SilicaRich's Overland TJ Rubicon Build

[SilicaRich]

So a little update:

Got back last night from a weekend of field work for one of my GEOS classes. We went down to Magnet Cove, AR and areas around it to look at unique igneous intrusions and collect samples. As the name Magnet Cove suggests, the area is littered with samples of magnetite throughout the rocks. I collected samples of magnetite, pyrite (fool's gold!), rutile, quartz, green biotite, calcite, wavelite, and a very unique magnetic mineral only known to be found in the Magnet Cove area. I'll post some photos of some of my samples later. Sadly, I was unable to drive myself with the Jeep so no cool poser shots

Kind of torn between ridding of the BFG KMs, partially because my brothers and dad are having talk of making a trip up to Montana/Wyoming and hit Glacier National Park and maybe Yellowstone this summer. I'm afraid to compromise for the street manners of the SRAs and have the risk of slicing through the 2-ply sidewalls. As of now I'm still running the KMs and just trying to make a decision. Feel free to chime in on the situation.

 

[SilicaRich]

Finally downloaded some of my images of specimens collected and seen during my trip to Magnet Cove over the weekend of October 22-23rd. Mineral and rock specimens as seen:







Went to a pretty sweet quartz quarry to start off our first day. Saw some neat cross-cutting in the rocks as well as collected some very well defined crystals to take home.


Second stop of the first day was interesting but near as cool. Here we were searching for wavellite but it was relatively difficult to collect without completely destroying the crystals. Only collected a few decent hand samples but none at which that show the beautiful crystals (recommend googling if interested).


Camp the for that Saturday night. I decided to rock my orange Eno for the night. Enjoyed a beautiful cool night along Lake Ouachita and got to become become a little closer to the other students in our small geoscience department around a campfire.

 

[SilicaRich]

Started off the next day looking at a quarry showing the start of metamorphism in the area. Really cool xenoliths and garnets found, sadly I was unable to collect hand samples and none of my pictures turned out.




Went to a farm at which the owners generously let Geologists study and were able to observe and collect rutile and pyrite (fool's gold!) samples. The little cube is the pyrite and the more angular mineral is rutile. Collected several samples including a larger rock containing several cubes of pyrite (photo file was too large to post). Interesting enough, the area we were collecting the specimens was mined for two years during WWII for the rutile (a titanium ore), however, the rutile in this area contained Niobium which made for a brittle weld.




Went to Magnet Cove Baptist Church to observe green biotite in a creek drainage. I collected too many samples to post, absolutely beautiful mineral to collect and observe. Managed to collect a softball sized specimen that I noticed was accessorized with small cubes of pyrite (pictured last). Might be difficult to distinguish but the gold flecks are pyrite.

 

[SilicaRich]

Went to an old calcite quarry for our second to last stop. Managed to collect various calcite samples (white mineral) and got to observe various accessory minerals including pyrite, biotite, and magnetite. The magnetite specifically was very abundant and I managed to collect a nickel sized sample after chipping away at a large calcite boulder for 10 minutes. The little grey spot on the one calcite sample is also magnetite and was how it was normally observed. The last picture is not mineral related at all, it's a big a** mushroom that we saw (rock hammer for scale). It had this sticky residue on its surface used to trap leaves when they fall. The leaf would then slowly be decomposed/eaten by the mushroom. Thought that was pretty cool.


Our last stop took us to Cove Creek where we got to observe various alkalic and mafic dikes filled with very rare and unique igneous rock called jacupirangite. As seen, this rock IS magnetic due to its composition being largely of magnetite.

The trip to Magnet Cove was no doubt awesome and very unique. To my understanding this area is filled with several rocks and minerals ONLY found in the area with several new minerals thought to still be discovered. I look forward to making my way back to the area in the future and hope yall enjoy the information.

 

[unkamonkey]

Keep going on puppy. I have a decent sized Quartz crystal on my shelf that came from Mt. Ida. They used to mine them for seed crystals to do silicon chips. There is a mine up in the hills that used to have a nice Beryl crystal that was about 5 " across. (BE3 AL2 ((SI6O18))) I knew I could find my old Cornelius and Hurlbut Jr. book, it just took a bit of a dig. Somebody later did a poor job of hacking the crystal out. All that is left is a hexagonal hole with some parts left in the bottom...

 

[AggieOE]

That looks like fun trip! +1 for hammock camping.

