Epic Carolinas Roadtrip

[snolly50]

It was a grand pleasure to be included in a portion of the eventful trek outlined above. The gadding, footloose pair were able to spend a few hours at Palatial snolly Manor. It was a delight to host the adventurous, loquacious Ken and the worthy, erudite Tammy.

 

In the photo posted above, featuring an interior shot of the wondrous snolly manse, note the red poke sack in the foreground. Yes, that container housed the magnificent assortment of fossil spoils garnered during the excursion. An envious snolly got to paw and admire the collected, toothy treasures. Intriguing was the accompanying narrative detailing the dive procedures needed to retrieve the extant Megs.

 

Convivial conversation continued over lunch, as snolly shoveled food into his gaping maw. Given the congenial atmosphere, the table topics ranged far afield from fossils. It is snolly's long held observation; that persons interested in the natural world have much of worth to contribute on any topic. That is, curiosity is the chief ingredient in the genesis of a well informed person.

 

Upon arrival the generous Ken presented snolly with a big o' sack of the fabled "Cookie Cutter Matrix." Entries to the Forum post detailing the journey's foray to the GMR reveal the delight of other Forum members, who also received this fossil largess. Apparently, Ken is somewhat the Johnny Appleseed of fossils. Here he is, spreading a rare, precious commodity among fortunate Forum members.  As snolly has some experience with this magic matrix; here are some tips for tyros. 

 

Here is snolly's sorting rig. A vintage B&L 'scope, fiber optic light, shallow glass containers and some needle-tipped tweezers.

 

 

Oh, and to insure success; a magical Cookie Cutter totem is required. Don't believe me? Check out the bounty of CC teeth in the box!

 

 

Thanks to Ken and Tammy for sharing their epic adventure with Forum folk. 

 

 

 

 

[Jeffagso2369]

Great trip. Next time you're in the area give me a shout and I'll show you around some nice (non-fossil) stuff in Winston Salem and its surroundings.

[digit]

Sounds good. The Carolinas were quite interesting and I'm sure we'll be back before long.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[digit]

Now that my shark teeth from the diving portion of this trip have been cleaned-up and soaked for a couple of days in fresh water to remove residual salt (and vinegar), I've had a moment to take a couple of photos. I was grabbing just about anything without much thought while on the short dives. You don't really have the time to stop and consider if the items are "keepers" and you just end up shoving them in your goody bag and looking for more. There were (as expected) a lot more broken teeth than mostly complete ones and those will end up gift bags to friends with kids. Most of the rest will also end up being dispersed to more friends and family till I'm down to just a few to act as keepsakes to remember the trip. Here is a photo of some of the nicer ones (not pictured are about twice as many frags).

 

 

The two incomplete ones in the lower right are the largest and would have easily been approaching 7" if complete. You can see that many of my finds spent some time tumbling around and are in various stages of enamel delamination. The smaller teeth tended to be more complete and in better shape (and some with a nice brown coloration). One of my favorites is this 5.5" bruiser that will win no beauty contests when compared with pristine quarry megs but I'm rather fond of it and it will likely be the one that I keep. It's got a bit better enamel on the flat labial side than the "normal display" lingual side.

 

   

 

Great white teeth are not very common in South Florida so I was happy to pick up a few more of these. Most have broken roots but one has a nicely tapered root indicative of an unused tooth that was still forming (root last) when this shark died.

 

 

I really enjoyed the chubutensis with their tiny side cusps (a novelty for someone from South Florida). This is probably my favorite. It is very bent and wrinkled looks to be borderline pathological.

 

       

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

 

 

 

[Nimravis]

Truly an amazing trip report- it looks like it took longer to write it and attach pics that the trip itself. Thanks for taking the time so that we could go along for the journey.

 

 

[digit]

Probably took longer to plan it.

 

Didn't take long to write it up--just to find the time to do so.

 

I enjoy sharing my trips as it helps me to take the time to document them (so I can remember them later). If my verbose trip reports don't put others to sleep but instead motivates them to try similar activities, all the better.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[ynot]

That is some wonderful finds Ken! I would be in meg heaven with half of those.

