May 9, 2009 My first PCS Experience

Before I start off on my report, I want to thank the PCS Phosphate Company and Curtis Ormond for the opportunity given to me to collect at the mine. I also want to say thank you to all of the guides for their dedication, sharing of knowledge, kindness, and everything else they do to help newbies like me stumble about the mine. I met several forum members and they are all very nice folks, looking forward to seeing y'all again.

My plan was to arrive in Washington, NC in the early morning ours and get a few hours sleep before the trek to the PCS parking lot, be the first one down the ramp and make a slow giant circular walk (as much as possible) around the mine, find a ton of sharks teeth and other fossils, meet some forum members, and walk out with that huge meg. Well, things didn't really go as planned. We got a late start leaving my home town, then got caught up in construction traffic, and finally arrived in Washington around 4 AM. That at least gave me a couple hours of sleep, but I don't know if it was excitement, exhaustion, or other distractions but I only wound up sleeping about 20 minutes. The good news was that they were calling for morning thunderstorms in the area on the weather channel the day before, but the weather was beautiful and not a cloud in the sky.

My sister and I arrived in the parking lot and met several forum members (and some later in the day): Hawkeye, Beachbum, and BSR0131. If I forgot anyone, sorry about that. And thank you for helping us newbies learn the ropes on the prep before heading down the ramp. After getting instructions, loading our gear, and all the other stuff my head was spinning from all of the activity in addition to the excitement building inside me. After we loaded onto the bus, I met a few fellow Marylanders that didn't know about this site that potentially might join now (do I get a finders fee fossil, LOL???), and chatting with them and a few other fellow collectors, we arrived at our destination.

Well, my plan never materialized the way that I wanted it to. We probably were the last ones down the ramp and saw foot prints everywhere we went, but we made it to one of the back corners at least. For reasons that I don't want to explain, we stayed in one area for much of the time. Each step took it's toll on my body regardless of the amount of fluids that I took in, and most of them were circling the few hills that we collected around. I probably took enough steps to circle the entire collecting area, but it felt like I was running in place. Still, I found some cool stuff and experienced the awe of Lee Creek, and walked away with some fossils that I have never found. I'm always impressed with what everyone finds there and now I appreciate how tricky collecting there can be. Thanks to one of the guides, Tracy for giving me some pointers, and congrats on the awesome near perfect meg she found literally 5 feet from me while showing me the ropes, I found a few more teeth than I normally would have, and most importantly I learned a lot...next time I'll be one that walks away with a ton of stuff. Unfortunately, after drinking 2 gatorades and 9 20 oz. bottles of water without any urge to purge, my entire body began to cramp (combination of the heat, lack of sleep, a genetic disorder, and too much walking in place I guess), and time was running out for me to get back to the bus at my assigned time. Had I been up to speed, we could have made it without a problem, but I had to stop and rub out the leg cramps after nearly crossing every hill, and three stops up the ramp. With about an hour to go I didn't have much of an eye for finding stuff at this point, my main concern was getting out without having to get carried out. I did make the next bus thankfully, or I would have been another PCS fossil (Holocene, Fat Boy Formation). Most of all, thanks to Tracy for leading me the most efficient way out of there and encouraging me along.

Now, the good news. One goal was walking out with a nice vert or two, found a bunch of them, no problem. Earlty on, I found a HUGE vert half buried (15" in diameter) and excavated it as best I could, but with some hard limestone matrix it was too heavy for me to lug out that early in the trip. I wish now that I had, but that's OK, maybe next time. So, instead, I found one nearby that was much easier to carry around. I found some nice makos early on and started to get a knack of things, and some nice fish fossils, shark verts, etc.