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[Itsandbits]

I know, I got a little carried away but....
I was feeling good on Saturday so I went back to the area I got the black nephrite from and hit a treasure trove; I know it doesn't look like it but these are mostly rocks with the oxidization rind that jade gets. Saw some beautifull scenery; a panorama, you can see the high water mark about 30 ft above the level the river is at.

 and got lots of exercise; about 400# worth LOL. I checked a little further downstream and found a corner like you would look for gold; no I didn't, and the nephrite being so heavy was dropped by the river there.

inside the rock



I've cut about  150# in half and taken a token slice off each peice and there is a wide range of colours and translucency/opacity
this piece is about 1/4 in. thick and in indirect light from the window

backlit with my desk lamp, I took three 8" x 1 1/2 inch slabs off this one

[Enchantra]

Dude...
You post all this rock porn...
You better be sharing dangit!   

[Minkos61]

Wow great score Lloyd great pics thanks for sharing.

Ernie

[wampidy]

You really should play the lottery. Holly smokes that is a haul.
Jim

[hummingbirdstones]

JADE-APALOOZA!

[lithicbeads]

Your hard work has really paid off. This is very exciting. You now have enough experience at this to get good fast and you have. Wonderful pictures and great exciting rock .

[Itsandbits]

thanks all for looking and the comments. I packed out as much as I could and probably should have left some there but if it sounded or looked right I decided whether I could carry it and went from there because in spring it may all be on it's way to Vancouver via the river LOL. the stuff explodes if you manage to get it to break because it's so dense and solid and after getting hit by a shard in the face and getting a good cut I decided that wasn't a good idea anymore; note to self, carry medical supplies, maybe even sutures. My clothes were covered in blood by the time I was finished and I looked a mess.
I'm trying to decide if I'm going to tell anyone about this site because there's so much there and like I said, it may all be gone in spring because this is the Fraser river which drains most of BC You don't really get the scale of the picture the way I took it but the boulder field on the left is made up of 300-2000 lb. pieces; I don't think there is a rock in it I could pick up.
This black jade piece is about 40lb; I've cut a couple of smaller cobbles and like the first piece I found is hard and extremely dense; it clanks like a piece of steel when you hit it with a hammer. It won't fit in my saw but I couldn't leave it.
 
a couple of thick slabs off another cobble of the black I'm sending down to "Redrummd" to make knife scales for himself
   

[Minkos61]

Jezz Lloyd you got to take it easy on yourself how are we going to see the great pics if you go hurting yourself  And just to show you how much I worry about you I'll take that big cobble off your hands so you don't get hurt any worse
All kidding aside glad your ok and some more nice material you got there thanks for showing them.

Ernie

[Minkos61]

Hey Lloyd can you not stake a claim where you are getting this material from ? Or is it so inaccessible to most that you do not really have to worry about it?

Ernie

[Itsandbits]

I could stake a claim Ernie but the river might not leave them there next spring:) It is a location that only someone like me would see the potential of the stone and pack it out.
I guess my last post didn't make it; I was saying that if you brought your pickup down I could help you fill the bed, one layer will point your headlights at the sky LOL Or I could send you a piece now that you have that hungry saw. Lets see, how much would a fifty pounder freighted up there cost LOL

[Minkos61]

LOL would love to get some sent up but I think it would break the bank . As far as staking the claim even if these wash out of that hole you're in a new batch will be back in next season 

[lithicbeads]

Good to hear that someone else bleeds for their rocks. I always bring a roll of medical tape and keep a spare roll in the door pouch of the truck.Some rocks are really nasty about the flying shards. Don't tell until you are old enough that you think you can't go back. A friend had a 17,000 pound piece of jade stolen  from the section of stream that he had claimed. Hush is the word.

[Itsandbits]

I agree about keeping quiet about locations Frank, it's surprising what a good rock can bring out in people. I don't go where I'm not invited or haven't asked permission but there is allways someone cruising looking for an easy buck. Spent the day at home today because someone walked in my front door while I was in the john for my  morning nuptuils and went downstairs to hang out in my vacant suite. Said he was checking it out for a friend that was looking for a place when I found him but I haven't rented or listed it for 3 years, I think it's time to move/buy elsewhere
I'll check back when the water goes down next fall to see what the river brought Ernie....

[wampidy]

I am no expert but I doubt that the rocks landing there was a one time thing. Seems like they would either stay there or be replaced every year. That river has been flowing since the glaciers melted so hitting a one time find in all those years would be luckier than luck or the river turned into a super monster at some point in time and hasn't done it again.

Then again I might be a duck. lol

I had not made the jade/gold connection and had a "DUH" moment when you mentioned it.
Jim

[lithicbeads]

I find that stones tend to be replaced by other stones of the same density with one huge exception. When a stream is starting to meander in  the reverse direction the good stuff is not replaced and even worse fines tend to cover the deposit as the stream takes the energy toward the other side of the valley.

[Itsandbits]

Ernie knows the Fraser and maybe some others like Frank have seen the more placid stretches or even drove up to the canyon; it runs for 100 miles through the mountains, and is pretty awesome up close
http://youtu.be/q8CRwKPl2NQ
which is why even house size rocks get moved around, even though the water is low where I was the other day, it's still 50-60 ft. deep but luckily the river cut through the canyon is as they say "carved in stone" and won't change for a long time but everything is slowly getting washed to the coast and what was there this year may be replaced by more; if there is more of the same, or you just look for it a little further up or down stream because it will fall out of the flow somewhere. And if you're lucky there is still a lot of gold in that thar river.

[brentnewton]

Absolutely beautiful.   I love good jade.  That location is always going to be recreating itself.  Year after year after year .. after the rains and floods.  Just think .. what's there you can't see yet :). Nice haul, nice rocks ..  nice you shared the pics.

[james_baker509]

I know this thread is almost a decade old, but this information is pertinent.

My sister runs a furniture shop in Seattle, and uses Greyhound to ship big pieces across the region/country. I don't know her exact calculus, but it seems reasonable enough that she does it often. This may be a way to ship heavier items without the big players, UPS, USPS, FedEx, or DHL...