Your Worst Fossil Trip

[Trevor]

Hello everyone i was wondering what your worst trip was. I know mine was one of my first trips and i went to an NJ stream and found nothing, literally nothing, one tooth. It happened because i went for like 25 min with a bad sifter and didnt know where to collect. Also everyone else had pick it over.

[zachj]

my worst was when i went to the tar river the first time with no boat or sifter and just fell into alot of mud after a rain.

[Tarheel59]

I have never had a bad one Survivor, because any day out fossiling is better than a day inside on the sofa or doing nothing. When out to hunt just being able to take in nature and if you are with friends or family even better. You will find that most of us here would rather be out trying to find that fossil than home doing something else... Jeff

[Kehbe]

So far I guess I have been lucky! I can't for the life of me recall a bad fossil trip! Some different than others but none any worse than another! I think it is all in the perspective one looks at it from. Consider your worst trip, you now know where NOT to look, you now know NOT to use that type of sifter, and you FOUND a tooth! You didn't get skunked! You learned some valuable information AND you came home with fossil in hand!. All in all, a good trip! Heck, I'd say considering it all took place in New Jersey you should consider yourself lucky it turned out as well as it did Just kidding, really:) I love NJ! Beautiful place!

[FossilDAWG]

This is going to be a bit long, because it was one of those days where one bad (but not catastrophic) thing after another kept happening. About 25 years ago I was in Southern California for a meeting, so I planned to rent a car and spend the day fossil hunting. I had some very old (1930's) papers on Cretaceous sites, and one described a site rich in Metaplacenticeras and other ammonites. The site was in Dayton Canyon; the canyon splits in a Y shape, and the site was supposed to be at the spur (tip of the point) made by the top of the Y. I had some road maps, but nothing better (pre-Google Maps/Earth days). I found my way to the road that goes up the canyon, but after a short distance there was a locked gate across the road. This was still a couple of miles from the point where the canyon forked. I turned around, and found a dirt road that went along the top of the canyon rim, to a point where I was across from the place I wanted to get to, which meant I had to park, climb down hundred feet or so into the canyon, and climb up the opposite side. Around this time a light (and cold) rain started. As soon as I pulled off the road to park, the tires started to spin on the wet clay. I didn't want to get stuck, so I thought I'd pull back onto the road and find a less slick parking spot. As I turned the wheels towards the road and gave a bit of gas, the rear of the car slid out towards the edge of the canyon. I ended up on a 45 degree angle with the rear tires about 5 feet from the cliff. Afraid to touch the gas, I jammed some branches behind the tires to keep the car from sliding even more, then I shouldered by backpack and headed down the canyon wall. The going was steep but not too difficult. The problem was, until that morning it haden't rained in some time, and all the bushes that I had to push through had become covered in dust. Now they were wet, so within minutes I was covered in wet mud, from my feet to the top of my head. I finally got to the bottom, crossed the dirt road at the bottom of the canyon, and then climbed the opposite wall. The whole time I was sure it would all be worth it, to get some of these new ammonites for my collection. When I got to the top, I could see right away that the layers at the top had been quarried completely away. I looked for about an hour, and saw not even a fragment of an oyster, much less any trace of an ammonite. It was still raining, and now cold enough I was sure I could see my breath.

From the spur, I could look back to the canyon wall I had climbed down, and up the side canyon a bit I saw a road that went up the wall and towards where I had parked the car. I hadn't previously been able to see it from the car, as the road was around a bend in the canyon. So, I climbed down my side of the canyon (without any rocks to weigh me down), and hiked up the road a bit, towards the road I had spotted. What I hadn't seen from the top of the spur was the pack of dogs, which appeared from no-where and accompanied me, barking and growling (but not actually biting), for about a quarter mile. Finally I reached the road I had seen and it led me to the top of the canyon. I was quite tired, but knew I wasn't far from the car. However, as I walked the road along the canyon rim, I came to a point where there was a disheveled looking house right beside the road, and all around the house and on the road were parked at least 50-60 Harley Davidson motorcycles. Also a similar number of large hairy guys in motorcycle leathers. There was no way to proceed without making my way directly through this none-too-friendly looking crowd. So I seccumbed to cowardice, I guess, and turned around and went back down the road into the canyon. Back past the dogs, to the point where I could see the car up on the rim of the canyon. So I climbed back up the slope, got wet and muddy all over again, and finally reached the car some 4 hours after I had left it, cold, wet, muddy, and empty-handed. I broke some branches from some chaparral shrubs, stuffed them under the rear tires, and managed to get on my way without sliding over the cliff. Which was the first thing that didn't turn to a disaster all day.

