The road in this time was much better than last year, because in 2008 it had been raining and the road in for people with RV”S and two wheel drive was not so inviting. We pulled into camp early Thursday morning to be welcomed by many of our Rockhound friends.

Thursday we did some collecting in Pebble Terrace and Fire Agate at the Opal Hill Mine and returned early afternoon for a Thanksgiving feast with all the trimmings. Boy was it a feast, we had to go back out for black agate nodules after dinner to burn off some Turkey.

Friday I had scheduled two trips. One to the geode beds. And another to the Paisley Agate.

Unfortunately Shep was not able to make it, Matt volunteered to help lead a group in to the geode beds. My hat is off to Matt for filling this position at the last minute.

Saturday there was more digging for geodes and another group went to the Opal Hill Mine to dig fire agates. I negotiated a deal with Nancy for all CFMS Members to dig for only $10.00 ea. Nancy wanted me to tell everyone; “Thanks for your patronage!”

It was a great turn out, seems everybody had good luck collecting, many pictures and memories to take home and no one got hurt. I can’t wait till we all meet again.

Wednesday I did a walkabout in the east side of Wiley's well collecting agate and chalcedony.

The field trips started Thursday, we went to the Pebble Terrace and I found some Stromatolites fossils about 3" in diameter. I also found a small rock with part of a Crinoids tail fossil. We then collected chalcedony near the Opal mine. It was float material looking for pieces that might have fire agate. We then had a great Thanksgiving dinner in the later afternoon. Before it got dark we dug Black agate nodules.

Friday's field trip the group went to several different sites. I went with Adam Dean to find paisley agate. Jeff Miller from the Conejo club went on the daily field trips with me. We went in the area I had checked out on Wed, but we walked farther then I had on Wed. I walked about 7 miles round trip, towards the end of the day we did find the paisley agate. I have a nice piece that should make a nice cabochon.

Saturday Deb, Jeff and I headed out to the Opal mine to dig for fire agate. Adam Dean talked to the claim owner Nancy and got a special price for the CFMS field trip, digging $10. It wasn't easy. The fire agate you can see was embedded in hard rhyolite with chalcedony in it.

There were pockets of fire agate with white calcite next to it. It took chisels, sledges and a lot of time to dig it out.

Jeff and I dug while Deb searched the tailings. I was digging some fire agate out, with my chisel and I punched a pocket that had calcite crystals in it, with fire agate seams in the base and running though the rock. I was able to dig out 3 different specimens, the biggest about 4" across. They are very nice. It was tricky not breaking the delicate crystals using a chisel to get to them.

Sunday we broke camp, spent some time collecting at Kim’s nodules. We had a great time, found some nice specimens, good food. nightly campfires, made friends, got contacts for other future field trips. Adam Dean was a great field trip leader, knowledgeable about the science of rocks and minerals and he shared his interest in rockhounding and where to find the rocks. I'm going to bring in what I found at the January meeting. From the tri clubs, Conejo Jeff Miller, Conejo/Ventura Deb and I, Ventura Matt Boeck.