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After a stormy and muggy weekend in New York City, we faced a drizzly drive back up to Maine. We decided to stop at Green’s Farm to collect almandine garnets, even in the weather. This location is a classic Connecticut collecting local, and we didn’t want to miss out. The farmer who owns the land asks that visitors park, pay the $5 a person collecting fee, and then walk down the path to through the woods.

At the end the of the trail the woods open up, bringing the mine and tailings piles into clear view. Garnets can be scratched out of the piles with a hand rake, you can bust it out of the harder rock.

But soon it started to down-pour, so we hurried back to the car for our drive back up to Tom’s House (Tom Klinepeter, starkhillgem) in Fryeburg, Maine. They had received rain over the weekend too, so Diane’s (Tom’s Wife) flowers were extra pretty.

One final thing, I don’t know if you have ever seen a Hummingbird Moth before, I had until I sow this one. I can’t believe a got such good photos of it.

After such a jam packed day, we decided that we would take it a little slower today. Tom (Tom Klinepeter, starkhillgem) suggested we go the Harvard Mine and then check out a couple nearby rockshops.

It was extremely humid, and the hike to the mine is pretty steep, so by the time we made to the bottom of the tailings pile.

After a brief rest, it was time to walk to the actual quarry.

We went to both collecting spots at the site, and we were pleased with the terminated schorl we were finding through out the dumps.

After the walk back down to the car, Tom, Justin and I headed down the road to visit Perham’s Jewlery, Gems & Minerals, in west Paris.

They have an on site museum of locally collected mineral specimens.

And we browsed their stock of of book, tools and minerals.

After which we drove a short distance to Mt. Mann Jewelers in Brethel, Maine. The proprieter Jim Mann is a well know Maine feild collector, and the driving force behind the creation of the Maine Mineral Museum, set to open in early next year.

Every location that we went to in Maine are scattered with Mica, so Jim showed us a lantern from the early 1900’s with still intact mica sheets for the windows.

On the way back to Tom’s house, we stopped and got a photo of us at the Maine crossroads sign.

Tom (Tom Klinepeter, starkhillgem) had a full day planned for us. We were trying to film 4 different locations for the Pegmatites of Western Maine Video. Lord Hill was to be our first place.

Lord Hill is located deep in the overgrown Maine woods.

So it was a slow, sweaty hike into the forest.

But soon we saw the piles of white rocks through an opening in the trees.

This particular spot is a quite rich in minerals. Topaz, beryl, mice, fedspar, and autunite are the minerals most commonly found there.

Before leaving for Deer Hill, Tom wanted to show us the lookout.

Deer Hill is a recreation fee collecting site.

We desposited our money at the self service pay center.

After a short hike we came to a clearing circled by trees with blue marks on them. This is the collecting area.

Deer Hill is a locality that requires work, persistance and luck to find something decent.

The third stop was the Chandler-Northstar Mine just over the New Hampshire border. The hike was short and we only stayed long enough to check out the area, and then head out to Mt. Apatite.

The last stop in our action packed day, was Mt. Apatite. This location was once a busy feldspar mine in the early 1900’s. It is owned + administered by the city of Auburn. It is open to the public for mineral collecting with hand tools.

But my favorite part was the tadpools.