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Hi everyone- Does anyone know if there are any rappelling trips in the U.S. or Internationally to see fossils? also does anyone know if one can rappell down a cliff face to view the K-T boundary? I know its exposed and visible in Raton Basin, Raven Ridge and Trinidad Lake State Park but has anyone done rappelling on a fossil hunt? looking for a combo of fossil hunting, excavation and adventure! Any really super adventurous fossil hunting trips advise will be appreciated. thanks.

Last weekend TFF member calhounensis (Daniel) posted a notice that he was driving down from Ohio for the Florida Paleontological Society meeting & fieldtrip on Saturday in Bradenton (his old hometown). He wanted to know if anybody was up for some diving off Venice to fossil hunt. It has been years since I've taken the opportunity to do so (been focusing more on the Peace River lately) and so I said I was interested. As plans evolved it turned out that windy weather (and unseasonable storms) had been wreaking havoc with the offshore visibility and diving off Venice would likely not be in great conditions. Daniel came up with alternative which was to dive the Rainbow River in Dunnellon, FL instead. This was even more intriguing as I've never done that before and I'm all about new experiences. My wife Tammy was able to take off work Friday and so Thursday evening after she got home from work I had a whole array of gear ready to pack into the car for the trip north--scuba tank & gear, wetsuits (cold water those spring-fed rivers), sifting gear (screen & shovel), and even the "Aqua-Scope" we'd picked up at the silent auction table at the Florida Paleontological Society (FPS) meeting last fall. The scope is basically a portable glass bottom boat in that it is a rectangular "cone" of Styrofoam with a pane of glass about the size of a piece of paper at the bottom. Two rope handles and curved edges at the top to fit your face and forehead complete the high-tech design. Tammy thought it would be fun to try this out on the Peace River and so we bid and won the auction item. Needless to say it hasn't seen action on the Peace River yet this season and so the Rainbow River would be its first chance to be used. Once I realized how far north the Rainbow River was I decided to book a hotel in Ocala. Rather than going up for a single night--a 5.5 hour drive (each way) for a single dive seemed a bit excessive--we booked a 3-day weekend in Ocala and joined Dr. Hulbert from the Florida Museum of Natural History (FLMNH) for two more days of digging in the new Montbrook site. You can read about that weekend here: http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/63056-volunteer-dig-with-the-flmnh/?p=673017 We met up with Daniel early Friday morning and followed him to K P Hole Park on the river where we could rent a canoe (for us) and a kayak (for Daniel). We decided to paddle upstream a ways and then work our way downstream to the exit point on SW County Hwy 484 (just past the colorful Swampy's Bar & Grille restaurant) where we could call for a pickup that would take us back to the park and our cars. With everything loaded on our rented means of flotation we took off upstream. The water was so much clearer than the tea colored tannic waters of the Peace River being spring fed. We could see a wide variety of fishes in the gin clear water and an amazingly high density of turtles--gators (thankfully) seemed not to be in residence. We arrived at our first spot to get in and get wet. I donned my thickest neoprene (a 5mm suit) and an additional hooded vest (most of your heat is lost through your head and so a hood will go a long way to retaining body heat. As the river is spring fed from underground taps into the karstic groundwater supply the river maintains a relatively constant temperature of around 72 F (around 22 C). A fine temperature for floating down the river on an inner tube on a hot summer day but quite chilly when immersed for extended periods on scuba. I was used to diving in 55 F water when I lived in the Chicago area (and even two very silly ice dives at a temperature of around 37 F) but since moving to Florida two decades ago my skin has thinned and I am now a proud card-carrying member of the Warm Water Wimps and cringe at temps below 80 (unless there is a good reason to dive). I was wet most of the day and (uncharacteristically) didn't grab the camera to take my usual number of photos to illustrate the day. My wife (who was smarter than me and decided to stay warm an dry in the canoe) was enjoying the beautiful surroundings and plentiful wildlife but didn't think about snapping any other photos than this one as I first entered the chilly water.

Does anyone ever dive at Calvert Cliffs? If so, any luck with Megalodon teeth?

My brother and I are headed down to bowling Green to stay in the very best western. (Hot tub) we are driving down today to hunt tomorrow and thanksgiving. I see that we are going to have some serious rain on wed. And I am wondering if anyone could tell me roughly how much I can expect the river to rise based on an inch of rain... we plan to go back into Charlie creek. we both have full hooded 8mm semi dry suits and are not too worried about getting cold just trying to figure out how much I can expect to see the river rise while I'm there.. i am trying out a couple of dive lights my friend gave me. Hope they help. We have only been down to the peace a total of four times and have done well each trip. Fingers crossed...our family does thanksgiving on Friday due to work schedules of the fam. So hopefully we will be back to hunt sat and Sunday too. Anyone who has a kayak and a suit are more than welcome to join us we are going to the canoe outpost in Gardner at 7:30 tomorrow morning. Any info would be greatly appreciated. Also if any members ever make it to Jacksonville I would love to show off some great spots on the saint Johns river and on some spoil piles. Happy hunting to all.

First of all - I have not posted a trip report in over a year, mostly due to laziness/being too busy). Here is a brief rundown. Last year, I was able to get in several hunting trips in: I went to GMR last spring and found a really nice small great white (less than 1”, but beautiful condition and a nice light blue color). I also went to Haverlock a couple times. I found one worn 2” meg and a 2.5” lower great white that has just a little bit of root damage. Also found small teeth and a couple of mastadon tooth fragments. I went to GMR another time and ran into a couple of people who found a pretty nice meg. I found a few decent teeth as well. I was also able to go to GMR with a few friends later in the year after a tropical storm had brought the water up by 10’ for over a week. I think we got there one day after the water had gotten down, but we still did pretty well. Between the three of us, each found a nice great white, and I also found about a three inch meg that was in decent shape. We did very little sifting, most of our best finds were right on the sandbars. I finished up my dive certification in September and dove in Venice later that month and in December with Captain Jamie of Aristakat Charters aristakatcharters.yolasite.com. I did ok, found some worn makos. But I also got to meet some other divers like earthdog and Scottie. Also in December my cousins and I hit the Peace River with Mark Renz. It was fun. I found about ¾ of a 3” meg, a three toed horse tooth, an alligator tooth, and a horse hoof. Anyway, I will try to add galleries and post pictures of some of that stuff over the next few months. Yesterday, I made it back to Venice. I did four more dives with Jamie. I got to meet some more great people as well. My diving skills need to improve still, but I had a great day. My first dive did not start very well, it just took me a few minutes to get back into it. I think my air consumption was terrible. My second dive went much better. Within 5 minutes or so, I found probably my best meg to date (about 3" but in pretty good shape) and then blew it out of the water 5 minutes later with this 4 1/2” near perfect meg. I also found one large mammoth tooth fragment and some smaller or broken megs. Other people on the boat did well too. There was a beautiful sea biscuit found on the first dive by a dive instructor at a local dive shop, a couple of nice large makos, several megs several horse/bison teeth, several mammoth plates and about ¼ of a juvenile mammoth tooth. I can’t wait to go again, but I think it will be a while.