Rack of Ages

With summer winding down and the statistical peak of tropical storm season approaching, I felt another hunt in the Edisto was needed. I called up DW to see if he was able to collect, and after a resounding “yes”, a trip was underway. I met up with DW at his crib to view his latest serrated object from the river. “The prize” beauty angustiden was over 3” and freshly washed out from the Chandler Bridge. At that instant I decided the majority of my day would be spent fanning sand to expose the CB formation. After a quick, somewhat mind-numbing stop for a biscuit, we arrived at the river around 10:30. We both geared up and decided to explore some new areas as the sand has been shifting lately. I searched downriver and found a few gravel beds but the quantity of sand to move was too much to be productive. I was on my way up to my spot from last week picking up teeth fanned out by previous hunts. After a few smaller teeth, I located enamel from an archaeocete whale that was stained heavily from tannin. I got pretty stoked by this and fanned off a little sand nearby only to find the unbelievable….a large complete archaeocete molar exposed. After marveling at its sweetness, I called up DW to share this find. His gaping jaw quickly flooded with tannic water. As he stared in disbelief, I soon realized that there was not enough voltage nearby to electroshock him back to a normal state. We searched diligently for more whale material, but during a break when I asked DW if he had found any he simply stated, “just shark teeth”.  Funny, but I felt the same way after this “def” moment (I had listed to some Sirius 23 on the way down, so my trip title fit in nicely with my music du jour). I went back to fanning gravel beds and scored a nice horse tooth and a giant sham-er 4” angy. Of course I was in gravy mode already and we all know that old chestnut. Hopefully, we’ll have more days like this one in the river.