Category: Event Report

Rendezvous 2022 was held in Coombs at the fairground from June 2nd through June 6th, 2022. It was well-attended with both tent and RV campers. Despite changeable weather and rain, the field trips were full and the workshops and demonstrations also filled up. For a taste of what was on offer see the photo albums below (there was more on offer, but these are the events I have photos for).

Field Trips on offer:

Horne Lake Caves

At the guide centre we were provided with helmets and headlamps. Our guide, Ryan, took us on a 20 minute walk uphill to the cave entrance. The walk is dotted with interpretive signs of the landscape. The entrance to Big Bend Cave is gated and locked. The floor of the cave is in its natural state as a river bed and requires some nimbleness to navigate.

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Mt Arrowsmith

The trip to Mt Arrowsmith afforded the chance to see Dallasite in its original form as part of basalt pillow lava as well as red, green, blue(ish) and purple jaspers. Thanks go to Jim Jeffs (Parksville club) for leading the trip, providing insightful explanations and organizing the gates to be unlocked for access.

Mt Arrowsmith Access

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Formation of basalt pillows: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KCFOy26jFg

Argonaut Mine

The Argonaut mine is an idle open pit iron mine. Active from 1951 until 1957 its minerals were used in the steel manufacturing industry. Minerals to be found are magnetite, garnet skarn, epidote skarn, calcite, marble, pyrite, limestone, diorite and actinolite. The trip was led by Jim McKinnon (Parksville club) who provided good interpretation of what was available and how to find it.

Introduction by Jim McKinnon

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Carving rock bowls – demonstration

Gary Veitch from the Duncan club demonstrated how he carves rock bowls. He uses a Makita Wet Stone polisher that he has modified to keep the powdered rock out of the workings. Gary shapes and sands the outside before starting on the inside. It takes a couple of days to produce a finished bowl from a rock.

Videos of the process (playlist with 5 short videos)

Exposing and cleaning fossils – demonstration

Russ Ball from the Courtney club explained how he uses an air scribe to clean out the matrix surrounding fossils to better expose the structure.

Workshop: Tree of Life Pendant

Allison Gallant and Cari Taylor (Victoria Club) stepped in at short notice to give a great workshop on making a Tree of Life pendant.

Showcases in the Arrowsmith Hall

Here are some of the showcases set up in the Arrowsmith Hall

Island Area Rocks and Minerals: there is a lot of information in each picture, so I’ve left the picture size large – click on a picture to see it bigger, or download it to enlarge it even more.

Rocks of the USA by Grant and Angela Bailey. there is a lot of information in each picture, so I’ve left the picture size large – click on a picture to see it bigger, or download it to enlarge it even more.

Unusual fossils from the Vancouver Island Cretaceous: there is a lot of information in each picture, so I’ve left the picture size large – click on a picture to see it bigger, or download it to enlarge it even more.

Vancouver Island Rocks

Auction

Our auctioneer in action

General Photos

The first evening of Gemboree 2019 had an open-air wire wrapping workshop in the big central canopy. It was a blast. Over half the gemboree attendees particpated and the rest formed a relaxed cheering team. The workshop was led by Suzanne Rivard, whose work can be seen at www.suzannart.com. Suzanne was patient and encouraging with a slightly rowdy crowd whose abilities ranged from beginner to been-doing-this-for-ages. The results were beautiful and each one worth wearing. Some of us continued redesigning our pieces for the rest of the weekend.

To download full resolution photos click Wire Wrapping Workshop .

To view the pictures below as a slideshow, click directly on a picture.

One of the field trips on offer at the 2019 Gemboree was to the Calco Copper mine north of Campbell River. In 1955 five tonnes of ore were removed and sent to Tacoma for processing. It yielded 1011 kg of copper and 250g of silver. The mine is on private property and requires permission to access. The trip was led by

On the way back to Courtney we stopped at the viewpoint for the historic Ripple Rock explosion, a short documentary on youtube. It was the biggest manmade explosion of the time and it took them several failed attempts before they could pull it off.

To download full resolution photos click here Calco Copper Mine

To view the pictures as a slideshow, click directly on a picture.

Gemboree 2019 was hosted by the Courteney club. We all camped at the Puntledge River RV Park. There was a pleasantly packed schedule including an evening wire wrapping workshop, BBQ, field trips, pot-luck dinner, auction, tall tales around the campfire and tailgate sale.

Below is a gallery of pictures around the campsite. If you would like to download full-size pictures for yourself, please use this link:

Photo galleries

Our web server space is limited, so only low resolution photos are uploaded here.  If you want to download full-resolution photos, please follow the full-resolution photo link for each event.  If you have photos you would like to add to the albums, please send or share them to web@vlms.ca and I’ll be happy to add them in. 

To download all the full-resolution photos in the linked gallery at once;

1. click on the “Select photos” button at the top right of the screen
2. click on “Select All” at the top left of the screen
3. click on the “Download” button at the top right of the screen

Around the Campsite

To download full resolution photos click here Around the Campsite

To view the pictures as a slideshow, click directly on a picture.