Mr. October

The whole gang saddled up today for the Lafarge trip. I always love the October collecting day because weather is always so nice. Today was no exception - it was gorgeous. Plus, the best of all situations happened, too. it poured down rain last night at the quarry so it didn't matter if people were sneaking in. We would get fresh ground to look on. As always, the experienced hunters ran past the first hills to the newer material, but there is an obstacle that you must cross to get to it - A big, deep ditch. I watched as da f0ssZ made a Herculean leap to clear the ditch. Now there's a man who likes to hunt teeth, I thought to myself. Next, t$ tried. And failed. It was hilarious - he jumped across right where df did, only he didn't quite make it. Instantly, he was buried to the knees in mud. I couldn't help but laugh. Then, two others tried to just walk across. The bottom looks solid and only about 4 feet deep, but in reality, there's a thick layer of find sand about 3 feet thick on the bottom. Anyway, like I said, they just walked right in. They sank to their butts as they finally saw why I was tossing big flat pieces of marl into the ditch. I was making stepping stones. They pulled themselves out and followed me. Meanwhile, I was already at the crossing poing of another ditch - a new addition since my last visit. I poked my shovel down and if felt nice and solid. I stepped in and it felt like it was going to support me when I sunk. luckily, I still had one foot on dry ground, so I was able to pull myself out. I paid the price for laughing at t$. I'm just glad he didn't get to laugh back! Anyway, back to the hunt. Twice today, I saw perfect 3 inch auriculatis teeth found less than 10 feet from me. Frustrating, but nevertheless, the old addage "don't hate the player, hate the game" rings true. and I heard about several more were found in the 2 inch range that were perfect, too. Again, today was not my day for auriculatis teeth. I found three, but all are badly damaged. Someday I'll bring home a killer ric. Until then, I'll keep the shrine burning. I don't mean to sound down, though, because I still had a killer day. I found a nice eocene mako tooth as well as the biggest tiger shark tooth I've ever seen. I was walking along on some green cap and some pebbly sand when I spied the monster. Its HUGE! Another guy wandered over as he heard me utter an explative of disbelief, and he, too, thought it was gigantic. Bill Heim happened to be in the vicinity, so I met him as he looked at the tooth. He said it was definitely galeocerdo cuvier, so the tooth must be pleistocene in age. That's cool, because I didn't know there were any marine pleistocene deposits at Lafarge. When I got up this morning, if someone had told me the best thing I was going to find today was a tiger shark tooth, I probably would have just stayed home. Seeing is believing, though. This thing is massive and it made the day for me. Thanks again to Lafarge for opening their pit to us. Its always a joy to collect there.