July 2005 Chesapeake Bay Excursion - Day 1

FossilGuy and I made plans months ago for a weekend at the cliffs. This was to be our reward for assisting at a daylong fossil event for a local council of cub scouts. No wives, just the Bay Mistress (my little 14 foot boat) and lots of time to scour the shores of the bay and surrounding areas for fossil treasure. The trip did not start off well. Fossilguy’s car died not soon after he arrived at my place. It limped to a garage and was repaired while we were away, necessitating an extra stay over day at the M4 abode. The car was just the start of our automobile issues this weekend.

My wife arrived home from work with word that our car was acting up as well. Great! 2 out of 3 vehicles on the fritz. She need to go somewhere that night and to make a long night short, we finally made it to bed at midnight and rousted ourselves at 2:45AM in order to be down at the Bay for first light. We didn’t make it on time, we just were in danger of falling asleep so we napped outside of Baltimore on I-95 for a half hour and then continued, arriving at a buddies house at 6:45.

Site 1. With our friend’s boat launch key in hand, we were off to our first spot. A private community loaded with the St. Mary’s formation known for big makos and complete crab fossils in concretions. Both eluded us this day but we did find at least some fossils while on the beach.

Site 2. The second spot we had to get to by boat (it’s surrounding by private property) and did quite well here. It’s a place with a mix of Choptank and St. Mary’s formations were you can strike out or hit pay dirt - rarely an in-between trip and today was no different. I headed south and fossilguy went north and our results were just as polar. I found 1 Meg at 3&7/16" and two makos; 2" & 2.25" and a few hemmies. Fossilguy found only small float teeth.

Site 3. Instead of continuing south to the next batch of cliffs we went to visit another site of Choptank and Calvert. This place can be a gold mine or a skunk fest and today was no different. I found a few float teeth and one nice 1.5" upper hemmie. Fossilguy fared just as well. Nothing overly exciting for the spot today.