After a bite of food, and warmed by the car heater, I arrived at Topanga Canyon in search of Miocene snails and bivalves. I found the outcrop, a large road cut fairly far up the canyon. I quickly began finding large Turritella gastropods, and a few clams. Happy days! However, I noticed that several of the cars that passed by were honking their horns, which seemed odd. After about half an hour, I heard someone shouting and looked down the hill to see a police car, and an officer waving at me to come down. When I got down there, I was informed that the city had banned collecting as they thought collectors were digging and allowing dirt and rocks to roll down onto the road. There weren't any signs (I understand they appeared later), but there's no mileage in arguing with the police, so I climbed back into my car and he watched me as I drove away. At least I got a dozen or so nice Turitella, and a few other things, and he didn't make me dump out my backpack.

By that time there wasn't enough daylight left to try for another site, so I went back to the hotel and took a long, very hot bath, and fell asleep. In the tub.

I think that was my personal "most effort for least return" record.

Don

[Auspex]

Don, you win.

But maybe I can place or show...

40+ years ago, I was collecting the Westmoreland-Stratford Hall section of the Potomac on a weekly basis. During one stormy spate of weather, with a daytime neap tide tempting me, I up and decided to make the 1 1/2 hour drive (the car well knew the way). I felt pretty smug when I got there; it wasn't raining, and mine was the only car in the park! Down the trail I went, whistling...

The first beach isn't a very wide patch; just a gap in the cliffs where a creek drains a broad, marshy fen into the Potomac; I was headed for greener pastures down river, where the collecting beaches do not exist at any but low tide (this area is now closed, and patrolled by guards, but 40 years ago there was no restrictions other than no digging in the cliffs). The first order of business was to cross the creak; normally not a problem because of the low flow exiting the marsh, and a convenient driftwood log that I had wrestled into place and had been crossing on for a year or so. Well, the discharge from the rain-bloated marsh was a reasonable facsimile of Cataract Canyon, and the log was pushed parallel to it, on the other side. No sweat; having explored this marsh, I knew there was a series of beaver dams upstream...

On my way up, I found a good balancing staff, because walking on beaver dams can be treacherous. The first one was over-topped, as were the next three (I was young, but not foolhardy!). After bushwhacking a good mile up, the fifth dam looked doable; 40 yards of slippery, shifting rolling pins, but doable. Besides' I was already soaked and dirty from bushwhacking, and the shark's teeth were calling. It was hard, and I managed not to break any bones, but just as I was turning to bushwhack back to the river, I heard it; thunder! This side of the marsh was closely walled with a very steep, 100 foot high wall of clay, which sported a thick, luxurious thicket of old-growth laurel, so I had to fight my way through the greenbrier margin of the marsh.

By the time I reached the beach, soaked, exhausted, and bleeding from a thousand scratches, the storm was in full terror: white-hot lightning, strong wind, and buckets of pelting rain. I wrestled the driftwood log back to where it mostly crossed Cataract Canyon, crossed it, threw my balance stave into the marsh, hiked back to the car, and drove to Carl's Ice Cream in Fredericksburg. That malt was the only thing I collected that day.

[JeepDigger]

Wow... That was quite an adventure! Still sounds like a good day to me, no dog bites or biker bruises and you still got a few fossils regardless of the legality!

[Trevor]

I have never had a bad one Survivor, because any day out fossiling is better than a day inside on the sofa or doing nothing. When out to hunt just being able to take in nature and if you are with friends or family even better. You will find that most of us here would rather be out trying to find that fossil than home doing something else... Jeff

Yeh well i guess you learn what not to do, get to be with my family, and get to be in nature. As for fossil hunting rather than being home, i have school, which takes up 5 days of the week fossiling time, so i have to make every trip count because of school and sometimes my parents are too busy.

[Boesse]

I've had plenty of trips where I came back empty handed. Even trips that cost a couple hundred bucks and a whole day's drive. But the worst was a day I didn't even make it to the field: I was driving down to Santa Cruz from the peninsula and made it about halfway there when I started to feel woozy. I pulled over, opened the car door, and started to puke right onto the street. I napped in the car for an hour, turned around, went back north on the highway, and halfway back had to pull over to puke again. I finally made it home - driving in the slow lane the whole time so I could pull over if necessary - and fortunately didn't really puke anymore; I had the start of a 24 hour flu.

[Jocky]

I was out in the desert of Qatar having a nice quiet day wandering close to the road looking for gastropods. I must have wandered about 2Km from the car following a natural fissure in the limestone which was in an almost straight line. As I turned to do the return journey to the car the sky directly behind the car was black with a sandstorm. Hard to describe but behind me had infinite visibility but ahead of me was pitch black.

