The Best Laid Plans...Part II

I woke up to an overcast morning and was at the GMR parking lot by 5:45 AM. I put my waders on and proceeded to walk across the ballfield. By the time I was half way across, I began to recognize the sound of gushing water. As I approached the foot bridge I could see that the trickle of a stream I had collected in the night before, had transformed into a fast moving river - rejected!!!. There was no question that the 4-5 ft rise in water level would put the kibosh on any GMR fossiling today. I hurriedly walked back to my car and proceeded with plan B - the spoil piles near Chocowinity. I arrived at the piles by 6:30 AM and quickly made my way into the area. As I walked in, I realized that the large piles were all non-spoil material. I actually had to search to find the only spoil pile to be had - it was all of 4 feet high and about 15ft by 15ft in area - not the 20 ft high piles I was used to but at this point I didn’t care. I spent the first hour and a half scanning and the remaining time digging. I came up with a couple of really nice Hemis, including a near killer pathological 1 1/4" specimen that has only some slight tip damage, along with 2 or 3 nice lower teeth. Other nice finds were a 1 1/8" chubby with only minor tip damage, a pristine 7/8" Hastilis lower, a piece of a porpoise jaw bone and a little scute looking item along with the other usuals. For a little pile it produced just fine. I went back to the hotel, drawing stares as I walked through the lobby looking like I just came out of a mud wrestling match, cleaned up and went on to my next meeting. GMR would have to wait for my next trip.