Fossil Horror Stories For Halloween!

[Coco]

Fortunately that RJB doesn't wear the kilt !

 

Coco

[piranha]

On 10/27/2017 at 6:46 AM, RJB said:

   It was a cold and rainy day.  Back then I always hunted in the winter when the rains were pouring down.  I got to the bowl, (a rounded cliff at scotia bluffs), and I could plainly see some big pectens way up high on the walls of the bowl,  Absolutly no way to get to them.  I came back the next day, (still raining), with some 16 inch spikes I bought at the hardware store.  I climbed as far as I could go till the sides were simply too steep and started to pound in two spikes for every step in order to get up to the pectins.  Being that it had been raining for days there was a big area at the bottom full of some real soft mud.  Once I got to where the pectens were I had dug out maybe two of them when I slipped.  In that instant knowing I was going for quite the slide I tucked my right boot under my rear end and thought about how badly I was going to get slice up by all broken shell material sticking out of the sandstone.  I got all the way down to the bottom and traviling quite fast went right into the mud.  hitting the mud that fast litteraly covered me in mud.  it was about an 80 foot slide.  I stood up and started to check myself to see how many cuts and slices were on me, but not a one.  Not one single cut anywhere.  Well, except my right boot.  My boot saved my rear end from getting any damage.  I never tried that again. 

 

RB

 

 

Luckily, you avoided winning a Darwin Award that day!   

 

 

[Peace river rat]

An area I have been digging in for about a week, wading up to my knees for many hours, saw no sign of gators. Went a small island and a tail drag went all the way across, right over my spoil pile, then I saw the feet prints in the mud, a big boy.

 

At first, I wondered who drew a line in the sand!

[-Andy-]

I had just installed a new acrylic door for my cabinet, which was previously exposed.

 

One day I was shifting some fossils around, and forgetting there was an open door(transparent acrylic), I rammed right into it. The impact shook my entire cabinet. Thankfully, no fossil dropped.

 

To this day, I am always careful not to bump into the door.

[JarrodB]

I have quite a few. Recently I stepped on a large venomous cottonmouth snake while hunting luckily it didn't strike me. Once at the North Sulphur River Texas which is quick to flood it shot up multiple feet in minutes nearly trapping me. I had to climb up the nearest 80 ft tall bank in the rain hanging on to roots and mud and then walk miles through woods and thorns to get back to my vehicle. A couple of months ago I startled a herd of wild hogs in a corn field walking along a creek. I probably had 30 hogs including piglets running by my legs. That was probably the most scary. I also had the one night after taking Ambien to sleep I decided to prep a mosasaur jaw that I had found and broke a partial tooth. :/

[RJB]

My very scariest time was deciding to go fossil hunting along the Eel River in the winter time in flood stage with kayaks. The Eel river can be over 100 yards wide in places at flood stage!   Parked one vehicle at one point along the river, drove about 30 miles upstream and unloaded the kayaks and away we went.  I was still in my 30's so i wasn't afraid of anything in those days.  We came to the first place to hunt and picked up a few things and put them into my Kayak about the 3rd place my kayak was getting kinda heavy, plus about half the day was gone, and so decided to just paddle to the lower vehicle.  Ooops!!!  Over I went!!!  Plus im wearing my big lace up fossil hunting boots.  The same ones that saved my rear end at the 'Bowl".  The shock of the cold water made it so i couldnt take a breath for a few seconds.  I was still hanging onto the kayak and the only reason it was floating was cause there was some trapped air on the end that was sticking out of the water.  I knew I needed help to make it to shore and my buddy had already seen what happened and was on his way.  I hung onto his kayak while he paddle furiously towards shore.  Once there, he had to rush downstream a small ways to save my paddle.  We were still a longs ways from the lower vehicle and now I was wet and getting very cold.  With the river flowing so fast it only took an hour or so to get to the truck and let me tell you,,,,   I was soooooooooooooo happy to get warmed up.   I still came home with the fossils, and it took a few days for it to hit me, but if my buddy was  not there, I would not be here writing this today.   Its nice to be young, but I was a bit careless with my safety in those days. 

