Here's where I admit to my failings

I am impatient, selfish, competitive,

and have a short temper when things don't go my way.

I wanted to camp where I wanted to camp,

and that was at the petrified wood site in northern Arizona.

We 4 fossil hunters, on the Great Western Fossil Adventure, were tired of being in the car, tired of dealing with rain, worried about setting up camp in the dark, 

and each had a distinct rockhounding agenda brewing in his or her mind.

It was 6 pm, 2 hours from our campsite, when I gave in and suggested a motel.  Little did I know, there was a national Little League tournament in the area and everything was booked solid.

Lots of hope, then lots of dashed hope. Ugh!

Wisely, Vickie began pointing out potential campsites as we drove through the national forest but as the miles wound down, I was more determined than ever to see it through and 

camp where I wanted to camp.

This would be a good time for a disclaimer:  long before this trip happened, I let everyone know that I had a specific agenda, which I was happy to do on my own, but if they wanted to go with me, 

they would have to bend to my will!

The beauty of the scenery as we emerged from pine forests and began our descent to a desert valley ringed in vermillion cliffs was astounding but our joy was mixed with trepidation as part of the impressive scenery included lightening and sheets of rain in the distance.

I LOUDLY cursed my way through setting up camp.

The wind was trying to grab our tents out of our hands and it was impossible to hammer stakes into the rocky ground.  Pam patiently did what I yelled at her to do and with a little adaptation (I weighed  down the inside of each tent corner with boulders), and a little luck (the rain didn't hit until the middle of the night),  we were all safely in our sleeping bags just after nightfall.

Rest assured, I apologized to everyone for my cursing.  

Jim said he couldn't hear me over his own cursing.

Best decision of the trip!

Look at our little camp in the distance.  What a great place and so interesting!

Everywhere you look there's petrified wood from tiny splinters to trunks, whole trees laid out on the top of the hills, ravines cluttered with it.  

I suppose since it's not "rainbow wood" (the highly colorful agatized wood from around the Petrified Forest National Park) there's not a lot of interest in it, but to us, it was one of the best places on the whole trip!

I sat by this tree, on the top of a hill, for along time, trying to take it all in: the beauty of the location, the antiquity of the material, that there was once a forest of conifers in this desert location.

I love how the lichens growing on the surface make it look like it's still wood and not stone.

Depending on where you looked, the petrified wood had different characters.

The tree in the photo above was very light in color with areas of cream-colored druzy quartz crystals.

Jim discovered a single gully with the smooth, more colorful agatized wood.

I found one hillside that had wood with dark tinted druzy crystals.  It looks like bark in the photo above but that was the inside of the tree, and through mineral replacement over millions of years,

it transformed into big quartz crystals.

There were also lots of small druzy pieces on this hillside.

These look like seed pods or fossilized ears of baby corn but they are pieces of the inside of the trees.

Hard to capture their full beauty with my inferior camera.

This is the top view of some of the druzy fragments which initially led me to believe they were petrified twigs but later we spotted sections in situ, inside a whole tree.

We all agreed that at some time in the future we would return and camp for longer so that we could do more exploration but by lunch time that day, my whirlwind schedule dictated

We had to go!

To be continued...

And you probably thought I wasn't hunting fossils anymore

There's an old saying,

"When one fossil season closes, 

another one opens somewhere else."

(I just made that up)

The official close to my river season came with these 2 momentous finds:

I know what you're thinking and no, it doesn't work.

This was fun to find because this is the exact lure I fished with ALL THE TIME 

growing up in Missouri.  It's called The Killer

 and we definitely slayed a lot of bass and bluegill with them.

While my fossil friends were closing out their "river season"

with absolutely amazing finds

my "desert season" was just about to begin!

I've traveled a lot and every time I come home from a great trip I have an overwhelming need to go right back, asafp, and capture some more of those wonderful memories.

Unfortunately, it never works out that way.

Extreme financial limits only allow me 1 visit per location.  There's so many places I want to see!

My January trip to Arizona gave me the same feelings, especially to revisit the petrified wood location in the north of the state.

This time it worked out!

I was determined to go back because in January, the Utah trilobite quarry was closed (too cold!) and I really, really wanted to find some trilobites...

and maybe some fossil fish in Wyoming...

So I plotted a geographical triangle 

with Utah, Arizona, and Wyoming at each corner.

I would've gladly done it alone but fossils are more fun with friends so I was happy when Pam agreed to accompany me AND then Jim and Vickie, also from my fossil club, wanted to go, too.

I think the U-Dig fossil bucket says it all:

I'll break this trip up into a couple of posts

so I don't overload you with envy! 

Allow me to start at the beginning.

Jim and Vickie are snowbirds so on their way back to Wisconsin this spring, they dropped by my house and took my tent, sleeping bag, pillow, and rock tools with them.  That way, I didn't have to check any bags on my flights to Salt Lake City in June, where they were kind enough to pick up Pam and me at the airport.  They have a well maintained 4WD truck and enough camping gear that we never wanted for a thing the entire trip.  Jim is an experienced driver, both in 2 and 4WD so we were in good hands for our adventure.

