready, and Henry backpedaled faster. Like lightning I made a grab, and in the same motion, threw the snake right at him. He yelled and jumped back, swinging his shears. Only then did he realize that the "snake" was a long narrow strip from a palm frond. I enjoyed myself greatly, and Henry taught me some new cusswords.

I pictured the story perfectly Ken! I remember helping my Dad mulch the garden when I was a kid and his complete "freak out" to avoid a bumble bee. I watched in amazement as the bee chased him and my Dad launching himself in the air landing with a thud on our driveway. Dad was fine and I always picture the bee snickering as he flew away.:)

While not much use for rockhounding, in Central Florida we have many old limerock quarry pits that are great for mountain biking. These trails can be very steep and rocky. Due to the prevalence of "banana spiders" in Florida forests, it is a bad idea to ride such a trail if you have an inordinate fear of such spiders. I had a friend who, whenever he went through a web, would take both hands off the bars to frantically clear his face, and careen off the trail. Imagine the smirk on the spider's face when just a wee bit of web makes a hominid act so.

While meeting wildlife during my jaunts is enjoyeable, sometimes meeting a human being is pleasant also. Strange story. Fifteen years ago, my Dad and I took a hike on "permit required" land owned by the City of Newark New Jersey and some other owners which was purchased to protect their water supply. Beautiful area rich in wildlife and some very interesting abandoned mines which are really hard to find. While hiking, we came upon a truck loaded with cut mountain laurel. I thought that odd so I memorized the license plate number and called the appropriate landowner to report it. He told me that the fellow, who we could not find, had a permit to cut for his wholesale florist business.

Fast foward fifteen years. I'm back in the same spot looking for a long forgotten adit when I come across the truck and the owner. I fessed up to narcing him out years ago and we had a good laugh. He then told me his life story which I had to interrupt after a hour and a half because I had to go pick up my son at school. Turns out this gentleman knew about all the mines in the area, had ancestors who worked in them and his wife's family owned and operated a mine in Orange County New York. Another portion of his family went west to Colorado and prospected for Gold and was instrumental or so I was told in putting together a novel sluicing operation. Anyway, given my love of history this was right up my alley and a really nice non-wildlife encounter. Although I did see a bear cub earlier in the day and was able find and hear hooting a Barred Owl at the edge of a swamp.

David: yes indeed, that would be the candiru (toothpick fish), much feared in the Amazon basin for invading your nether orifices and making them bleed. (It lives on the blood.) I imagine this could be quite uncomfortable. Luckily rare. I've swum in its habitat, but never seen one. Piranhas are a bigger danger - they are less finicky eaters and will just bite off chunks of your nether regions. (Those I have seen, and eaten, but never been bitten, so I guess they have more to fear from us than we do from them.)

Rock's story reminded me of another Hummer story. Many years ago I was doing a 4 week field mapping course between Cripple Creek and Canon City, Colorado. One of the leaders was a Prof from England who always wore a bright red bandanna tied over his head. Each morning we assembled outside our cabins for a discussion of the activitives we would be doing that day. And every day the Hummers, sometimes a dozen or more, would dive bomb that huge red flower as the Prof spoke for a half hour or so. The camp was just alive with Hummers.

Easy Goin'
USA

This isn't truly a collecting story, but since it took place within the context of a "rock" and roll tour, I felt like maybe I could tell it.
I've made my livelihood within the entertainment industry for the last 30 years as a Production Mgr/ Lighting Designer and in 1989 was leaviing with the lighting crew on a flight from Baltimore to Poughkeepsie, NY to start pre-tour rehearsals.
I was sitting near the front of the plane as it taxied out to get in the que for takeoff. Several minutes into the process I hear screaming from the mid-section about a snake. Being a nature lover I immediately turned to see what the commotion was about and I can see a group of flyers out of their seats. Soon I began to hear shouts of "kill it, I have a scissor cut off it's head". That was my call to arms and I made my way back to the area and there saw a decent sized milk snake with half it's body sticking out of the hollow portion of the arm rest on the aisle. I knelt down in the aisle and supported the snakes body while I tried to keep it calm. Now in the meantime my crew is in the back of the plane and I determine that I can maybe dissasemble the arm rest and get the snake out if I have the right tools. Now keep in mind that this is pre-911 and it wasn't uncommon to be allowed on the plane with a anvil briefcase full of electronic type tools. I just needed the right nutdriver to accomplish the task. Yelling to the back of the plane my crew chief Jeff showed up case in tow and we tried to find the right size nutdriver necessary. By this time the plane had started back to gate where we were met by Baltimore Police and US Air ground crew. Unfortunately we didn't have the right tool and at this point the decision was made to just remove the whole row of seats and take it off the plane. I never did find out the disposition of the snake, but I hope that he/she was treated humanely and let go. The flight untimately took off and we got to our destination. When I talked to my wife several hours later she told me about a news story concerning a commotion on an outboard flight and did I know anything about it. Yes dear! It went down something like this. : )