[Max-fossils]

2 minutes ago, RJB said:

My very scariest time was deciding to go fossil hunting along the Eel River in the winter time in flood stage with kayaks. The Eel river can be over 100 yards wide in places at flood stage!   Parked one vehicle at one point along the river, drove about 30 miles upstream and unloaded the kayaks and away we went.  I was still in my 30's so i wasn't afraid of anything in those days.  We came to the first place to hunt and picked up a few things and put them into my Kayak about the 3rd place my kayak was getting kinda heavy, plus about half the day was gone, and so decided to just paddle to the lower vehicle.  Ooops!!!  Over I went!!!  Plus im wearing my big lace up fossil hunting boots.  The same ones that saved my rear end at the 'Bowl".  The shock of the cold water made it so i couldnt take a breath for a few seconds.  I was still hanging onto the kayak and the only reason it was floating was cause there was some trapped air on the end that was sticking out of the water.  I knew I needed help to make it to shore and my buddy had already seen what happened and was on his way.  I hung onto his kayak while he paddle furiously towards shore.  Once there, he had to rush downstream a small ways to save my paddle.  We were still a longs ways from the lower vehicle and now I was wet and getting very cold.  With the river flowing so fast it only took an hour or so to get to the truck and let me tell you,,,,   I was soooooooooooooo happy to get warmed up.   I still came home with the fossils, and it took a few days for it to hit me, but if my buddy was  not there, I would not be here writing this today.   Its nice to be young, but I was a bit careless with my safety in those days. 

Wow, that's a whole new level of scary! 

And that's a great friend you have there!

[Plax]

If bad breaks still count, here's mine. A giant calamites section that simply fell over and broke. It's 29 inches wide. Had it for 25 years before it happened...

[Tidgy's Dad]

Cookies, guys. 

[ynot]

While driving across Nevada I decided to stretch My legs and look at a limestone exposure on a steep hill side.

I climbed up to see what was there. The exposed rock had a lot of small cavernous holes.

There was one that was at eye level and had a strange looking pile just out of My reach. It looked like one of those old fashioned bee hives. I reached in with My hammer and taped it, trying to determine what it was. That was when the tiny head with BIG sharp teeth dropped down from the hiding place above the object. It screamed at Me and then came flying straight for Me.

I jumped backwards. (not a good idea when standing on a steep incline). I went back 6 feet and down 15 feet before I touched ground again, then I tumbled about 50 feet down the rock strewn slope before I could stop Myself.

I was lucky and only suffered small scratches and a few bruises.

I still like bats, but will not tap on their poop any more.

 

[ynot]

Have a happy Halloween Folks!

[JarrodB]

On 10/29/2017 at 9:07 AM, RJB said:

My very scariest time was deciding to go fossil hunting along the Eel River in the winter time in flood stage with kayaks. The Eel river can be over 100 yards wide in places at flood stage!   Parked one vehicle at one point along the river, drove about 30 miles upstream and unloaded the kayaks and away we went.  I was still in my 30's so i wasn't afraid of anything in those days.  We came to the first place to hunt and picked up a few things and put them into my Kayak about the 3rd place my kayak was getting kinda heavy, plus about half the day was gone, and so decided to just paddle to the lower vehicle.  Ooops!!!  Over I went!!!  Plus im wearing my big lace up fossil hunting boots.  The same ones that saved my rear end at the 'Bowl".  The shock of the cold water made it so i couldnt take a breath for a few seconds.  I was still hanging onto the kayak and the only reason it was floating was cause there was some trapped air on the end that was sticking out of the water.  I knew I needed help to make it to shore and my buddy had already seen what happened and was on his way.  I hung onto his kayak while he paddle furiously towards shore.  Once there, he had to rush downstream a small ways to save my paddle.  We were still a longs ways from the lower vehicle and now I was wet and getting very cold.  With the river flowing so fast it only took an hour or so to get to the truck and let me tell you,,,,   I was soooooooooooooo happy to get warmed up.   I still came home with the fossils, and it took a few days for it to hit me, but if my buddy was  not there, I would not be here writing this today.   Its nice to be young, but I was a bit careless with my safety in those days. 

