A BRF Kid's Day

The blur of the past 6 weeks, induced by picking up all my worldly possessions and moving them 500 miles, finally cleared enough for me to start thinking about fossiling again. Moving is such an all engrossing, stressful event that there’s little time to even think about collecting never mind actually getting out and doing it. I wanted to take Juli out with me on the first trip but I wanted to be sure she’d find teeth. I had joked with TM before coming down to NC that my kids wouldn’t have to ogle 1" Goblin shark teeth anymore now that we’re in big tooth country. Not that there’s anything wrong with them, some of my prettiest teeth are 1" goblin shark teeth - but the size standard definitely increases here in NC. I was torn where to make my first trip as a NC resident. I’ve done a ton of research and have plenty of potential locations mapped out, but I didn’t want to subject Juli to a day of mosquitos, snakes and ticks without a sure chance of finding something. Being that we’re now within striking distance of the low country, I figured a road trip down to DW’s would be the perfect opener. The trip is about 4 hours, but I know from years of ogling DW’s finds that even the worst day’s finds in SC, beat a good day’s finds in most other places. We packed up the car and we two Moe’s headed south of the border. I even placed a friendly bet with Juli that she would find her first 2 inch tooth - our adrenalin was pumping! We arrived at DW’s where we met child toothin prodigy “The Weezling” who helped his father show us a fossil collection that the Smithsonian would be proud of. After Juli and I put our jaws back in place, we all headed out to the first spot where we were going to meet up with the Dafossz family. The ditch yielded GW and Angy blades within the first couple of minutes and DW picked up a killer posterior tooth. Juli was in immediate bliss picking up smaller teeth out of the gravel piles. We met up with Dafossz, minifossz and microfossz and the BRF kid’s dig was in full swing. We spent a short while digging some exposed Chandler Bridge in which I found ½ of a tiny Angustiens and decided to move on. The next spot was a slightly smaller ditch, but the shamer 2" Angy lying in the first 30 ft of stream bed proved it had as much potential. We walked upstream a ways picking up a couple of small teeth as we went, but Juli’s legs were starting to ache so we decided to go back to where I found the shamer and do a little screening. We had picked up a bunch of smaller teeth around where the Angy was lying so it seemed to be as good a spot as any to start. We loaded the first screen and just as we were fingering through the last pieces of gravel, Juli picked out an absolutely perfect 1" Angustidens. It was small, but it was killer! In the very next screen, was the tooth Juli was waiting for - a somewhat beat up but generally complete 2" mako. She was more impressed with the mako than the Angy, but they were both great teeth especially since they were her first for both species (I reminded her of our bet). We did a few more screens picking up some partial horse teeth and a beat up Angy blade, but the troops were getting hungry and it seemed that a lunch break was in order. I was really looking forward to partaking in a BRF taco fest and today was no disappointment. After our fine meal we parted with DW and The Weezling and moved on to the next spot with Dafossz’s crew. The water at the next spot had pretty much dried up so screening was out, but there were plenty of small teeth to keep the kids busy. My best find was a nice 1 3/4" mako lying high on top of a gravel pile but not quite as large as Dafossz’s huge lower mako. We dug through some layer for a while, finding a few small teeth but the day was growing long and it was a long ride home. We cleaned up, said our farewells and headed back north. Our first fossiling trip in SC was one to remember: a good day of collecting made great with exceptional company. Thanks Guys!