{"id":5242,"date":"2015-03-08T17:57:00","date_gmt":"2015-03-08T21:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/?p=5242"},"modified":"2023-07-02T19:29:26","modified_gmt":"2023-07-02T23:29:26","slug":"rays-mine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/archives\/5242","title":{"rendered":"Ray’s Mine"},"content":{"rendered":"

With all this nice weather two days in a row, finally\u2026I mean come on we are in the South, we couldn\u2019t resist heading out for a second day in a row. This time we went in the opposite direction from DuPont.<\/p>\n

John was anxious to do some rockhounding so he found a place not to far away, Ray\u2019s Mine. It is an old mica mine. Mica was originally used for window panes before glass.<\/p>\n

The rocks peel apart like the skin on an onion. It is pretty cool. However that is not what we were after.<\/p>\n

Aquamarine. Garnets. Saphires. That would be awesome. The tailing pile from the old mine was huge. (tailings are what they dig up but don\u2019t want). This picture only shows a small part. Yeah that is John way up there.<\/p>\n

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The hike into the mine was short, only about a 1\/2 mile or so over a well worn, pretty walk through the woods.<\/p>\n

That was the easiest part. The hike to the top of the pile was not so easy. John likes to take these up\/down hill pictures, but they never seem so bad when I look at them compared to when I had to walk them.<\/p>\n

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The mine was in evidence in two ways. One the big hole in the ground.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Two, the sign hanging on a fence around the mine describing all the horrible things that might be present that could hurt or kill us\u2026.unstable ground, unsafe ladders, deadly gas, deep ponds of water, un-exploded explosives. Yeah, we won\u2019t be jumping this fence.<\/p>\n

I picked up some mica for Riesa and we headed down to the stream. Now this was more fun! We didn\u2019t find much, but I love playing in the water! John did find a small piece of aquamarine.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So what does mica look like? Curious huh\u2026well it looks like this \u201cin the wild\u201d. It is a layered rock\/mineral.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The miners were looking for BIG rocks made of mica for windows.<\/p>\n

When mica is loose from matrix (other rock) it looks very translucent and refracts the light. These are the mica rocks I collected for Riesa, under John\u2019s direction of coarse. Beautiful isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

See how the rock comes apart in layers.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My piece isn\u2019t very clear, probably could use some more washing but you can see how mica was first used for windows.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

John can\u2019t wait to show these to Riesa.<\/p>\n

Yeah she is going to destroy them in a mater of minutes, but that is the fun of discovery!!! (and we can always collect more)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With all this nice weather two days in a row, finally\u2026I mean come on we are in the South, we couldn\u2019t resist heading out for a second day in a row. This time we went in the opposite direction from DuPont. John was anxious to do some rockhounding so he found a place not to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5230,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-container-style":"default","site-container-layout":"default","site-sidebar-layout":"default","disable-article-header":"default","disable-site-header":"default","disable-site-footer":"default","disable-content-area-spacing":"default","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,437],"tags":[151,491,146,111],"class_list":["post-5242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","category-workamping","tag-north-carolina","tag-rays-mine","tag-riesa","tag-rockhounding"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_5356.jpg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3hvz5-1my","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2493,"url":"https:\/\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/archives\/2493","url_meta":{"origin":5242,"position":0},"title":"Wrapping up at Caballo and Percha Dam","author":"Wendy","date":"March 31, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019ve been sick for a while and haven\u2019t been keeping you all updated. Let\u2019s recap. To help with my allergy attack and breathing difficulties I booked us an hour at a hot spring in Truth or Consequences. I chose Riverbend Hot Springs because the spa is located on the Rio\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/archives\/category\/general"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/hotsprings_thumb.jpg?fit=580%2C436&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/hotsprings_thumb.jpg?fit=580%2C436&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/hotsprings_thumb.jpg?fit=580%2C436&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2513,"url":"https:\/\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/archives\/2513","url_meta":{"origin":5242,"position":1},"title":"A Rockhound is Born!","author":"Wendy","date":"April 8, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"A discovery of Pecos diamonds in the wilds just outside of Roswell, sparked an interest in rocks and geology for John. With support and encouragement from me and some new found friends here in Deming, NM, John has found a new pass-time \u2013 rockhounding. Rockhounding is more than just collecting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/archives\/category\/general"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/johnRGM.jpg?fit=576%2C768&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/johnRGM.jpg?fit=576%2C768&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/johnRGM.jpg?fit=576%2C768&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10544,"url":"https:\/\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/archives\/10544","url_meta":{"origin":5242,"position":2},"title":"Fortuna Mine","author":"Wendy","date":"February 23, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Now that John is home safe and sound and I\u2019m feeling 99% back to normal, I\u2019m ready for some real jeeping. To get us warmed up, we head out to the Fortuna Mine. This is a fairly easy trail with a couple of \u201cfun\" spots. A good warmup trail to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/archives\/category\/general"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/20200223_110609-rotated-e1584476937700.jpg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/20200223_110609-rotated-e1584476937700.jpg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/20200223_110609-rotated-e1584476937700.jpg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/20200223_110609-rotated-e1584476937700.jpg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4971,"url":"https:\/\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/archives\/4971","url_meta":{"origin":5242,"position":3},"title":"Asheville Trip and a Hike","author":"Wendy","date":"February 8, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Saturday (yesterday) was a beautiful day, cool but warm sunshine, it was in the low 60\u2019s. So we decided a trip to art-filled Asheville. As we toured the city we came across street musicians on almost every corner, but no \u201cAugust Rush\u201d kid\u2026bummer. We found a \u201cstatue\u201d person who was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/archives\/category\/general"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_5203.jpg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_5203.jpg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_5203.jpg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_5203.jpg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6868,"url":"https:\/\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/archives\/6868","url_meta":{"origin":5242,"position":4},"title":"Oatman AZ","author":"Wendy","date":"February 4, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Today is our first full day in Bullhead City. Part of our reason for coming here is to hunt for fire agate. The other is to visit the Grand Canyon. Turns out the only way to get to the Canyon from here is through Indian land, and the reviews of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/archives\/category\/general"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/DSCN0997_thumb.jpg?fit=580%2C323&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/DSCN0997_thumb.jpg?fit=580%2C323&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/DSCN0997_thumb.jpg?fit=580%2C323&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2590,"url":"https:\/\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/archives\/2590","url_meta":{"origin":5242,"position":5},"title":"Our Next Adventure with John and Sharon","author":"Wendy","date":"May 13, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Close to the Bosque RV park are two scenic drives through BLM land. 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