Dear Sir,

I was delighted to read about your history with Sam Woodcox. He was my grandfather and I remember visiting his house shortly after he died to find a charred, smoking whole in the ground where his house would have been, they said lightening but the telephone and power lines had been cut prior to the fire. Never learned anymore. He was married to my grandmother long enough to have 4 kids and she never spoke of him and I am looking to fill in the blanks. Anything you could tell me about him would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You Again,

Melissa

During my first and only trip to the swanson quarry in east hampton, CT, (it was seriously posted with signs shortly afterword) I heard a pack of coyotes from about 100 yards, and on a trip that i spent looking around the general area of the Hale Walker Quarry, I came out of the brush..... and nearly walked up a doe's butt! She ran for her life. It was more startling when i was messing around in a field near Franklin, Pennsylvania and had a wild turkey blow up in my face. At the time I was probably no more than five or six, and I immediately urinated in my pants.

However, my favorite "wildlife" collecting story would have to be the oddity of the"mosquito" pocket. I was digging up around Talcott Mt. in Simsbury, Ct, and I decided to take a look in an old worked-out pocket I had seen before. I remove the loose piece of basalt from the opening, and a plume of mosquitoes erupted out of it. I have had worms and ants in pockets, and even salamanders, but never five billion blood sucking mini-monsters!

-Rowan Lytle

Necessities:
Food, Water, Shelter, Fire, Minerals.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/11/2012 02:15AM by Rowan Lytle.

Rowan, thanks for the laugh. A few classic stories with an almost aussie like humour

This isn't exactly a collecting story although I was out "collecting" radon gas by burying plastic cups upside down on a grid pattern along the slope of Mt Taylor near Gunnison Co. Anyway, this was a crummy summer job digging 2 ft holes on a 5 x 5 pattern, but I needed the money and the scenery sure was beautiful!

Anyway, I remember breaking for lunch one day and lying down using my knapsack for a headrest and just enjoying the sun filtering thru the trees above. I think I started to doze when all of a sudden there was an incredible roar--seemingly right next to my ear. Jeez, I must have jumped 6 ft and had 2 heart attacks before I came back down. Turns out it was a hummingbird, busily probing the eyelets on my (red) knapsack...

I got to thinking about some of my bear stories too and thought I'd relate one of the two funniest ones...

Again, this isn't a collecting story, but it's a bear story so I figure it counts...

So, many years ago, I was up in BC kind of half-way between Chetwynd and Fort St. John, but further south near te Peace River. We were building tunnels for BC Rail and located in a place called Sukunka Valley in a 150-person man-camp. We were working 6 weeks straight with 2 weeks R&R, so the camp was self contained with a mess hall and all. Because we were in the muskeg, so everything was built off the ground with wooden walkways between the buildings and all. You could go in that mess hall any time and order anything. Anyway, we had seen a 1 or 2yr old male black bear wandering around camp, and were on alert--you never know if you're walking around a corner on the way to the laundry shack and going to meet that guy. Anyway., it seemed he disappeared, but after a week or so, there developed just a gawd-awful smell in the mess hall. Turns out the bear had gotten under the skirting, found the soup trap, and knocked off the a section of pipe. The wasted foodstuffs would come down the pipe and out on the ground where that bear would just lap it all up. So we had to call in the forestry service and they came and darted that bear, dragged him out, caged him up and flew him off to God knows where. But all I could remember is the vision of this big ole black bear under the mess shack, slurping up slop while we're eating above.

What the hell, I guess I'll tell the other one:

So me and a friend were sitting on a stoop talking, and one of the electrical superidntendents was cooking something in histrailer. He was a stingy bastard--instead of paying $600/mo for mess hall priviledges, we'd drive two hours each way into Chetwynd each week or 2 and load up on foodstuff. Anyway, he's cooking something--stew I think--and it was simmering, and he came out to chat with us. About 5 minutes later this old sow comes wandering around the corner looking for that food. We tell him he needs to chase that ole bear away or he won't have any supper, but he says he's not very hungry--but he isn't very happy either.

So that bear decides to go in the trailer to investigate, but dumb thing doesn't go up the stair and landing--she decides to climb thru the railing. So all we see is this big old hairy butt with legs scrab bling around just tearing the hell out of that stair. She finally made it thru, and into the trailer she goes--and what a din. That trailer was shaking and stuff was crashing around in there. We called out the forestry service on that bear too, and the super ended up bunking with the miners for a couple of days until he could clean out his place enough to sleep there.

Anyway, those are my best bear stories, but no minerals.

John, not even any not-yet-fossilized- bear coprolite on yer boots?!

Actually I do think I found some--but I'm pretty sure it was mine!

Funny, I forgot about this thread which I started about the Hermit Thrush. This morning, I was looking at the window to see a Hermit Thrush looking back at me from a very empty bird bath. Went out to fill it and he or she came back to have a drink. Nice bird but very early. We only see them in Spring migration, never before.

Hi David, just thought to let you know that about every other year I have recorded a Hermit Thrush in the Christmas Bird Counts I participate in, both Bergen County and Somerset County, NJ. The winter being so mild lends to their survival.
Good Birding,
Steve.