The only catch was unloading all that gear every evening and reloading it every morning.  

The process was very organized in the beginning and a bit of a free-for-all by the end.

First (attempted) stop: Dugway, Utah, for geodes.

When Vickie and Jim said they wanted to stop and hunt geodes on our way from the airport to our first campsite, 2 hours away, I was...reluctant.  I was imagining the little geodes I bought in a Colorado gift store as a child.  Yawn...

We couldn't find the area and eventually gave up, heading southwest to Delta, Utah to set up camp in preparation for an early start digging trilobites the next morning.  Along the way, we stopped at an Ace Hardware to buy some supplies and out back was a cement pad strewn with Dugway geode halves, collected and cut by a local.

I had no idea that these things would be the size of cantaloupes...or larger! 

and packed full of stunning druzy quartz crystals.

And they were $5 each!

Shut the front door!!!  I bought 4! 

Pam and Vickie stocked up, too, so we hadn't even been in the state one day and we'd already added 50 lbs of rocks to the truck.

The U-Dig trilobite quarry is listed as being in Delta, Utah

but it's actually an hour away from Delta, not including the 20 mile unpaved road.

Since the area is BLM land, we decided to camp rough just outside of the quarry entrance.  

I found out on our first night camping that Jim is a Bloody Mary master and a delicious cocktail became our ritual for closing out each successful day.

Second stop: U-Dig Fossils,  near Delta, Utah

This quarry is located in the mid-Cambrian House Range in western Utah and splitting layers of limestone shale can reveal trilobites: 

A trilobite is a form of invertebrate marine life that lived more than 550 million years ago, but is now extinct. These hard-shelled prehistoric critters roamed the sea floor and coral reefs in search of food. Because of their great diversity and often perfect preservation in fine-grained rock, they are one of the most popular fossils among collectors. (from the U-Dig Fossil website)

Vickie found the best of the bunch.

I was happy with my finds, too.

I did become overly possessive of the pry bar...

but I think I had been influenced by a recent episode of "Naked and Afraid"

where the contestants fought about who would get to use the knife.

After 4 solid hours of splitting rocks, we packed all our "bugs" and hit the road for a long haul to our next camp in northern Arizona.

To be continued...

That's it for the season and this time I really mean it!

I love hunting for fossils

but my back is now officially 50 years old

and I depend on the off-season to recover from the rigors of digging gravel every week.

So, OF COURSE, water levels have dropped to the point

where I actually have to get out of my kayak and drag it through shallow areas,

and I know it's a bad sign when I'm tired BEFORE I get to the river.

I even told Mike to stop me next week if I say I'm going fossiling...

...so now I'll have to sneak out!

 I've officially crossed into the realm of the rockhound as well as the fossil fanatic,

aided by Florida's beautiful fossilized coral. 

I quickly learned that the color of these coral fragments is just on the surface but it's striking and exciting to find.  I have tried to research what causes the different color variations and how long it takes but to no avail.  I assume it has to do with minerals in the water or soil.

It's hard to grasp the translucency in a photo

but these little chips are like a window to the inside of the coral structure.

Even in areas with few other fossils

I manage to find a thing or two.

Florida's rivers have lots of fossilized oysters and most are pretty rough but once in awhile I find one with so much character, I take it home with me.

The group shot.

When I found this substantial chunk of mammoth enamel (top), I stared at it for half a minute wondering what kind of coral it was because I haven't found anything like it in this area.

The "bison" tooth might be a modern era cow tooth.  

I need to learn how to do a "burn test" to find out.

The fossil in the middle is an intriguingly shaped piece of bone that I really, really, REALLY wanted to be a sabertooth lion fang.  Sigh...

Fossilized medial phalanx from a horse (left) and a shiny turtle "peace sign" scute (right) underneath single tiger shark and hemi teeth.

I enjoyed finding the larger shark tooth in matrix (bottom) but it will be difficult to ID as the root is hidden in the stone and the tip is gone.  The tooth is serrated like a meg but has a shape similar to a great white.  I'll take it to the next club meeting and see what the consensus is.

Pam and I have been on a roll 

with finding eyewear this season.

Had I known how many eyeglass lens we would find, I would've kept count.

I think around 6 in one area which is SO weird!

And then someone told me about a ditch

where I could find a different color of coral.

Describing this location and the effort it took to get there as "unpleasant" would be an understatement

but I'm a sucker for the hunt.

This is an area just a bit to the north of Tampa and apparently this whole section of Florida is lined with fossilized coral...10-20' below the surface of the soil.  Chunks of coral get turned up during construction or ditch digging, as in this case.

I doubt that water levels would be a factor here but insects and thick vegetation will relegate this site to winter-only visits from now on.  

The master at work

When I refer to the "master"...

PSHYCHE!

It's not me!

It's the fabulous knapper, Roger Hostetler,

and here is one of his work spaces:

I don't know much about flint napping but I know fabulous when I see it.

I've posted the photo of a couple of points he made for me using my coral from the Alafia River.

Well, now I'm hooked!

