Auriculatus Bonanza

5:00 am this morning I wake up, fully aware that my alarm is set for one hour so I could go up to Lafarge. My semiconscious, lazy self convinces me to turn off the alarm, sleep in, and investigate spots closer to home. I listened, and I fell back to sleep. 6:36 am my wife is whispering "You're going to be late for toothing". She finally wakes me up and I threw on some clothes and headed out the door. I arrived a little late to the dig, but only like 10 or 15 minutes. Armed with my ipod and lucky shovel, I proceeded into the mine. Down the weed covered slopes, over the quicksand ditch, and up the semi new deposits toward the hill of green cap that shined like a beacon to me, a fossil hunter without a hunt in nearly 3 weeks. I ran into da f0ssZ, rivrdigr, t00thh00vr, indiana, and others I've met over the years of hunting. I picked up teeth here and there, at the rate of about one every few minutes. Most were broken. 3 hours into the day, I still hadn't found a single trip worthy tooth. I was starting to get depressed. I finally made it to the hill of green cap, which was already criss-crossed with foot prints. I found nothing there. Now, I was REALLY starting to feel like I should have slept in. I kept the faith and my eyes never left the ground. I finally left the new deposits and went back toward the stuff that has been laying out since 2004. I ran into a guy for the second time, both of us reporting little found so far. As I was talking to him, I ran across an auriculatus - FINALLY! It wasn't a big one, but I could tell when I saw it that it had both cusps and a good root. I snapped a photo and picked it up, somehow knowing that the tip wasn't there. Sometimes I hate being right. I meandered through weeds so tall that they knocked my ear phones out. I made it to an area midway down a hill that from a distance looked untouched, but on closer inspection, was covered with evidence of earlier scavengers like myself. Not expecting much, I took my time and was rewarded with my second auriculatus of the day. It was bigger and nicer than the first, but the tip was still dinged. I began to feel a little better. 2 decent rics in a day is pretty good. I continued down the hill, and in between some tall weeds, I found a wash out that had not been searched. I was hopeful, but denied. I proceeded down the hill further to a much bigger washout, that of course, was covered with footprints. Midway up this ditch sized washout I saw a tooth sticking by its tip into the bottom. I could see a killer root and bourlette. A little closer, and I saw two pristine cusps. Was this it??? Was this my killer auriculatus? I gingerly pulled it out. DANG!! No tip. It still made a great photo, and it was my nicest of the day yet. Ok, 3 rics in a day? I feel like I osmosized da f0ssZ's skills when I gave him a shout out earlier today. I walked down to the bottom of the quarry to cross the quicksand ditch and start back to my truck, and I noticed that I was crossing the most gigantic washout I had seen all day. Not expecting much, I leasurly looked around. Soon, I spotted a U shaped rock amongst the stems of dead cattails and debris washed to the nadir of the pit. I knew it was a tooth, but how much of a tooth? Only the root was exposed. I snapped a picture and bent down, uttering the toother's mantra - please be whole. I wiggled the root and from the resistance I could tell there was at least some enamel left. I lightly tugged on the ancient shark tooth and I pulled it from the sand like a dagger from a sheath. I scraped away sand and marvelled at the tooth I came to find. The wet blade glistened in the sunlight. Sharp cusps adorned a savage, serrated blade culminating in a single, intact, needle sharp tip serration. I couldn't believe my eyes. My muddy boots were light as air. I tried to conceal my glee as I approached da f0ssZ who waited for me near the exit from the pit. I laid tooth after tooth on his open palm. Others looked on, surely ready to flog me with their shovels. I showed them all where I had my luck, and for a few final minutes, we excitedly looked over the area a final time before we had to leave, not to return again for far too long.