Hi everyone
today I'm in Rogers City Michigan
I just parked at the Harbor View Park
which overlooks Calcite Quarry
Calcite Quarry is the largest limestone quarry in the whole world
so
where there's limestone, sometimes you find Petoskey stones
and somebody by the name of Ed suggested I come here
and he said there's some Petoskey stones, so I do have to paddle for about 5 miles
to get to them
a little chilly today
a little over 40 degrees, supposed to be up to 47 later today
I don't know if you can see, but
that's all snow and ice
on the rocks next to me there, not all, but there's a line of snow and ice
so I'm paddling around this point and
heading south
hopefully I find something cool
(splashing)
this quarry's been in operation since 1912
and I'm just coming up behind this freighter called the John J Boland
I just looked it up, it's 680 feet long
some of the freighters are as long as 1000 feet
I just hope it doesn't back up suddenly
(distant machinery)
well I paddled past the main operation of the quarry there
and it's been nice rocks right along
so I decided I should get and start looking
kind of hard to see too much when you're paddling by
and I just got into trees, there's a nice buffer of trees between the water and
the quarry
so it should be pretty along here
well, I found my first interesting rock
at least something I'm going to pick up
a little puddingstone right here
eh, it's cute, but if I tumble that I'm probably going to tumble the jasper right
off of it, so
think I'll leave that one on the beach
just noticed a puddingstone down here
that's a nice one
not much on the back, but that side looks really good
so there should be a lot of puddingstones along here
I don't expect that I'm necessarily going to find Petoskey stones right away
they don't occur north of somewhere around Rogers City, I'm not sure exactly where
it is
the line is
but uh, I am finding
fossils, like that
but so far no Petoskeys
so hopefully as I go farther south
I get into them, I was told there's some down here
that looks kind of like a Petoskey, I don't know what kind of fossil that is
some other coral
I think this is a piece of Jacobsville sandstone
there's a puddingstone
I'm not 100% sure if that's what that is or not
I'm just a little farther down the beach here, and the rocks have turned much
more grey
much more limestone, so
I think I'm going to hop in the boat and paddle for a little while
very shadow right here all the sudden too
I just met a couple on the beach
and
I was wondering how they got to the beach, because it looked like they
had access right through the quarry, and it turns out he works for the quarry, so
that's exactly how they got there
I was just looking for an easier way to get here
anyhow, they told me some of the best rocks are right where I was back there
and that up where I'm going, I'm going to Adams Point
said the rocks aren't quite as good there, so
I'm still going to go, because that was the goal
and just out of curiosity, I want to see it for myself
(waves lapping)
I don't know what the story is here
but somebody put a lot of big rocks right there
we're still in front of the quarry
you can't see it because there's a little buffer of trees, but
that's a big breakwall of some sort, I haven't gotten around the other side
maybe there's a little bit of a harbor or something behind it
nope
looks like an osprey nest right there, there's an osprey
I have no idea what that's for
well, for the last mile or so it's been mostly limestone
but now I just got to part of the bay that's all sand
so we'll see what's around the bend
there's a deer on the beach up ahead
there's a river that comes out right here
I just looked up on the map to see what the name of it is, and it doesn't
seem to be named there, but it does go to Swan Lake
so maybe it's Swan River
I'm on Adams Point now
and there is nothing here worth looking for
it's all mostly limestone, there's some glacial stuff mixed in, but
mostly just boring grey rock
I'm going to walk a little bit, because I'm tired of paddling
and then I'll probably go back
we have a stripey rock here
that's kind of cool
well I just waded out to check out this boulder
it's kind of cool
there's another one over here
that's a
Favosites or Charlevoix stone
that might be a Petoskey stone, maybe?
couldn't really tell
think I might've just spotted a Petoskey stone again, maybe
see the bumps there?
can't tell if that'd be any good, doesn't seem like it'd be any good
sometimes when you grind rocks like that there's good stuff underneath, but
I'm not going to take the chance on that one
I think that is a gastropod
big ol' snail shell
isn't that neat?
it's almost May, and there's still snow in the woods here and there
I guess this is where you go if you're not a strong swimmer
I'm heading back toward the harbor where the
rocks were a lot more promising
just beautiful along here
really nice place for a kayak ride
(waves lapping)
some pretty quartz
had the colors of an agate, but not an agate
I think everybody loves unakite
on the way through here the first time I walked this beach really fast, because
I was trying to get
to that other point
but now I'm slowing down
another stripey rock
I've been picking up litter along the way
got a
lid to something there, and there's some other garbage in there
I love this white quartz
I don't know if that color comes through on the camera, but that green
I think most of this is just granite, but
that green stripe is a really
unusual color for around here
look at this one
I think that's chert, but
not 100% sure
whatever it is, it's coming home with me
that's really neat
big freighter heading out
and I just picked up this rock
it's got some little sparkles to it, I don't really know what it is
another piece of quartz
that's pretty
that's probably white inside, I've brought those home before thinking
they'd be yellow, but they're usually white inside, you can see the white there
it's a pretty rock though
a pretty piece of quartz
some oranges in it
I like that
there are a lot of puddingstones along here
that's the latest one
just walked about another 3 or 4 steps
and I see another puddingstone
hiding right down there, you see the red?
I think I'm going to leave that one behind
I like when they have a lot of the really red jasper, that's not
quite red enough to do it for me, so
not a bad one though
flip it over so somebody else can find it, there we go
that's a really cool fossil
looks like the stuff I found last summer in Lake Michigan
it's, it's not limestone, it's been
replaced by silica
looks pretty cool
pretty sure that's chert
some nice colors there
another fossil
another piece of unakite here, pretty nice piece
I just picked up a keeper puddingstone for sure
that'll go in the tumbler
I don't know if it's possible to find Mary Ellen jasper here
but
that looks kind of like Mary Ellen jasper
it's got little swirls and stuff
we call them swirls but
fun patterns
I picked this one up
and I'm not sure if that's a puddingstone or not
the matrix isn't quite right there
and it's brecciated
so what do you think is that a puddingstone?
or is that something else?
I really enjoy taking the rocks home that I find and making something out of them
so I've got a couple links here, one shows how I made beads for my wife's Pandora
bracelet
and another one shows how I made heart shaped pendants, in case out of
puddingstones and Petoskey stones
so click on one of those and I'll see you over there