I got back to the car as quickly as possible but now the sandstorm was between me and the road. I know enough to not even try driving so sat it out for around 1 hour inside the car being buffeted by the storm.

I sat and watched it pass by and turn across the road leaving huge sand deposits.

I carefully drove back to civilisation and had a story to tell my wife that night.

That was the only time I did not have a camera with me......

CHEERS

[cowsharks]

Like many of you I've had my fair share of trips where I found very little and felt the trip wasn't worth the time, money, effort, etc. Of course, just being outdoors and not working or sofa surfing provides a lot more enjoyment, so I'm always ready and eager for my next trip. That being said, one of my worst outings happened about 8 years ago now. Below is from a post I made on TFF a few years ago regarding similar stories.

from: http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php/topic/20018-dumbest-moments/page__hl__dumb

"Calvert Cliff's Fireworks"

A few years ago I called my buddy and told him to meet me down at the beach for some fossil collecting. I was mid July so it stayed light out until 8:30 at night. The DC area was getting a wicked looking storm blowing through the area, but the local weather guys showed the radar/Doppler track of the storm to be tracking to our south in the Virginia area. Winds were blowing in such a way that I was positive would result in a really low tide and great collecting that evening. My buddy was quite nervous about the possibility of the storm (thunder, lightning, 50+ mph wind gusts, and more lightening) turning in our direction while we were along the cliffs at the beach. I assured him that I saw the weather reports and said there was no way that the storm would come close, but still be a bit to the south of us. So, we met down to the beach around 7:30 pm, hoping to get about an hour or so of collecting before dark hit. Well, when we got there, folks that had spent the day along the beach swimming, collecting, etc. were scrambling back to their cars to leave in a hurry. By now the storm clouds were gathering, but I reassured my buddy that the storm would track to the south, and that we should hurry down to the cliffs before it got too dark. It got windier by the second. By the time we made it down along the cliffs, the storm clouds rolled in and the sky turned black in just minutes. The winds became so strong, that we had to cover our faces from being sand blasted. I tried not to act scared by laughing a little, but it wasn't working. By now we were almost a mile from our cars, the winds were getting even worse, and then the rain and lightning started in the distance. It was getting closer and closer by the minute. We were at a point in which we didn't know if it was safer to keep going and seek shelter at a house another few hundred yards up the beach, or to turn around and face the storm and try to get out of there and make it to our cars. We decided to head for our cars, which meant facing the storm head on. The rain was whipping sideways. We tried not to get too close to the cliffs in fear of falling rocks, trees, etc., but it meant we could run faster. Every time a lightning bolt hit the water out in the distance, the adrenaline flowed and jolted us even that much faster. We eventually made it to the main beach where we could run up into the woods hoping it was safer to be there rather than out in the open along the beach. It was quite dark by now and we had to feel our way through wet brush and thorn bushes everywhere. We eventually made it back to the main path and back to our cars. We drove up the road where we stopped at the local McDonald's. The best I could do was apologize for messing up royally on my weather prediction and bought my buddy a burger & fries.

[Paleoc]

I think I can top all of these:

Some years back, we (2 of us to dive and 1 to surface collect) decided to try diving at Westmoreland. A clay shelf extends a few hundred yards off the beach and the water is only about 7-10 feet deep for most of this area. The walk down to the beach was about a mile or so on a path through the woods. I had my own tank and my buddy had rented one. Rather than carry the tanks, I had a little 2-wheeled cart that you would put groceries in. I put the tanks in and started down the trail. I got about 100 feet and the wheels broke off the cart. So we hoisted the heavy tanks and started down again. We got all the way down to the beach and just before the sand, I tripped over a tree root and started to fall face forward. Rather than have a 37lb tank land on me, I tried to push it out and away. However my thumb caught on the rubber stand lip on the bottom of the tank and the whole weight of the thing crashed down on the joint between my thumb and hand. The others wanted to take me to the hospital, but after carrying the tanks all the way down, I was determined to go in the water, broken thumb or not. We put on our gear. Immediately on my buddy's rented tank, the O-ring broke and air started leaking out. I had a bunch of spare O-rings with me, but off course none of them fit. So I went into the water by myself (it was only about 7 feet deep). Unfortunately, this had been the warmest May on record, and the water temperature was in the 90's, it felt like a very warm bath. The warm water caused massive algae blooms and visibility was about 3 inches. After about 10-15 minutes of blindly feeling around and touching unseen things that moved, I gave up.

