First Trip to Green Mill Run of 2010
Me and Flex68 were up and on the road shortly after six and after a stop for coffee and gas and then a stop at bojangles for shoveling fuel we made it to the run. First time I had been to the creek since July and all I could think about was the 3” great white that still eluded me. Well that, and a fortune from a cookie the previous night stating that “My goal would soon be reached”. So with high hopes we geared up and lumbered off to the creek.
We hit my favorite spot in the creek and started digging. I suggested a spot to Flex then picked another spot that I thought would prove productive… I then started screening away and of course started finding the usual belemnites and chunks of bone. It wasn’t for awhile that I even found my first tooth. And that was pretty forgetful. So the day started out slower then I would have liked but sometimes that happens.
Flex kept at it where he was finding a pretty nice gravel bar and I decided that a change of scenery was in order. So I moved across the creek to a spot that proved very productive for Govinn on a previous hunt and that hole had filled back in with sand, gravel and hopefully fossils! Well, it took awhile to get through the sand and leaves and such but eventually it started producing and the broken megs and broken great whites and little teeth started coming.
It was about that time that Flex who at that time was quietly sifting screen after screen let out a very loud and hysterical laugh. Well, we all know that everyone has a sort of signal for a great find and there was no doubt that was it. I looked over and he said I would never believe what he found and I walked over to be handed an amazingly complete spearhead! That was definitely a trip making find! You will all definitely have to check out his trip report to see it if you haven’t already!
Well we continued screening for awhile after that but nothing significant showed up and so we decided to move to a different spot. We stopped to grab some food at the truck and then made our way upstream to the first spot I ever really screened at GMR. But although it proved productive before we didn’t find too much and we were ready to move pretty quick. It also helped that the next spot in my mind was a definite gold mine of a spot and I was itching to get up there. So we started walking through making a stop at a shopping cart due to I stepped on a pile of gravel and couldn’t help but trying a screen or two. The gravel was plentiful but the fossils were not. So we continued moving.
Finally we reached the spot and after putting Flex at the funnel of a big tooth trap in the stream and I started at the other end and we started screening away. This was my best spot of the day as I continued down a rock ledge in the middle of the creek scooping up and screening all the sand, mud, clay and gravel my shovel could reach and finally my find of the day came in the shape of a wide cosmopolitodus xiphodon tooth. There was a little even root wear on it but other than that it was perfect! My best extinct giant mako yet from green mill run! I don’t know why but I never have much luck with Makos at green mill run but I guess I was due up!
I took a screen shot with my IPhone and then tucked it away in my tooth case. My next and 2nd best find of the day was a big mososaur tooth. My longest one from GMR. It was a little beat up but any day you find a big mososaur tooth is a good day.
A nice great white was the next tooth in my screen. It had a great root, and a nice beginning of the blade and the rest was hidden under a shell. I moved the shell to see no continuation of the blade. A major bummer, today was not my day for great whites and I ended up with four broken ones included a great white blade that was just over 2” long but no root whatsoever. I gave that away to a very unhappy kid in Aurora that Saturday even though right after I did that he found a Meg tooth that was even bigger!
We gave up on that spot for a little while and moved upstream to the next and final spot where I thought would be productive, and where I got my largest, most perfect great white tooth the previous July. However I would not repeat and other then a broken mako and some broken teeth for the both of us we decided to return to the previous spot for the rest of the evening.
We continued screening until just before dark and then called it a day.
I apologize for the picture quality, its been awhile.