Raising the Mammoth

The first fossil dive of the year is always a tough one. You have to figure out where all your gear is, make sure it works, remember how to put it all together, blah, blah, blah. I was just ready to get into the water and find some shark teeth! Of course the primary goal is to find a big megalodon tooth, but with diving, there is always the outside chance that you'll run across something amazing. We arrived at the dive spot on time itching to gear up. I managed not to clock df in the cranium with my regulator this time, thankfully. Sometimes, my over-exuberance gets the best of me. The water was much colder than it was yesterday when I drove out to check on the landing conditions. No matter, I wasn't going to let a little chilly water get in the way of my dive. I drifted down river a little bit so I could swim back to the exit point. As I neared my destination and started to hunt, I got caught in a ripping current and I couldn't hold my place. I started sliding further down the river as I struggled to kick against the blasting, black water. I quickly became winded and decided to play it safe and find a spot to chill out of the current. I swam toward the sand bar on the opposite bank and dug into the sand on the bottom until I could catch my breath. Time to start jogging, I thought to myself. Then I figured out that my BC was still half way full of air! No wonder I couldn't fight the current. Its tough to sink when your gear is trying to make you float. I let all the air out, and I was able to hug the bottom like I normally do. Seconds after I started hunting normally, I found a four inch angustidens tooth. I could tell it was a little worn, but any four inch shark tooth is a good shark tooth, I think. I continued back toward the entry point and I couldn't stop picking up the teeth. They were poking out of the layer like vegetables. About halfway up from where I started, I ran into da f0ssZ who was diving polar bear style. He later said that his wetsuit was making him work too hard to stay under. Anyway, I continued up river until I found my exit spot, where I circled around until my air was at a respectable level to return to the dive shop.

da f0ssZ finally came up from his first dive and after a quick bite to eat and a re-tanking, we were back in the water. I floated down river again, this time not as far, and I started searching a different part of the river. A nice horse tooth was my firt reward. I found a few more teeth, but not nearly as many as the first dive. I was nearing the exit point again, when I saw a strange looking bottle. This fossil diving spot is loaded with trash, so normally I don't pay too much attention to bottles. But this one was cooler looking than normal. I looked for a stamp, and I found one under the grime on the rectangular portion of the bottle. It said "National Remedy Company New York". That went in my goodie bag. It had to be old, and this was without a doubt the best find of the day. I was happy, but I still had 1500 psi to burn on my tank, so I decided to swim around again and see if I missed anything the first time around. I didn't find anything, and I was scanning the bottom on the way out when I spotted some ridges. It looked like the grain on an old piece of wood, so I poked it with my screwdriver to confirm that it was a tire, broken skeet, driftwood, or whatever. It was not wood, and I got excited. I didn't want to admit to myself what I was beginning to think it was. I fanned away the sand from the edges, and dug the curiosity from the bottom. I picked it up, looked at it in my light and poked it again to make sure it wasn't wood. It wasn't. It was a wooly mammoth tooth. A whole one. I was right before - I found a fossil elephant tooth! I've been waiting SO long to find one. I clipped my goody bag, now completely loaded with whale vertebrae and fossil shark teeth, to my BC and secured my find of the year under my arm as I contemplated my extreme good fortune. Then, I saw the exact same pattern poking from under the sand about two feet from where I first struck fossil gold. I carefully set my first find down and extracted what was undoubtedly another tooth from the same animal, since it was exactly the same size and in the same condition. I was really low on air by this time, so I had to go. When I got to the surface and looked at my finds, I was absolutely amazed. The detail and preservation was exquisite! Never before have I had this kind of success diving. Never. And I'd be willing to wager that there are MORE fossils from that mammoth waiting for me to come find them. I'll be heading back next week sometime for find out for sure.

It was a great set of dives; there's no way my luck can stay this good. One bad thing did happen today, though. I slipped climbing up the hill where we parked while wearing all my gear (stupid, I know) and hurt my knee. Lafarge is out for tomorrow, but no matter. I've got mammoth teeth to clean!