Triumph at Lafarge
Going to the quarry always brings with it a bag of mixed expectations. All week long I've been looking forward to going because of the possibility of finding something awesome. At the same time, though, I've wondered if I should skip it because I haven't done so well there the past few times. Ultimately, I knew I would go because m4 (Miocene Marine Mammal Man) was coming down, and I'd promising him for months to show him around the place. Plus, da f0ssZ was making the trek. Add tha dUde into the mix, and I was looking forward to going just for the company. We all met at my house at 7:15 so we could pile into my truck and ride together. We arrived at the pit 20 minutes early and met up with Curtis from the Aurora Fossil Museum who had decided to try his skills in a different mine. After a brief pep talk from the new quarry manager, who, by the way, seems to be a pretty decent guy, we were cut loose and allowed to go for our little 5 hour slice of eocene scavenging. It was cloudy, drizzly, and a little bit cool to start off the day - perfect fosslin weather. And the mine couldn't have been in better condition for hunting. The area was now at least 3 times the size it was the first time I went, and the nicely weathered layer was spread out all over the place. m4 was the first to strike paydirt with his double tipper ric. bummer that it was dinged, but, then again, aren't they always? 30 seconds later, I found the ultimate prize - a pedestalled archaeocete tooth. Well, half of it anyway. I was thrilled because it was the biggest piece I'd ever found before. About 20 minutes later, da f0ssZ yelled that he had found another half archaeocete tooth. Man! They must have dozed a whale! Wwe all spread out after that, and we didn't see each other for a while. It was at least 2 hours before I even started seeing footprints. I had made my way to the back of the mine when I heard a guy shout for chisels. There's only a few things that require chisels, and I was hoping it was the rest of the whale from which I already had a partial tooth. I saw what he was talking about, and it was some bones in the wall. Man, it looked nice, but there were no teeth that we could see. There was a gigantic vertebra hanging out of the wall, though. It wasn't long before there were all kinds of people hanging around to watch and help with the excavation efforts. m4 and da f0ssZ showed up, and df mentioned that me thought our two pieces of whale tooth could be the same tooth. We looked a little closer, and the one in a billion shot was true! It was the same tooth! It was the lamest thing you ever saw. In unision, we said "wonder twin powers - ACTIVATE!" as we put the two pieces next to each other. They fit. I'm still amazed. After that, I combed the piles of debris looking for more bones, but when I didn't find any, decided to make my way back to the green cap for a little digging. I passed df just as he found his biggest ric of the day. Of course, I stopped to take a picture. Just then, tha dUde radioed me to tell me he had found a sweet ric digging in the cap. Since the day was almost over anyway, I went over to dig with him for a little while. When I got there, he had unearthed another one. I moved down about 10 feet from him and I immediately found the biggest vertebra I had ever found. da f0ssZ and m4 weren't far away, and when they saw me digging like an idiot in the wall, they came over to participate. df found another one a few feet away, but we had a LONG walk back so we had to stop digging. We packed up our goods and started back. About halfway down the middle hill, m4 found yet another gigantic vertebra, and I found my best shark tooth of the day - a pristine isurus praecursor. On the way back to the truck, we saw a young girl's perfect 3" orange ric. Man, it was sweet. And she said that it was her first day into the mine. Talk about beginner's luck!
We arrived at Taco Bell and ate the victory feast. df showed maximum fosspitality when he gave me his half of the basilosaurus tooth. In true BRFC style, he handed it over dressed in ceremonial garb - the taco bell napkin. m4 gave props to our bell, saying that it far surpassed the bells up north, which he described as "barf in a soft shell". I was proud to be the regular patron of such a fine eating establishment.
Next, it was off to the big ditch so m4 could dig in the chandler bridge. It wasn't long before da f0ssZ had to go home, but we stayed a little longer. We found a few teeth, but nothing great. Its like that usually. The teeth are hard to come by in the CB, but from time to time, you get a killer. I don't think anyone was disappointed with the lousy ditch trip because Lafarge had been so awesome.
Thanks to Lafarge for again letting us into their mine to hunt.