I took him another slab that I thought was particularly pretty when I cut it.  (Actually, I took him 2 slabs: one for him, one for me)  He wrote that he had started working on it but stopped because he thought I might like it in its "preform" state, meaning, not a finished point.

Whatever!

Then he sent a photo, and it's not even the best photo...

Wow!!!

He's right, I'll take it, as is!

As I write this, it's raining

but we had a short dry spell where the river levels dropped.

I was able to combine a FCOLC meeting with 2 days of digging.

Day 1

I haven't spent much time in the Peace this season so I basically went upstream a bit and started digging where lots of other people had been digging.

Dugong rib bone fragments usually get tossed back but when I find a biggun' I take it home.

A pretty hemi.

A few worn but interesting pre-equus teeth with a deer tooth thrown in for contrast.

The odds and ends assortment.

Day 2

I was able to meet up with Pam for this day and while it was a bit frustrating,  I found enough to sift through when I got home.

Horse teeth.  

Check out the ultra-glossy finish on the tooth to the right.

Middle turtle scutes. Lots of 'em!

And the odds and ends.

I'm glad I went while I could as scheduling conflicts will keep me away for a couple weeks.

Smooth as Glass

Finally, back in the Peace River!

The water levels dropped for a minute 

and I was able to visit my old digging grounds.

It felt like the first day of a new fossil season:  endless possibilities, 

but a little confused as to where to start.

I chose the safe bet, thinking it would be better for my morale to at least find a few little things than roll the dice and find a big goose egg.

Well, alrighty then!

From the top, left to right: a big astragalus but I'm not certain it's fully fossilized; 2 dolphin ear bones flanking a horse molar; tiger shark teeth and fish mouth plates interspersed throughout the photo; fossilized wood; giant armadillo scute, whole; crystalized sea urchin spine and some kind of pointed scute right below it; 3 nicely patterned turtle scutes in a row with a deer toe bone to the left and ray mouth plates to the right; more turtle; modern piece of pig jaw with 2 teeth; giant armadillo scute, broken;  tiny meg; very nice meg 1⅜"; tiny tortoise spur; broken camelid tooth; big fat broken meg.

It has been pouring rain for the last 2 hours so, considering the way things have been going this season, that may have been my last Peace River trip.

We'll see...

A glassy look to the water.

I'd forgotten about all the glass in the Peace and I decided to pick up every piece of glass that wound up in my screen.  I admit, I normally just dump it back into the river 

from whence it came.

Not anymore!

I promise to try and throw away every piece of glass I dig up.

As you can see, it gets a little overwhelming.

This is from ONE DAY of digging in the Peace River.

This doesn't include all the bottles and cans I see as I am trolling along.  If I stopped for every one of those, I wouldn't have any time to hunt fossils!

In the meantime...

I took some slices of Alafia River coral to a knapper that I know

and he made this beautiful point for me:

Too cool!

He gave me a "recipe" for heating coral in a turkey roaster 

in order to change its color and consistency,

but of course I wanted to try it "old school", the way the Native Americans would've done it:

buried in sand topped by a controlled fire.

Sand? Check!

Coral? Check!

Fire? Check!

3-4 days to keep the fire at a constant level?

Whaaat?!!!

My modern schedule doesn't permit that, so after a couple of days, I gave up.  The chunk of coral looked like it had been lightly toasted.

Dontcha know I got a clearanced turkey roaster on Amazon?

Thaz right!

I'm going to try it the modern way!

Zip Firestarters: a review

I have used them all and Zip is the way to go.  

Unless you're competing on Survivor and your options are limited to 2 sticks, why struggle?  

And by "struggle" I mean, any attempt to light a fire that takes more than 10 seconds. 

 Zip firestarters are small, clean and light instantaneously.  

And in case you're hungry...

This is the food truck for you!  

When they say "Just Ribs" they apparently mean exactly the opposite but it smelled good.  

Maybe I'll work up some courage next time and try it.

My back is telling me it's time

Even though I've only been to the Peace River

3 times this season,

I've engaged in enough digging that my sore back is telling me it's time to quit;

the rainy season must be right around the corner.

I have enough fabulous fossilized coral to keep my slab saw running all summer.

I didn't find many fossils this season

unless success is figured by the pound.

Coral is HEAVY but look at the beautiful fan structure visible on this piece.

My kayaks were sorely tested

but mostly by my inexperience at carrying HEAVY objects.

I had to rig impromptu scupper plugs when I learned that a kayak full of water is difficult to steer.

Here's the recipe in case you ever need it: 2 wet paddling gloves, 1 plastic grocery bag. 

 Tightly roll the gloves, wrap in plastic, plug your scuppers!

I trust Intellicast.

It's hard to leave the house at 4:30 AM, in pouring rain, for a 2 hour drive just because Intellicast says there will be a break in the storms.

But they are usually right.

Coral is the new black.

I just made this piece using a baby megalodon tooth and a red coral bead,

then a friend requested a necklace using a red coral bead she'd been given as a gift.

I told her to pick out some other beads she liked and she unknowingly picked 2 black coral tube beads I had purchased on a trip to Belize.

It must be in the air.