Your Worst Fossil Trip

[Boneman007]

Time to trump everyone... And hopefully pass on a hard lesson learned.

In 2005, I and a few others tackled the South Sulpher River. Now for those of you that have heard of the North Sulpher River, with it's excellent exposures, wide, dry, clear bottom, offering a huge variety of fossils, think of the exact opposite, and you have the South Sulpher. The only reason to hit the South Sulpher is that it has great fossils that arent avaiilable many places. The Squalicorax teeth are the size of guitar picks.

Anyway, we hit the river, did the 2 mile hike down the middle of the river, which gets up to 7 feet deep (yes, you have to swim it with your backpack on your head). I found a pill bottle full of good stuff and we made our way out.

So far so good....

Fast forward 13.5 days. Im in the emergency room with a 108 degree fever, sicker than I have ever been. A team of specialists are studying my tests and scratching their head. Finally a new test comes back, they all grumble and speak lowly amoung themselves. Finally the head of the group walks over to me and says...

"You've contracted Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Normally it take 15 days to invade your brain and kill you. We're lucky we figured it out when we did."

Lucky as I was, It turned all my pain nerves on full blast, and for 4 months life was barely worth living. The prognosis was bad. There was no way to know if the pain was permanent, or what other side effects the disease would have.

I luckily got away with no long term problems.

The moral of the story is: Use insecticide when you go fossil hunting.

I was one of 4 cases that year. 2 of the 3 other people died from it.

That was a bad day of fossil hunting!

[Bullsnake]

Glad you're still with us, and shared your story! Sorrow for those who didn't survive it, especially for their families.

This really makes me think!

[piranha]

Fossil hunting is dangerous...

[gwbh]

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

Could not agree more, if I went out fossiling and came back with absolutely nothing it would probably be my worst day. I have been lucky enough to not have that happen yet.

[gwbh]

Time to trump everyone... And hopefully pass on a hard lesson learned.

In 2005, I and a few others tackled the South Sulpher River. Now for those of you that have heard of the North Sulpher River, with it's excellent exposures, wide, dry, clear bottom, offering a huge variety of fossils, think of the exact opposite, and you have the South Sulpher. The only reason to hit the South Sulpher is that it has great fossils that arent avaiilable many places. The Squalicorax teeth are the size of guitar picks.

Anyway, we hit the river, did the 2 mile hike down the middle of the river, which gets up to 7 feet deep (yes, you have to swim it with your backpack on your head). I found a pill bottle full of good stuff and we made our way out.

So far so good....

Fast forward 13.5 days. Im in the emergency room with a 108 degree fever, sicker than I have ever been. A team of specialists are studying my tests and scratching their head. Finally a new test comes back, they all grumble and speak lowly amoung themselves. Finally the head of the group walks over to me and says...

"You've contracted Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Normally it take 15 days to invade your brain and kill you. We're lucky we figured it out when we did."

Lucky as I was, It turned all my pain nerves on full blast, and for 4 months life was barely worth living. The prognosis was bad. There was no way to know if the pain was permanent, or what other side effects the disease would have.

I luckily got away with no long term problems.

The moral of the story is: Use insecticide when you go fossil hunting.

I was one of 4 cases that year. 2 of the 3 other people died from it.

That was a bad day of fossil hunting!

Very unlucky, I had a friend contract RMSF around 2 weeks ago from a tick bite. Sorry to hear it progressed as far as it did. In my friends case he went to the doctor within 2 days and he had no after affects. Still very rare I think around 200 cases a year.

[Malcolmt]

Not my worst trip ever,but today went looking for eurypterids and got pretty much skunked (though did find a phylocarid and cooksonia) but what made it bad was I mssed the chisel and hit my finger with my mini sledge, not broken but pretty black and blue. Also did it in the first hour of the day, Immediately wrapped it tight in a bandaid (always carry them in my pocket when in the field) to control the bleeding under the skin and nail, none the less it cramped my style a bit for the rest of the day.

Unfortunatey I have a bunch of music gigs this weekend and hopefully I will still be able to bend it in the morning.

[Boneman007]

On a positive "bad day note". A buddy of mine and I were fossil hunting one day and I started hearing him yelling from a distance, but I couldnt see him. So I followed the sound. About 200 yards away the yelling was getting pretty loud, but again, no buddy. Finally I came up to the edge of the construction, and down in the ditch was my buddy. sunk 4 feet into the slimiest, nastiest shale (Britton formation) you've ever seen. I nearly had to go get my 4X4 to pull him out!

He almost lost his jeans in the extraction!!

[cowsharks]

I posted earlier, but completely forgot about my truly worst/scariest fossil trip ever...

taken from a previous post in a similar type of thread from 2010 ...

One hot Summer evening I was at Brownies beach (Calvert Cliffs in MD) after work. Low tide was around 8 or 9 pm as I recall, right about when it starts getting dark in the Summer time. Anyhow, I packed a small flashlight anticipating I might stay too long and it would get too dark on me for the long walk back out along the cliffs. As I had figured, it got dark and I was at the complete opposite end of the collecting area so I had a long walk back in the dark, but I had my small flashlight to guide me out. For those of you who know this beach/collecting area you'll be able to picture what I'm talking about. As I reached the end of the cliffs and rounded the corner where the cove is on the left I saw someone with a bright flashlight way up ahead on the main beach. I proceeded to walk through the water, still about a hundred yards from the main shore of the beach. As I walked through the water, making splashing and sloshing sounds, carrying my shovel, screen, and bucket, I noticed the person on the main beach was now aiming their flashlight in my direction. After a few seconds it sort of annoyed me so I started to aim my flashlight back at them to see how they liked being almost blinded. As I reached the beach and stepped out of the water onto the sand the person had approached me still holding their flashlight so as to purposely aim it right at me - at my eyes. I lowered my flashlight and all of a sudden the person said something like, "hold it right there". That's when I realized the person was a Calvert County deputy sheriff, and not only was he aiming his flashlight at me, but he also had his gun drawn and pointing it at me as well. I can't even begin to explain what that horrible, sickening feeling was like. It's like time stood still for a split second until he lowered his weapon and proceeded to ask me who I was and what I was doing. Well, with hip waders on, a bucket, shovel, and sifting screen, it wasn't too difficult to convince him that I had been fossil collecting and simply lost track of time and it got dark on me before I could get out of there. He explained that one of the home owners near the beach called the police to report some kids making a bonfire and causing a bunch of ruckus and drinking and such. He responded to the call and was down at the beach looking for the troublemakers and all he found was a tired fossil collector. I walked all the way back to the parking lot with him to my car, all the while in a state of shock of some sort. All I could think of was how close was I to getting shot. I don't even remember the conversation back to the car. I'll never forget that night. Last time I ever stayed that late.

Daryl.