And in just a few days! In all My life I have found 2 fraglodons and 1 whole (2 inch posterior) meg teeth.

[Fossildude19]

Nice report Ken. 
It does sound like an Epic time was had.  

Thanks for the field trip. 

[Uncle Siphuncle]

13 hours ago, digit said:

Nothing stopping you. The dive shop we went out with is called Carolina Beach Scuba out of Carolina Beach (what a coincidence). There are probably several other companies running boats out of the greater Wilmington, NC area. The trips are several hours from shore and so these dives are more expensive than your average recreational dive but they are great fun and an unusual method of hunting for meg teeth. If you've got the certification, I'd consider giving it a try. Keep in mind that bad weather and rough seas can keep the boat from going out so to increase your chances of finding some nice teeth, planning a multi-day trip is advised.

 

"Fossils and Friends" would have been a great alternative title for this topic. Meeting up with folks along the way was just as fun as fossil hunting--and double fun when we could combine the two.

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

Yeah, (weather) risk management and opportunity costs have been deterrents thus far.  But I’m starting to exhaust certain venues that aren’t as weather-critical.  I need to do this trip, but the thought of burning vacation days awaiting a weather change makes me twitchy.

[digit]

10 hours ago, ynot said:

That is some wonderful finds Ken! I would be in meg heaven with half of those.

And in just a few days! In all My life I have found 2 fraglodons and 1 whole (2 inch posterior) meg teeth.

It helps to go where they are plentiful. Megs are even less common at Shark Tooth Hill than they are here in South Florida. I hear that when the Meg Ledges were discovered some years back that the teeth were crazy plentiful. There are images online of people coming up with dozens on a dive and leaving with a suitcase full at the end of the trip. Much of those low hanging fruit have already been harvested but there are still plenty of teeth for those who make the effort.

 

10 hours ago, Uncle Siphuncle said:

Yeah, (weather) risk management and opportunity costs have been deterrents thus far.  But I’m starting to exhaust certain venues that aren’t as weather-critical.  I need to do this trip, but the thought of burning vacation days awaiting a weather change makes me twitchy.

I hear that! We got out 4 of 6 days and I've heard of even worse spells of unsettled weather that have kept groups shore-bound for the entire week. Last year, on the trip I missed when I was in Idaho, the group had calm seas and got out every day. For the days that weather stops the boat from going out, there are alternative activities in the area. In particular, visiting the Aurora Fossil Museum was a highlight but it is still just a backup to the main activity of diving for teeth. Most fossil hunts tend to be weather dependent but as this one requires advanced planning and booking, you tend to be at the mercy of the weather for the time you've selected. Still better odds than Vegas.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[fifbrindacier]

Amazing, fabulous and gorgeous trip. I would have liked to be there.

[digit]

I post these trip reports both for the enjoyment of those that cannot easily repeat them and also as an encouragement and motivation to those who can.

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Harry Pristis]

 

Good job, Ken.  My friend Patsy and I enjoyed our visit with Tammy and you.  Glad you had success with your ledge dives.  Tammy is a real trooper -- so this what retirement is like, eh?  

 

 

[jcbshark]

Excellent write up, pics and report Ken, thanks  pretty nice finds as well!

[digit]

3 hours ago, Harry Pristis said:

Tammy is a real trooper -- so this what retirement is like, eh?  

A friend of mine said that retirement is waking up with nothing to do and going to bed having only gotten half of it done.

 

I've been more busy since I quit "working" quite a number of years ago. Now that Tammy has joined the ranks of the unemployed, I suspect I'll be even busier.

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[henpecked]

Thanks for taking the time to share. Looks like it was a great trip.

 

Steve

[Phevo]

Thanks for the trip report it was an enjoyable read, and always interresting to see new areas

[Wolf89]

I don't know why I didn't see the post until now even though I'm tagged in it. It was a great read, thanks for sharing!