I got to go on the fossil club field trip to the Mosaic phosphate mine!!!
Only 30 spots were available for club members to visit the mine this year and I tried to accept that I probably wouldn't get to go but I got to go!
I'd been rambling on and on about it in the days leading up to the trip but my friends and clients seemed to have a little trouble understanding my excitement: I get the opportunity to scour a desolate wasteland for 4 hours in the hopes of finding something fossilized.
My first trip to the phosphate mine was last year and I was overwhelmed and confused as to how to go about it. This year I knew what to do: eyes fixed on the ground, scanning non-stop until the whistle blew.
My method was to cling, mountain goat style, to the steep hillsides, in the hopes that the danger and difficulty of negotiating the gravel-strewn incline had prevented previous fossilers from working those areas. It seemed to be a good idea. I immediately found this 3.5" fatty meg and even though it has root damage, I am in love with its perfect serrations and ultra-cool green color.
I tried to stick to a pattern of working my way up the slippery incline (remind me to wear crampons next time!) until I encountered footprints of other searchers, then I would scooch to the right and carefully move back down the slope until I reached the mucky ooze at the bottom.
Last year I only found 1 megalodon tooth. I did a LOT better this year and I had a blast! Every so often someone would peer over the top of the hill, catch sight of me and say something like, "Oh! Is that safe?" to which I always replied, "Nope." And it's not "safe" but I fully believe that if I had lost my footing, though it would hurt like a mo-fo, I would definitely survive with only minor injuries.
The last 2 pictures make it seem like the megs are all laying right on the surface but sometimes all you can see is a suspicious ridge in the gravel that you check out in the hopes it's a tooth.
Around the 3.5 hour mark, I was starting to lose my mountain goat prowess and feeling more like an out-of-shape middle-aged woman (which is what I am). Time to retrace my steps!
I worried that since I had already worked the slopes I was about to retrace, I wouldn't stand a chance of finding anything else. Wrong! Found the best meg of the day (my life?) on the way back to my truck.
Absolutely perfect!
Jack sent me a quick comparison from the internet:
No plans to sell my meg and I realize that the "asking" price is different from what someone might actually get for an item, but it's fun to think about.
Here's my meg take for the day (including a perfect hemi in the lower left and a mako in the lower right):
Lots of beautiful small shark teeth:
Tooth from a 3-toed horse:
And fragments of stingray barbs:
Fingers crossed I get to go next year!!!
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