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Back to basics fossil hunting
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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Early in the week Indiana called me and told me about some new ponds he found and that he wanted me to be able to dig it first with him Saturday. Plus he had permission to go in, so it was destined to be an awesome day regardless of the weather. Well, Saturday came and it was awesome outside, partly cloudy 75 degrees. South Carolina winters - gotta love 'em. Almost time to dive again! Anyway, we got out early and immediately found a new pond. Everything was really soft, and I sawed right through... |
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The megalodon shark tooth hole
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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When I arrived at the hotspot, I was greeted by a new hole. I dived right in along with about 4 other people. It was a great hole, too. Within 2 minutes, someone called "Meg". No one wanted to stop digging, though, and he just kept pulling them out. In like 15 minutes, he pulled out 8 megalodon teeth. It was insane. He wasn't the only one though. I scored another nice one, and this time I had my camera to snap the ground shot before I picked it up. I kept digging around but I never found another... |
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My Day in the Sun
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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I have been burning up the new spot. I've seen all the megalodon teeth and other fossils that have been hauled out by the countless hunters who've been out there in the last week. Tonite was the 5th time I've been out there and I finally scored. Boy, did I score! Other megalodon teeth were found, but none near this quality. Its amazing the amount of digging enthusiasm one big tooth can generate!... |
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Land Ho!
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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I finally got a scoop on a new land site today, and I was all about digging. It was a place I went to a while back but struck out two digs in a row. Stories of victories of some friends at this place have been trickling in, and I was ready to find a nice land megalodon tooth. I put in a full 6 hours of back breaking drudgery in the muck with little in the way of success, though. Meanwhile, 5 other megalodon teeth were found by others in the area, including Jedi Master's nice 5 inch meg in the gr... |
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Arctic Diving
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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My hunt for a semi-dry suit ended earlier this week when I got an offer I couldn't refuse - DrC dropped me a line and said if I could fit into this suit he couldn't use, I could have it. I motored over there to get it, and when I got home I tried it on and it fit like a champ. I can't believe the generosity, because this suit is N-I-C-E. While over at his house, I got to check out some of DrC's artifact collection. Quite impressive, I must say. He has some of it up on his web site,
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A worthless hunt, the Lowcountry Fossil Club Meeting, and a haul of little Shark Teeth from my yard
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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I haven't been ignoring this site the past few weeks. I've been hunting, as you may have suspected. I've just not been finding anything. The land spots aren't good, and my attempts at diving have been thwarted twice. Last week I couldn't get tanks and this week I had a cold. I'm about to hook up with a semi dry suit, though, so I should be able to dive for a little longer. Just because I was jonesin for a good hunt, I went digging at this ditch I haven't visited in years. Even as overgrown an... |
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Welcome to the Jungle
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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Da f0ssZ and I met up at Lafarge today for the quarterly hunt. Again, we were only allowed to hunt on the overgrown, old, picked over hill. The weeds were easily 6 feet tall, but the weather was nice and cool and there was a breeze so the bugs weren't too bad. There are few teeth to be found in the weeded area, but still we managed. I found my best auriculatus to date, and df scored like usual. I saw a few other nice rics come out, too, as well as a cool archaeocete molar. If they ever let us ov... |
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Welcome to the Jungle
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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October is a great month here in South Carolina. Nice weather, the state fair, and of course hunting for fossils in cement quarries. Friday morning was a washout, and that was my scandal for Saturday. I met up with DW for a BRFC pre-hunt brief. It was a short meeting as we quickly headed into the mine. Unfortunately, hunting was again limited to the older piles. After snaking through the 6 foot tall weeds, finally I found some exposed overburden. The rains helped out, and after about an hour and... |
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The Washout
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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This weekend I pretty much worked all weekend long. There was not time for fossil hunting :-( :-( :-( So I cleaned out behind my seats again and put together some teeth I found at some ponds that never panned out to be very good. They were all near each other, so I'm guessing the layer is just cruddy in this area. Anyway, bummed though I am that I couldn't hunt this weekend, I am REALLY looking forward to next Sunday, when I will be hunting the PCS Mine at Aurora, NC. We're going into the pit, a... |
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Working hard doesn't spell success
