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A Recent Franconia Field Trip
JJ ,Bill Southern, John Blennert, Larry Sloan and Chris Dunn in the field
I thought I would share some photos of our last Franconia meteorite hunting trip on 4-05 . I decided to go to Franconia to meet Larry Sloan. John Blennert was also there with his some of his friends and his son JJ. The first part of the day I spent talking to everybody and trying to figure out how to hunt with all of the new vegetation. this year the grass and weeds are up to a couple of feet tall. It makes it hard to look visually for meteorites.The second day Larry & I tried some new hunting tactics and tried to look for extended parts of the strewn field. This all failed .but John and his hunting partners found a few small irons and Franconia chondrites. While Larry & I were up in a wash exploring a new area it was raining off into the distance ( at least 10 miles away ). When we returned down a previously dry wash it began to fill with rain water. We still managed to get back to camp safely. The rain can sure change the desert in a heartbeat. It was sure fun sitting around the campfire that evening hearing John's stories from his Oman trip.
Larry Sloan
The third day we decided to try another new area. We decided to meet up with John's friends ,experienced gold prospectors. ( I tried to find out where their secret gold hunting areas were but their lips were sealed!) We parted ways and I decided to go to a different area in the field. I had been to this spot before but now it was overgrown with weeds making it difficult to swing the detector. After 15 minutes I found a nice 65 gram Franconia .
65 gram Franconia in situ
I decided to cross the train tracks to hunt the other side. After 3 hours I decided to head back to my ATV. About 40 feet from the tracks I found a nice Franconia about 265 grams. I found it in a spot that was graded by a tractor many years ago. Maybe by railroad crews. This meteorite sat so close to the train tracks as you can see by my photo. I will have to spend more time in this area. The only problem is there is alot of buried metal ,etc. along the tracks. I always photograph a meteorite in the situ before I remove it. I started to take a picture and I heard a train coming down the tracks . I decided to wait for the train to include it in the picture. I was hoping the train conductor wouldn't see me and think I was some crazy person laying next to the tracks. As you can see the picture turned out really cool and the conductor never saw me!
265 gram as found next to train tracks