Category: Field Trip Report

We kept an eye on the weather to the very last minute and it paid off! We met at the Juan de Fuca parking lot at 10am and by 10;15 we were on our way.
There were 7 of us, plus Megsi of course!
The weather was sunny when we arrived.
We parked at the first parking lot and took the first trail on the other side of the gate down to the water. It was a 2 minute walk from the car – quite manageable even with some snow on the ground.
The beach was great, not a lot of snow and everyone quickly went to work. Lots of conversation and fun.
About 20 minutes after we arrived, the big cloud that had been dumping wet snow on Metchosin caught up to us and within 10 minutes it had passed, giving us only a very light dusting. Everyone kept panning or digging or whatever they were up to.
No gold for me – just a big iron very old spike that took a while to find.
We did get gold, however, as expected, someone before us must have found the nuggets!
Looking forward to the next field trip, it will be announced at the meeting tomorrow.

The field trip to Island View beach was very well attended, with 16 members showing up.

The tide was quite high when we arrived and the weather very cold and sunny. We started off going to the left first to give the high tide time to start going out. After about an hour we turned around and slowly worked our way back towards the cliffs.

One member found a beautiful small agate. Others found jasper, pretty quartz and also a few interestingly shaped rocks. A very determined flower stone hunter managed to find their very first one!
The tide unfortunately did not recede enough to get us close to the cliffs, however now we know the tide heights that should get us there. Island View always has a lot to offer – if not just for the views and the wildlife. And the wild crazy people sailboarding in the cold water in the winter!

It was planned to be a two-destination trip; first to Ella Beach in Sooke for an hour and a half rockhounding and pebble picking, then moving on to the Sooke Potholes for gold panning…

Sean: “Due to the rather heavy amount of rain, we elected not to attempt to pan in what is now a raging river. So we went to the secondary site, Ella Beach.

There was a rather large storm a few nights prior that ripped up the seabed, dumping normally deep bedded sea life on the tides.”

Arlene: “It was a slightly damp morning (tongue in cheek) (“atmospheric river” – ed.), and due to the Sooke River swelling its banks Sean decided to call off the gold panning part of the trip

Ella Beach however, was a delight.  Everyone was decked out in rain gear and other than an initial bit of a downpour when we first arrived, it cleared up and was quite an enjoyable morning.   After a couple of hours it started showing signs of getting wet again and we packed it up

There were a few treasures found including a “very first flowerstone” find, an actual small clear agate, as well as some interesting washed up sea creatures and shells, a beautiful huge abalone shell, and assorted interesting rocks. 

Sean: “We spent a few hours combing the beaches finding interesting rocks. One actual agate (surprised), a lithium purple rock yet to be ID’d; as well as sea urchins, scallops, one abalone shell and other stuff not normally washed up on beaches.”

Arlene: “Sean was amazing at his rock identification as usual and was kept busy answering questions as we sauntered slowly down the beach, eyes to the ground as only a true rock lover travels. 

We had a fellow traveller with us for a good hour – a big seal lion who kept pace with us and talked to us all the way up, eventually, like an hour later, joining his crowd out in the water near the end of the beach.  There was so much kelp, dead wood and crud at the tideline in the water that it was hard to differentiate his companions who were out there somewhere and also very vocal.” 

4 members went on the field trip to the Burnt Bridge area of the Koksilah river near Shawnigan. This is an area to find double-headed quartz crystals tubeworm fossils.

“What you are looking for are silicate rich sandstones that have been trapped between the fault lines skipping across the far side of the river; unlike the Duncan variety of crystals these are in hard rock and will need to be dug out. Also you can find marble, and fossils in the creek.

The 4 of us had a great time, and found some great samples.” – Sean Maier

The group met at Ice Cream Mountain in Goldstream and the trip lasted from 9am to 3:30pm

Several members joined the field trip to Muir Creek in Sooke. On the land side of the road there’s some panable gold dust – see the mineral inventory page on Minfile. On the beach side of the road they looked for bivalve and other fossils.

The group met at the Juan de Fuca Recreation centre at 9:30am and the trip ended at 3pm.