But the river had other plans.
Here it is, mid-December, and we are still shut out of the Peace River due to high water levels. The fossil veterans assured me that this is within the range of normal for the "dry" season but I couldn't help feeling a slight sense of paranoia. What if they were just telling me that the river was high? What if I was exhibiting classic learned helplessness while everyone else was scooping up all the good fossils?
Had I been took?!
Driving south to attend the Fossil Club of Lee County's Fossil Fest,
I decided to take the back roads and eyeball the river myself.
There is no conspiracy.
I was sufficiently intimidated to see the river rushing under a bridge, only a few feet below the roadway, in an area where it needs to be about 20 feet below the roadway for me to launch a kayak.
So we find other ways to occupy our time.
The Fossil Fest was, as always, a lot of fun. It kind of feels like a big family reunion to me, where I know some people better than others, meet new members of the fossil family at each event, and wander around eating hot dogs and hamburgers all day.
My general rule of thumb is I don't like to buy fossils.
I want to find my fossils so if my collection is on the light side, no worries because every item I have has a personal story behind it. However, I was lured into the club's silent auction by the offer of oreodont remains. I only recently read up on these extinct creatures. They were about the size of pigs or sheep and roamed north America in vast herds during the Oligocene and Miocene, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merycoidodontoidea.
My winnings!
This is a section of oreodont lower jaw. It's not in pristine condition but every time I hold it,
its magic transcends the $11 I spent by an order of magnitude.
I am used to finding individual teeth, not jaws with teeth and while many fossil hunters have found jawbones in the Peace River, I am not one of them. When I hold this piece of oreodont jaw, the animal comes alive in my mind. It's amazing!
Other club members have been lucky enough to find their magic at garage sales!
This collection of teeth, including a large, perfect megalodon,
set the my fellow club member back a mere $20.
Score!
But Nothing replaces the visceral pleasure of digging for fossils,
and thus I found myself on the banks of the Alafia River:
low enough water for us to explore, but uncharted and potentially unproductive territory.
Such risk takers!
I've heard many a fossiler pronounce, when the digging isn't going so well, that they just enjoy being outside in a beautiful environment. My backyard is beautiful so I don't need to drive 2 hours each way to enjoy the outdoors but truly, camping can be such a pleasant, relaxing experience.
For the first couple of days.
After that, the grunge sets in, but I digress.
We set up camp at the well-maintained Lithia Springs Regional Campground
and spent the next 3 days poking around.
The weather and water were both on the cool side and it's time for a new set of waders as mine have more leaks than I can patch (fossiling is tough on gear), but our stretch of the river was gorgeous and we had lots of sun to bolster our spirits.
And we needed some spirit bolstering because we couldn't find any fossils!
Lots and lots of rock but no fossils. Not even scraps.
I used my fossil screen as an improvised drying rack (yes, I do my winter camping with a space heater these days) but it wasn't as much fun the second day getting dressed in cold, damp clothes to try it again.
We did a lot of probing and dug a lot of test holes on day 2 and towards the end of the afternoon, I decided to settle in an area of shallow rock and put in some "shovel time".
Imagine my surprise!
When you're not finding anything, it's a shock to find a tooth this perfect.
I believe this is from a camelid, maybe a llama, and as always, comments are welcome.
I was packing it in for the day when my hunting partner returned from his explorations upstream with a selection of agatized coral fragments.
What the what?!!!
We had both been tossing around the idea of cutting the trip short but when I saw this I was
in for a penny, in for a pound! Couldn't wait for the sun to come up on the third day!
Agatized coral is Florida's state stone and is composed of the fossilized remains of corals that lived in the shallow seas covering the state during the upper Oligocene to lower Miocene (23-26 million years ago). This material was used by ancient humans to create beautiful stone tools and is used in modern times for jewelry and as polished specimens for collectors. Looks like I'm going to have to learn how to use a lapidary saw because I can't wait to see what's inside some of these beauties!
I credit my friend for finding the location, but
I found the lunker!
Ignore the 3rd day camping hair and check out the segment of fossilized coral I'm holding! This was far and away the biggest piece we found but all the pieces are stunning.
First, a couple of detail shots of the lunker to show the visible coral structures:
Here is a smaller piece with a covering of quartz crystals known as druzy.
I dug until I was worn out and had enough material that I needed to make sure my kayak was properly balanced.
The coral on my seat ended up in the stern crate. Would've made for a rough ride back to camp if I hadn't moved it.
When I got home I improvised a light table to show off the translucency and color
of some of the thinner pieces.
Good stuff!
Finding a new and different kind of fossil was such an energizing experience. I let my imagination run while I was digging, pondering how all this fossil treasure wound up in that spot. The Peace River water level is dropping but I think one more trip to the Alafia might be in order.
