An after work spontaneous excursion to 8,000 ASL

[SPrice]

Next to my laptop at home is a 3X5 card with a list of  6 fossil hunt destinations in random order. With less than a work shift on Happy Friday, I thought about that list and knew there was 4 hours of daylight available if I left work at 3PM. And a close by destination could leave me up to 2 hours of at least scouting said destination.

 

So that was the plan. Leave at 3 and drive east of Salt Lake City to a certain named canyon famous for its red agatized Horn Coral.  I did some research and due diligence on the site and discovered the status of the land  - US Forestry Land -Unita - Wasatch- Cache National Forest. And that also there is a current mining claim attached to that site - basically the entire top of two hills. Which gives the mineral rights to the Claim Stakeholder. 

 

My excursion then became a no dig scenario. So no pick, shovel or rock hammer went up the hill with me. Speaking of hills, it tops out at 8,000 feet above sea level at the summit. That is exactly the point at which AMS ( acute mountain sickness ) kicks my fanny. I've summited several 11K footers here and like clockwork, I pass that 8K foot line and the nausea starts, but I won't go into the details. AMS is cured by going down the mountain. 

 

It took me an hour to summit and arrive at the site and the descent was 30 minutes with some trail running in there.

 

It had just rained and despite nylon gaiters, the trail bushes soaked me from mid thigh down. My La Sportiva full ankle hikers have never been so wet - I hike the desert or clear mountain trails. My Marmot pants were quick dry but not the boots. Oh well.

 

I had know idea what to expect except from what I read and saw on FossilDad's thread about his adventure with his daughter to this site. What they found last year must have been the last handful of pieces to be found. However there was a gift from the Fossil Fairy the moment I summited. There in from of me was a full horn coral just laying there. No mistaking the little curved funnel and pattern on the top. Is it red? I don't know. It's still in the bag yet to be cleaned. The time allotted was just under 2 hours to search the exposed areas. 

 

Several opinions formed as I wandered looking for something I was not familiar with. Everything was gray, not much red of anything showing.  Very, very few if any cylindrical Horn Coral shapes. Here and there were bits of red agate chunks and coral chunks. I picked up both and kept the latter.  I scoured 75% of the summit area including the more recent pits found all over, the debris piles, the larger taling piles from a bulldozer and pretty much flipped a bunch of rocks. I was hoping also to find something in the matrix. I did...all busted up stuff.

 

Opinions were randomly formed. "This place is a mess". Pull tabs were everywhere - " A lotta people have been here for many decades." 1975 was the last year of pull tabs. Yet there they lay. That many years and more and that many people - "This site is picked over". At least as far as surface finds go. Digging violates the Mining Claim rules, I do believe.

 

Another opinion arose -"Check the box, Steve" "This is no longer a viable site without digging". "The only way I would go back is with the owner giving me written permission to dig."  That's how I saw it. A great excursion all and all. The cows were friendly, I saw two Elk skeletons on the way up, I found some goodies, no injuries...but my knees are stinging a bit, The very first whole Horn Coral specimen was the cherry on top and I got it right when I summited. No AMS, surprised me. I slipped on a cowpie while trail running down. Glissading a cow pie. Now that's something I can check the box on. Didn't fall either. Here's a pic or three. More tomorrow when I clean the goodies a bit. One piece looked like a chicken bone, not horn coral but some kind of coral, I think. And finally a rock for my mountain climbing summit collection - Location, altitude and date are written on them and in the case they go.

 

Steve

 

 

 Washed out recently from a pile is my guess.

 

 

Maybe, maybe not coral.

 

 

 

Not Red Horn Coral...

 

Two for sure!

 

 

A bowl of unknowns.

 

 

The target practice shed on the summit.

 

 

The aftermath. Probably 25%  cow pie coating.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 2 by SPrice
typos

[Ludwigia]

If I was a bit younger I would have loved to have joined you

[Fossildude19]

Great report, despite the meager finds!

Glad you can check it off of your list.

Thanks for sharing with us.

[Tidgy's Dad]

That was fun to read.

Thank you for that.

And the corals are nice. 

[SPrice]

18 hours ago, Ludwigia said:

If I was a bit younger I would have loved to have joined you

 

Do join me, we'll just go a little bit slower.  I'll be 66 years young in two months. 

 

Best,

Steve

[SPrice]

7 hours ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

That was fun to read.

Thank you for that.

And the corals are nice. 

Thank you, Glad you enjoyed it I certainly did. I'm going to air abrade the  whole horn and maybe do a very short acid dip on it. The others are soaking in water to loosen up the clay.

[SPrice]

15 hours ago, Fossildude19 said:

Great report, despite the meager finds!

Glad you can check it off of your list.

Thanks for sharing with us.

Thanks, Tim.  The first coral found was a treat. After that not much laying around that I saw. Lloyd aka FossilDad on the forum replied to a PM and gave me a little more incentive to return. Maybe before the snow arrives but perhaps late May-June next year.  So it's kinda checked off but maybe not in ink. We'll see. So many places around here to explore. I checked off two more destinations today.

[Ludwigia]

5 hours ago, SPrice said:

 

Do join me, we'll just go a little bit slower.  I'll be 66 years young in two months. 

 

Best,

Steve

 

I'm impressed! You're only 8 years younger than me. Here's my report from the last time I went up and down a mountain 3 years ago. Even though I only hiked back down, I was more than delapidated with shaky legs from the exertion.

[SPrice]

21 hours ago, Ludwigia said:

 

I'm impressed! You're only 8 years younger than me. Here's my report from the last time I went up and down a mountain 3 years ago. Even though I only hiked back down, I was more than delapidated with shaky legs from the exertion.

 

Making a possibly correct deduction,...that you're Roger. I just finished reading your above report. Those prepped finds sure did the finger smash and mountain descent justice! Great finds! and really nice prep jobs.

 

On my climbing to 8,000 feet/ 2439 meters...well....I drove to 6500'/1981m... and I live at 4500'...so maybe I had some advantages.  My legs were feeling it a bit, too and into the next day. Ibuprofen is my friend.

[Ludwigia]

2 hours ago, SPrice said:

On my climbing to 8,000 feet/ 2439 meters...well....I drove to 6500'/1981m... and I live at 4500'...so maybe I had some advantages. 

 

Could be I had a descent of 1100 meters with approximately 25 kilos on my back and I live at 400m. My "Ibuprofen" was the barley soup and rivella and that sure did do me good.

[SPrice]

Oh my back and knees hurt thinking about 25 kg of stone on your back for that kind of descent. My pack had about 7kg in it.

 

Today's trip was closer to 25kg in two trips to the car only 200m and ~50m elevation. 

 

Oh and here's my Summit Trophy.

 

 

Edited September 4 by SPrice
addendum