That sounds like a trip I tried once. I also ended up wet and cold. lol

[Wrangellian]

On 10/27/2017 at 5:04 AM, minnbuckeye said:

How about during one quarry hunt, pounding rock and splitting the pieces all day , the only trilobite I found is still in the quarry. I placed it in my 5 gallon pail on top of a mound of boulders that were mostly 6 ft in diameter or better. While coming down from the pile, I slipped , spilt the bucket, and down between these massive rocks the trilobite went, never to be seen again. But still not near as bad as ynot's story:

 

Something like this happened to me just yesterday, though not as big a loss. Mr Butterfingers finds a nice example of one of the unID'd bivalves up there and then promptly drops it down between the boulders. Thing is, I could see and even reach down between there but I just couldn't see the thing. It didn't just fall down there, it disappeared into the ether.

Seems I never can find something after dropping it into the debris, even when it's accessible right there at my knees and after sifting thru it with a fine-toothed comb for what seems like hours!   The horrors of splintery shale.

Glad I don't have any dangerous animal encounters or bad accidents to report. Or anything like ynot's sad tale.

[Peace river rat]

On ‎10‎/‎29‎/‎2017 at 8:23 AM, JarrodB said:

I have quite a few. Recently I stepped on a large venomous cottonmouth snake while hunting luckily it didn't strike me. Once at the North Sulphur River Texas which is quick to flood it shot up multiple feet in minutes nearly trapping me. I had to climb up the nearest 80 ft tall bank in the rain hanging on to roots and mud and then walk miles through woods and thorns to get back to my vehicle. A couple of months ago I startled a herd of wild hogs in a corn field walking along a creek. I probably had 30 hogs including piglets running by my legs. That was probably the most scary. I also had the one night after taking Ambien to sleep I decided to prep a mosasaur jaw that I had found and broke a partial tooth. :/

I killed a sow hog from 80 ft with a 44 cal. 1858 new model army, not scary, but scary good eating!

[Peace river rat]

1 minute ago, Peace river rat said:

I killed a sow hog from 80 ft with a 44 cal. 1858 new model army, not scary, but scary good eating!

Tommorow, I will be going in that gators haunt! You know the dragons guard the treasure, but I will send my "buddy" out first!

Maybe! I am just as apt to venture forth!

[JarrodB]

5 hours ago, Peace river rat said:

Tommorow, I will be going in that gators haunt! You know the dragons guard the treasure, but I will send my "buddy" out first!

Maybe! I am just as apt to venture forth!

Lol I'm glad I don't have to deal with gators. This time of year I worry more about deer hunters than hogs. I wear orange with reflectors. It sounds like a war zone in Texas this time of year. 

[TNCollector]

Just last week, I was collecting in a Mississippian exposure, lifted up a rock, and right next to my little finger was a black widow spider crawling towards my hand. Luckily I sat it down, snapped a picture, and let the bugger go. I did not kill it, I have respect for the critters.

 

Not much of a story, but it could have resulted in a hospital visit and a mutilated hand if I had unluckily touched it when I picked up the rock. Fossil collecting, depending on how hardcore you are, can be a very dangerous activity. Falling rocks, wild animals, heat, etc. People need to be careful and do there research on where they are going, before they go. The most dangerous situation I was ever in was when I went collecting in the hottest part of the summer. I had plenty of water, and drank it and stayed hydrated, BUT, I did not have anything electrolytes, and sweat out all of salt. I was probably 5 minutes from passing out in the middle of nowhere, when I finally managed to hobble to my truck, turn the AC on, and get some gatorade.

 

Note to others...don't flip rocks with your hands, use your rock hammer...and I now bring not only water on my collecting trips, but also gatorade or powerade to maintain the salt and electrolyte levels.