I tried a chemical soak to clean some of the crystals collected last week. I'm pretty happy with the results. I put them in fully unwashed, to see what would happen. The lichen and other debris obviously didn't come off. The host rock turned green. That's kinda cool... but check out how that black tourmaline sparkles...

The one I'm holding in the first 2 pics is the one in the bottom right of the lovely "before" picture... pack it in, pack it out +