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Peace river trip report, 2017 awesomeness!


RCFL

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About 2 weeks ago I headed out to the Peace river with my kayak, screen and shovel and decided to launch at a new bridge and take a long paddle into the middle of nowhere. I paddled for over an hour before I spotted a downed tree on shore with big chunky gravel stuck in the roots and around the base. The river had fine sand on the surface but I went about 50' down stream, stuck my grounding rod in and at about 12" deep felt chunky chunky goodness. I tied up the yak, grabbed my trusty shovel and began to excavate a 6' hole. 

 

It took a good hour or two to get deep enough that I wasn't constantly getting sand caving into the hole but then the treasures began to show up. I got a little bit of everything here and a nice mix of mammal and shark teeth. I threw some snarge in the hole to make it look unappealing to others and came back yesterday with a good friend and his father. We all did good and left with several treasures and some great memories. 

 

Over the two trips I collected what is pictured below as well as a bunch of smaller fossils, random bones, turtle shell etc. There are several megs, horse teeth, bison teeth, cow teeth, tapir teeth, a full rooted camel tooth, big chunk of mastodon tooth, piece of sloth tooth, Antler attached to piece of skull, Astralgus, tympanic ear bones, verts....It was a good day to say the least! We never hit bottom and I have no idea how long this buried gravel bar is but I plan on spending time investigating further ;) 

 

I really do love this river. Some days the finds are small and slow, some days you feel like spending the night in the river so no one jumps your hole of "gold" but it's always a good day! :)

 

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If I ever found just one of those things from your haul I'd either never pick up another fossil or never leave the river :)

 

“Beautiful is what we see. More beautiful is what we understand. Most beautiful is what we do not comprehend.” N. Steno

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Those are some great finds, love the megs! Congrats: )

Every once in a great while it's not just a big rock down there!

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Great finds. I'm jealous. This illustrates the value in getting off the beaten path and away from areas that are heavily hunted on a regular basis. Hard work and paddling pays off! :)

 

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Nice! The most important of all your finds was the confidence you've gained that hard work, dedication, and the ability to read the river correctly would be so richly rewarded. In addition to more meg teeth than you'll know what to do with, you have quite an impressive variety of finds. For me, fossil collecting is the inevitable result of my true passion--fossil hunting. What I'm always searching for (and occasionally find) are circumstances when I'm just having so much fun while being rewarded for my hunting efforts that I get a bit giddy. Having experienced that on occasion, I can understand just how great of an experience this was for you. Guard your location well and amaze us all with continued examples of your finds. You can make it even more enjoyable for us vicarious readers by taking some photos in the field at the moment when something special pops out of your sifting screen. Just be careful with the photos that no identifiable information would be included that might expose your new honey hole.

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

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Fantastic. What a great spot you found. This is a testament to how hard work and the willingness to try new places can pay off.

Bulldozers and dirt Bulldozers and dirt
behind the trailer, my desert
Them red clay piles are heaven on earth
I get my rocks off, bulldozers and dirt

Patterson Hood; Drive-By Truckers

 

image.png.0c956e87cee523facebb6947cb34e842.png May 2016  MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png.a47e14d65deb3f8b242019b3a81d8160.png.b42a25e3438348310ba19ce6852f50c1.png May 2012 IPFOTM5.png.fb4f2a268e315c58c5980ed865b39e1f.png.1721b8912c45105152ac70b0ae8303c3.png.2b6263683ee32421d97e7fa481bd418a.pngAug 2013, May 2016, Apr 2020 VFOTM.png.f1b09c78bf88298b009b0da14ef44cf0.png.af5065d0585e85f4accd8b291bf0cc2e.png.72a83362710033c9bdc8510be7454b66.png.9171036128e7f95de57b6a0f03c491da.png Oct 2022

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