June 09, 2001 - Lowndes Co, AL

On June 9-10, BPS members spent the weekend in Loundes County, Alabama, where they found Cretaceous fossils. Numerous fossilized crabs and shark teeth were collected on this field trip. The crab nodules and exogyra below are from a resident near the site, who helped us gain permission to collect on the property.

A number of members had already left for home by the time we reached the final stop of the weekend.   Most of the remaining members decided to hike down the creek, and took off at a rapid pace.  Many miles away the rumble of thunder could be heard, though it didn't rain at the collecting site. Vicki and Martha searched near the entrance to the creek, until they noticed the water was rising too high to clearly see the bottom.  They decided to wait nearby for the return of he others.  They waited.  And waited.  As they sat and talked, they speculated on the treasure trove of crabs that the long gone group must have found.  Then finally they decided to walk back to the creek to see if anyone had returned.  Wow!  What a difference a couple of hours had made! The distant storms had created a muddy, rapidly moving flash flood.

These members were just happy to be back to their cars. Instead of a nice leasurely walk back up the creek, they had to bushwhack through the bushes and brambles due to the quickly moving floodwaters. Once back, Kathy asked if we had seen her bucket.  No, what bucket?  The one she left on the edge of the creek, containing her car keys.  Oops - no, they're probably in the Gulf of Mexico by now.  But all turned out well, as she rode back to Birmingham to get her husband's help retrieving her car.


Kathy, Claire, Sarah, Jeff, & ______.