I climbed out of the water and looked up river. There was literally, a tornado coming right down the center of the Potomac River towards us. We scrambled to grab all our gear and make a run for it. In the mad dash, of course, I lost a brand new pair of $130 glasses. We went back up the trail we had come down. Rain was pouring, lightning was crashing in the woods and the trees were whipping around (this was the edges of a tornado).. A large branch broke off a tree and came crashing down on my friend's shoulder. Fortunately, the tank he was carrying took most of the hit and it just left a large bruise on his shoulder.

Off, we went to the hospital to get my thumb looked at. We were so soaked that we left a puddle anywhere we stood. The emergency room had the air conditioner cranked. It was about 65 in there and we were soaking wet. After freezing for about 4 hours, they finally looked at my thumb pronounced it a bad sprain, splinted it and sent me home.

Edited September 14, 2012 by Paleoc

[Ddc_fossil]

No day is bad. However a few days ago a mother and her son were looking for shark teeth. I asked them if they found anything, they said no. I pulled out a small shark tooth and showed them what to look for. The boy who was right next to me peered in the water and said "I believe I see one." He pulled out a tooth that was twice the size of mine. Also another time I was talking to my friend and I had told him I wasn't finding very much today, he looked down between my feet and there was one just sittng on the sand. Some days I am very observant and I feel like no tooth is missed (lots of teeth are missed.) When some days I could pick up one and throw it back because I was day dreaming about a bigger one.

[Trevor]

No day is bad. However a few days ago a mother and her son were looking for shark teeth. I asked them if they found anything, they said no. I pulled out a small shark tooth and showed them what to look for. The boy who was right next to me peered in the water and said "I believe I see one." He pulled out a tooth that was twice the size of mine. Also another time I was talking to my friend and I had told him I wasn't finding very much today, he looked down between my feet and there was one just sittng on the sand. Some days I am very observant and I feel like no tooth is missed (lots of teeth are missed.) When some days I could pick up one and throw it back because I was day dreaming about a bigger one.

My Dad says he is always very observant when he brings me even though he always only finds like four teeth. One day he was finding nothing at the stream and he was eating my bag of pretzels my Mom gave me for Big Brook NJ as a snack, so of hungriness and sadness for him finding nothing, i gave him a observacy test. I found a shark tooth and put in a 6inch diameter circle. I waited 5 minutes and he found a little triangular rock and thought it was a tooth, in the end i told him where it was and he said he would have found it sooner or later. The second time i did this he found a much larger tooth under some rocks he removed in the circle and was happy,so just told him it was the tooth.

Edited September 14, 2012 by Survivor

[Missourian]

Well, I just had my worst....

Like on any other day, I was doing what I love to do. I was checking out an outcrop to see if there is anything to be found. In this case, there is a poorly exposed patch of buff-colored stuff that I suspected was Cement City Limestone. This unit can be quite productive even in shall exposures, so it was potentially worth the trouble to get to it. Because it is on an interstate highway, I had to walk from a nearby overpass. As a matter of fact, I walked all the way from my parents' house, because it was perhaps less than a mile, and it was a nice day to catch up on my exercise.

After reaching the overpass, I made my way through the tall grass and down the slope. When I reached the buff material, I immediately began to spot fossils scattered about. The frequently encountered Kozlowskia brachiopods confirmed it as Cement City. I also found some Composita, as well as a few corals, bryozoans, and crinoid pieces. In all, I didn't find much to write home about.

Now for the day's drama. As I was making my way across the slope, I was blocked by some thick brush. I climbed down to the shoulder level. When I looked to my left, I saw a couple police cars parked with their lights on. They were about a couple hundred feet back. One officer looked over at me, but he didn't holler or gesture in any way. I continued on my way around the brush and up to the next patch of shale. A bit later, one police car slowly moved along the shoulder. I stopped to see what he would do. He continued on and I went back to picking up fossils.

When I was done, I continued walking up the road (in the grass next to the shoulder) to the next exit. When I reached the exit, a police car stopped next to me. He got out and told me to drop the bag. He then told me to walk over toward him and have my hands where he could see them. He then had me place my hands on the car, and he frisked me. He asked what I was doing. I said I was collecting fossils. He said they recently had problems with break-in in a nearby neighborhood, and that the crooks would park along the interstate and scramble up the slope. He asked where I live. I said such and such place, but I had walked from my parents' house. He then asked if he could pull out my wallet to check my ID.

Soon enough, two (or three) other squad cars pulled up, and I now had at least four officers surrounding me. The first officer told them he saw me "high tail it". They asked the same questions, and I had the same answers. They checked my bag and saw the fossils. They also pointed out that I was nervous (Well, yeah....) and that I was sweating on a relatively cool day (Scrambling up and down slopes does that to you). After a bit, they said I could ease up. After a few minutes, they let me go on my way. They didn't apologized at all, so I'm wondering if they still suspected me, but just didn't have anything to act on.