 

[SilicaRich]

Keep going on puppy. I have a decent sized Quartz crystal on my shelf that came from Mt. Ida. They used to mine them for seed crystals to do silicon chips. There is a mine up in the hills that used to have a nice Beryl crystal that was about 5 " across. (BE3 AL2 ((SI6O18))) I knew I could find my old Cornelius and Hurlbut Jr. book, it just took a bit of a dig. Somebody later did a poor job of hacking the crystal out. All that is left is a hexagonal hole with some parts left in the bottom...

Cyclosilicate! That's pretty neat, really enjoyed examining our lab specimens of beryl. Kind of a shame someone did a poor job excavating it. Thinking about hitting Crater of Diamonds State Park next semester and taking my chances on trying to find a few small diamonds over a weekend.

 

[AgentOrange76]

This is really cool! Love the stories too, hand samples are neat but they become much more interesting when they (or where they came from) have a story. Makes me want to get out in the field!

 

[SilicaRich]

This is really cool! Love the stories too, hand samples are neat but they become much more interesting when they (or where they came from) have a story. Makes me want to get out in the field!

It was a blast. I think I'll try to get out there again later next year, but for now I have my eyes on taking my chances at Crater of Diamonds State Park. Figure I will spend the entire weekend there and do some dedicated digging hoping to find some diamond specimens but that still relatively hard to do.

That looks like fun trip! +1 for hammock camping.

I loved being in the hammock but will definitely invest in some sort of hammock lining next time around. I kept waking up every hour do to freezing my butt off. Turns out that when you are suspended in the air you are not as insulated as normally would be on the ground (even with a sleeping bag rated at 21 degree weather). Either that or I'll just bring my quilt along next time.

 

[AgentOrange76]

It was a blast. I think I'll try to get out there again later next year, but for now I have my eyes on taking my chances at Crater of Diamonds State Park. Figure I will spend the entire weekend there and do some dedicated digging hoping to find some diamond specimens but that still relatively hard to do.


I loved being in the hammock but will definitely invest in some sort of hammock lining next time around. I kept waking up every hour do to freezing my butt off. Turns out that when you are suspended in the air you are not as insulated as normally would be on the ground (even with a sleeping bag rated at 21 degree weather). Either that or I'll just bring my quilt along next time.

That sounds awesome, hope ya find some! I slid my sleeping pad inside my liner for the mummy bag and then put that in the hammock and then laid on top of it the last time I hammock camped and it was "cold" out. It got down to around 50 that night and I was still too hot, even outside of the sleeping bag. I certainly wouldn't wanna do it below freezing, but that setup worked pretty well. The cool thing about hammock camping and Jeeps is you only need to find one tree!

 

[jscusmcvet]

I just retired a set of KM2's with right at 40k miles on them. They are a fine highway tire in my opinion. Keep them rotated and watch the tire pressure for those long highway hauls. All that being said this time around I went back to an AT tread. Fits the majority of my usage better.

 

[SilicaRich]

The cool thing about hammock camping and Jeeps is you only need to find one tree!
View attachment 373870

Agreed. Something I also need are the normal straps. My current straps are the extra long kind but they really limit where I can 'hammock up' due to the need for a ton of space. Sadly, I didn't have my Jeep for that trip but have used my rack bars in the past to hang up the hammock.

 

[SilicaRich]

I just retired a set of KM2's with right at 40k miles on them. They are a fine highway tire in my opinion. Keep them rotated and watch the tire pressure for those long highway hauls. All that being said this time around I went back to an AT tread. Fits the majority of my usage better.

See if I had KM2s I wouldn't be so on the cusp of swapping them out for another tire. KM2s have some sipping which is a HUGE improvement over the sipe barren KMs. I actually had a humorous experience last week on wet roads dealing with the issue of not having sipped tires. I was coming down a hill to a stop sign at 7:00 am and when I applied the brakes I found myself hydroplaning into the middle of a 4 way stop. Luckily, I was the only vehicle there besides a cop clearly having himself a morning as he laughed and waved me on. Since I'm pretty sure these tires have more tread than originally advertised when bought, I think I'll just ride them out until I can afford a new set of tires (likely will buy a set of 4 and keep the least worn KM as a spare to save money). Currently beginning an internship search in NW Arkansas so hopefully that will pay for my expensive wish list.

 

[SilicaRich]

Late Birthday Present Arrived!



Came home to this big ol thing and a text from my mom saying "Happy late Birthday". Anyone wanna guess? Hint: ARB product

 

[Zeep]

^ Awning?