Jan is wondering just exactly how we plan to pull this off. Perhaps he made a hasty decision to come along, as the others didn't seem to be giving any thought to the difficulty of what we were proposing. The river is down an extremely steep slope.
June 24, 2006 - Cretaceous Fossils, Montgomery and Elmore Co, AL
A relatively small group of BPS members went to a creek in
Montgomery
County for today's trip -
could it be some people were scared off by the thoughts of 95 degree
weather in the sweltering sun? To get an idea of our weather,
go
to your
bathroom,
turn the shower on the hottest it will go, close the door so steam can
build up, turn off the A/C, then take your laptop in there
and
view
our trip photos - you will have a good idea of our day! Leisa
brought
her canoe, and she and Claire floated/pushed/dragged it upstream and
then back down. This late Cretaceous site once again yielded
numerous echinoids and ammonites, though most of the ammonites could
only be "collected" via photos, due to their fragile
composition.
We
also found huge quantities of shells, a few shark teeth, a couple of
mosasaur vertebra, two large vertebra, possibly shark, and
pyritized coprolites.
Several people decided to call it a day after getting too hot
for
comfort. After a refreshing afternoon lunch in an
air conditioned restaurant, the die-hards brains began coming up with
another potential
collecting site in Elmore county. Since we have a canoe, lets
go
look for petrified
wood. Now understand, we had one canoe, one paddle, 3 life
jackets and 4 people to go on this escapade. After a quick
stop
at the local discount store for an additional paddle and PDF, we
scouted access points. The put-in we decided on was
steep.
Really steep. Really really steep. But we finally
got it
down the several hundred feet to the water, only to find a boat wasn't
necessary,
the water was low, the shore was easily walkable, and petrified wood
was everywhere. So we
collected
it (ask Jan how much his pack weighed!), took some pictures of a tree
that was about 4 feet in diameter, and
noticed it was getting darker. And windy. And there
was
thunder. And
lightning. And lots of cold rain (boy, did it feel
good!)
And we had
the canoe at the bottom of a huge hill. But Leisa,
resourceful as
ever,
had a plan; just hook the boat to her van, and pull it out.
(photos
courtesy Vicki Lais)
-
-
First we need the canoe way down the bluff to the river bank so we can paddle downstream. Well, now wait a minute. This river has always been much higher, all the way into the weeds, and you couldn't walk here, summer nor winter. What's going on here? We don't need the canoe after all!
-
So we "park" the boat, and go along the bank collecting large pieces of petrified wood. The weather is getting ominous. The wind is picking up, we hear thunder and see rain off in the distance. But we just got here, and we've got to get that boat back up the steep slope!
-
Forget that, look at the size of that permineralized tree trunk!
-
Wow, looks like we may have to come back to get this one, it won't fit in the canoe . . . .
-
Tree trunk breaking into pieces on the bank. Numerous pieces like this were scattered everywhere.
-
I knew it, I knew it, I knew it, look what they've gotten me into now! Just getting started up the steep bank. Worn out from the distance already covered, and soaking wet from the recent rain shower. But it was fun, and we had our adventure for the day!
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