August 27th

We left Herkimer at this morning at 8:30 and took a different route home. We came through Troy, NY (the home of Uncle Sam) then to Bennington, Brattleboro,  and into Keene. We had lunch in Keene and then headed up Rt10 to 89 to Concord the north to Freedom. No traffic to speak of and got home around 3:30. 

Trailer is unpacked and put away until the next adventure. 😛😛🤪😛😛

August 26th

This morning we headed to the mine again feeling we had a much better idea of how to maximize our luck. You know what they say about the best laid plans...

We figured that breaking the big rock was the best hope for big diamond but heat, 12lb sledgehammer and age wore us down quickly. By 10:30 we had gone thru the 4 bottles of fluids and had only found a few small diamonds.

We took a trip to the Cafe for lemonade and shade before giving it one more try. Bob found a nice diamond and I decided to swing the 12lber for a few rocks. I found a good rock that we worked together on and netted another 6 8 diamonds. I was wasted and sat to recover ( no clouds and 95°F). While sitting I worked on small rocks fining a few. While sitting on the sitting Boulder we shared I grabbed the 12 lber and took a half-hearted swing. As a piece flew off a diamond about an 1 1/2" was sitting there looking at me but refused to let go of the dolostone it was in. I worked on the rock for at least an hour trying ever method I could employ with little luck. What I finally ended up with was 3 pieces of a shattered diamond.

We finally quit at lunch time; had lunch at the Cafe and visited the gift shop to see what it would cost to purchase one the size of the one that shattered.  Let's  just say we left very happy with what we found 😄🤣😃.

A great time.

Wednesday August 25th

We started the day with a bacon & eggs breakfast with English muffins, some fresh Maine blueberries and fresh brewed coffee. At 9AM we headed to the Herkimer Diamond Mine.  This place is great. We started with a short video about the geology of the area and the different methods used to collect specimens.

We then paid our $13. day entry fee and headed to the mining area.  I had the first finds a couple small diamonds but after a few hours in the sun I headed out to find some shade and fluids. Bob wasn't having any luck at all but had a few dolostone specimens ( crushed rock 😆 ).

We both headed to the Cafe and had  large fresh squeezed lemonades and a Geode Crystal Ice Cream sandwich. These were fantastic no pictures but 2 6" chocolate chip cookies with about a pint of ice in between. (lunch😁).

Bob had seen a guy using a 12 lb sledgehammer  and having great luck finding diamonds. SO of course Bob had brought a 12 Lb sledgehammer ... we headed back to the mining area to break bigger rocks. I headed to an area as far away from him as possible to avoid flying rock chips. After cracking a few small rocks with my 3 lb sledgehammer I wandered over to see how Bob was doing. Still no luck. An old age was quickly sapping our strength.  I picked up the 12 lber an found a rock to looked promising and started pounding. After a few vicious swings the rock spit a there was a beauty.  I called Bob over to let him have that diamond as I already had a couple. I then went and sat down to recover. Bob took a few more swings at that same rock and ended up with 6 diamonds.

We quit around 3PM  and as we were leaving the mine area a realized that I did have the baggy with my 2 diamond. I went back to the rock that we used as a resting spot to see if it was there. A guy with his 2 kids were sitting on the rock and I asked the dad if they had found my baggy. He said no but his youngest son said "what about the bag we found when we first came here". The dad said oh ya and pulled my baggy out of his pocket and handed to me. I thanked his son and we headed to the truck. 

Back at the campsite we showered and crashed.

On the Road Again

This morning Bob and I left Freedom, NH for a short trip to Herkimer, NY in search of the doubly terminated Herkimer diamonds. Rather than travel by highway we crossed NH and VT on Route 11 and into NY onto route NY 29. There was any traffic and some beautiful scenery on this great blue sky day. We stopped at a municipal park in Alexander, VT for lunch: sandwiches in the trailer.

We're staying at the Herkimer Diamond Mine KOA. We arrived around 3 this afternoon,  too late for mining, so we walked the edge of the river (West Canada Creek) looking for interesting rocks.

The "creek" is running 4x its normal flow rate.

Tomorrow our plan is to spend the day breaking rocks in the hot sun...

The Hunt for Herkimer Diamonds

After a week delay Bob and I are headed to the Herkimer KOA/Diamond Mine in Herkimer,  New York. We're leaving Tuesday morning and it's a 5 1/2 to 6 hr drive from Freedom assuming we dont encounter and road flooding left from Henri. 

Stay tuned for updates...