So here are a few observations I made that day....

1. Be aware that you could be a victim of circumstances at any time. Fossil collecting is out of the mainstream norm, and it can look suspicious in certain cases. And they certainly can act on those suspicions.

2. Always have identification with you, even if you don't think you'll need it. That may save you a trip to the police station.

3. Always have examples of fossils with you -- either on your person or in your car. Some relevant geological literature, such as a detailed geo map of the area, could suffice as well. I am so glad I was carrying the bag of fossils. At least they could see that I indeed was collecting fossils.

4. This is more of a question: If you stumble out of the brush, and there are police cars a distance away, and they do not instruct you in any way, what do you do? Do you continue on your way? Do you stand still and wait for instruction? Or do you walk toward them? I can see downsides with all three options.

[Auspex]

RE: #4; I would be curious as to what was going on, particularly since it was going on in an area where I'm bushwhacking solo.

"Oh, were looking for an angry mama bear with cubs"....

[jpc]

Last weekend a friend and I walked 21 miles out of the desert cuz I managed toput a rock into my oil pan. I'll post more on thisl ater.

[lordpiney]

i honestly dont think Ive ever had a bad day fossiling. some trips were better than others, but they were all better than sitting at home wishing i was fossiling!

[glacialerratic]

After some of the stories here, my worst day don't sound too bad!

That would have been the time I went out looking for a shale exposure along Lake Michigan on a 2-track. Got my car hung up on what appeared to be clay. Walked a couple miles to borrow a shovel, which didn't help due to the fact the car was hung on the nub of a boulder no bigger than my thumb, walked again to call a tow truck, which wouldn't go down the 2 track, walked again to call another tow truck -- that one charged me $200 to pull me off, which I was more than happy to pay. Didn't collect a thing!

Edited October 4, 2012 by glacialerratic

[CH4ShotCaller]

Mine was a good and bad day for the 'other' fella. Many years ago in the Myrtle Beach area, my wife and I was headed to a Pawley's Island for a picnic and to look for new fossil sites. Along the way, a vehicle passed us and was driving really fast. The car struck a bridge support about a 1/4 mile ahead of us. I pulled up, jumped out, broke the window to shut off the car (fire & smoke) and pulled the driver out. He wasn't breathing and no pulse. Started CPR and stayed with him 'til medics relieved me.

After that, the smell of burnt rubber and bile seemed to squeeze a grand fine day outta me. My wife was awestruck by seeing 'John Wayne" in action. After all that excitement, we decided to turn and head back home.

[Jurassic Jim]

Title of thread is close to an oxymoron!

[mako-mama]

WOW! What a fun post!

[Vordigern]

i honestly dont think Ive ever had a bad day fossiling. some trips were better than others, but they were all better than sitting at home wishing i was fossiling!

I have to agree, some hunts are more productive than others but even when I go site prospecting at a new spot and I find nothing, at the the very least Ive crossed a stream/site off my rather large list of places to "check out" and Im outside doing what I love

[smokeriderdon]

While I like to think no day fossil collecting is a bad one, that just doesnt work. LOL My worst day was actually a weekend.

Not too long ago, my son and I drove down to Alabama ( a LOT longer drive than I thought it would be) for a weekend of collecting. We got there and the rivers were a good 10 feet too high for good collecting. So pretty much we ended up with a few shells and some neat gypsum crystals, but nothing really to speak of.

The whole weekend I was worrying over stuff at work (I was a store manager at the time) and the poor collecting did nothing to take my mind off of that stuff. Cap that off with not being able to collect the last day planned (due to work) and having to drive straight through all the way back...yeah, a BAD weekend it was. At least as far as the collecting goes. The spending that time with my son, THAT part was awesome.

Of course, that doesnt match getting chased by tornados or sand storms, or having to possibly walk through a chapter of the Hells Angels. And Carls is ALWAYS something to make a bad day better.

[Wrangellian]

Sometimes I think I'm nuts (rocks in the head) when I spend all that gas and suffer in numerous ways, nearly break my back pulling out a fossil and near heart-attack lugging to the car, especially if it fragments and requires more work at home (thinking of last weekend as I type all this), but at least I end up with something even if it's not worth what I put into it, and I get some exercise and fresh air and stories to tell. None of my 'bad' days can hold a candle to some of you guys'. (so far, knock on wood)

Edited October 6, 2012 by Wrangellian