As time goes on I appreciate more and more what my area has to offer. Been having a lot of fun lately, finding interesting things, finding interesting places.

Tonight I got together with some local fly fishermen, which included wives/girlfriends, a teacher and students, fly shop owner etc. to clean up a stretch of creek in town. It was wet, rainy, and we got started about 5:30, visibility wasn't too great. We all had a good time picking up a lot of trash, while back at the fly shop some sausage was being grilled for our return. Now, I'm all about helping clean up my home fishing waters, but it was really just an excuse to get out on the creek and look at new territory. It was really excellent, I saw some really nice areas I hadn't explored before, and found some cool things. The coolest of which was the remains of an old trap, jaw style, size 0. Mostly rusted away, but I sure do love finding pieces of history, it will go nicely with the rusted wagon wheel hub I found. Here's a pic of my haul tonight, just the trap, a jaw bone I found, some mediocre fossils. Late last year I found an intact hog skull, and a few months ago an intact raccoon skull, and lately a few jaw bones from other carnivorous type animals. So, I've started collecting them. The hog skull is kind of cool because it is definitely not a domestic or feral hog, and too big for javelina, so I'm working on figuring out what it was. It appears to have a .22 caliber bullet hole in it's skull. Since I spend all of my time on the creek, I've made a hobby out of collecting bobbers as well.

A few days ago the weather was nice and I decided to check out a waterway in town that I hadn't explored very thoroughly before. I hadn't had much luck there in the past and I really don't care much for the area, but I gave it a shot. Didn't have much luck until I came to a gravel bar and sitting there in front of me was a big ol' tooth and an intact ammonite (cast I believe). Having never found a tooth before, or really any cool animal parts (other than that giant horse femur a while back), I was very excited. So it ended up being a good trip, which it always is anyways, other than the dang poison ivy on my legs now. I've resolved to wear pants from now on, regardless of the heat.

This past weekend I set out unsure of what I wanted to do. I packed my basic fossil hunting stuff and a fishing pole, headed to my favorite fishing/fossiling spot near my house. I couldn't believe it when I pulled up, there was a car identical to mine and 2 people collecting things off the ground at the parking area. This wouldn't be a big deal except that I'm worried that my car being in the area frequently for no apparent reason is raising suspicion, and now there's another 10 yr old Subaru Impreza wagon roaming around there! Anyways, I packed my gear and casually asked them what they were looking for, "hunting for flint" was the answer, seemed kind of weird for that spot but whatever, I went on my way. Spent a couple of hours in my pit, noticed some footprints, not sure if they were mine from previous visits but they sure didn't look like it. Found a few irregular echi's and a really nice coenholectypus, and some other miscellany in a couple of hours.

Then I set out up the creek and got into some spectacular fishing, big hungry bass. Also saw some beautiful carp and catfish. Saw some magical places on the creek, big oaks over the water, deep blue pools that the bottom disappeared in. Not a lot of fossils though. Just about dusk I was able to make out a massive rock face on the other side of the creek, and knew I needed to check it out, I'd come too far. So I ended up doing a bunch of scrambling in the dark, didn't find anything, and ended up hiking a mile back out by headlamp. Overall it was a great adventure and I found a new place I need to check out.

Oh, and, I gave a presentation down at UT on Tuesday, so while I was there I checked out the Texas Memorial Museum, which I heard had a good geology/paleontology display. I was a bit dissapointed with everything, but I know they can't be expected to have everything. I really liked how they had their fossil drawers organized by formation going from shallow to deeper. I was able to go through and identify the things I had and try to correlate them to different formations. It was a bit frustrating to see things I've found in one place distributed through three different formations in their display, makes it tough to figure things out. I was also disappointed in the quality and variety of their specimens, I think that I have better examples in my own amateur collection of stuff. It was still fun thought and pulled a lot of things together for me. First thing I did when I got home was order a geologic map of my area, I have the basic one, but they've prepared a much more detailed one that focuses on my local area and strata.

So, then I'm reading about those guys finding those gold bars in Arizona, and I start looking into treasure hunting. Turns out there's a ridiculous amount of hidden treasure in Texas, and a bunch in my area. As if there weren't enough hours in the day already!

My weekend has gotten full with other commitments, but weekend after next I'm hoping to make an overnight kayak trip through some fantastic fishing and fossil hunting areas. And yes, my inlaws are visiting that weekend, but that's just a coincidence.