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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Two weeks in a row, I have gone digging instead of diving and I'm really missing the water. I went to the same spot twice in a row and I found very little for as long as I have worked. Last week we had the hurricane to moisten the ground, but this week, the sun kindly baked the dirt to a rock like texture. And today was the first time the Colonel ever went digging. Good thing I told him beforehand that digging could be pretty fruitless. He is gonna keep trying, as am I. Next weekend, I'm diving ... |
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Dozer Daze
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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I decided to hunt at the cement pit, since I missed last trip. Collecting was limited to the older area, but the old piles had been dozed. It was supringsly cool and cloudy for July in South Carolina. I was a little late, and when I drove into the pit I saw other collectors walking in an area. I hunted the older area pretty hard, and ended up with two small ricks, and one decent whale tooth. Not to bad for a few hours of walking.... |
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Fossil Shark Tooth Digging, July 10 2004
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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My wife took tha weezling out hunting for stuff for his birthday party this afternoon, and I had the house all to myself. I took the spare time to go digging for shark teeth at a spot I haven't visited in a while. I walked a big hill first, and it was covered with Chandler Bridge but strangely absent of footprints. There were nice hemipristis teeth all over the place, so I thought for sure I would come away with a nice angustidens tooth, but it was not to be. To my surprise, I found an arrowhead... |
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Mucho Micros
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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I went hunting yesterday at the spot where I scored the killer little white megalogon tooth last week, but it was pretty lousy. I checked out a few other spots and found some prospects for future digs, but nothing great showed up to post so I figured I would show you what I've been finding in the buckets of Chandler Bridge I got from the killer pond a few months ago. Its been a bonanza, lemme tell ya. Nothing huge, but you can't beat the quantity or quality. On top of that, I came away with some... |
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Megalodon Teeth Galore
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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I heard through the rumor mill that a pal of mine was skeeved at me for spilling the beans on one of his favorite hunting spot over the net. He ran into some dudes there a couple weeks back and they said they learned about it from the internet. When he told me about the spot a couple months ago, I told him I would keep it on the down low and I totally did, so as soon as I heard he was mad, I called him up to apologize for the misunderstanding and let him know I didn't narK out his honey hole. He... |
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Shark Tooth hunting equals time well spent
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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I've got a lull between projects at work so I took today off to go hunt. I didn't really know where I was going to hunt, I just knew I was going to dig something up somewhere. I scooped up Indiana and headed off to the pit that da f0ssZ and I plundered a month ago. We chose wisely, because the dude on the tractor was the only one there and he was draining the last side of the pond where there was untouched layer left. It was all below the water level until today. I decended upon the pit like a r... |
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A hodgepodge of mediocrity
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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This is actually 2 days worth of hunting. The spots are really drying up so finding teeth is
tough lately. On a side note, I've got a little story to share. A couple weeks ago, tha duDe
and I were scouting new places. We rolled up into this new development and saw a pond that
had been dug by fossilers all the way around the edge. The pond had already been graded but
not hydroseeded, so we decided to just see what was there. We were splashing the reject
piles left by the ones ... |
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The suicide squad
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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Whew! That was a long week - sorry to be down so long, but I just switched hosts and it took forever to get the domain thing right. Now, we're set, though. I got the call last night from Indiana that the guys did some more digging out on the new pond, and that it was my duty to check it out. I arrived to find a hole 25 to 30 feet deep with nearly vertical walls. All digging was difficult because not only did we have to clear away the fallen debris to uncover the layer, but we also had to create ... |
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The shark tooth killing spree
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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I hit the new megalodon glory hole again tonite, and its entirely different than the other day when da f0ssZ and I left it. I let a few others in on it and they have worked it over big time. Its not often we get a blank check to dig. I worked a lot harder for these teeth, but I was still able to pull two nice ones out before sunset. Until the crews get back in and do some work on this spot, its going to be tough to find anything else as every other diggable spot is covered by a minimum of 6 feet... |
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Think outside the pit
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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Well, this saturday was supposed to be my turn to collect fossils at the PCS mine in
Aurora, NC. With the news that collecting would again be limited to the same hunted out
spots as the past few seasons, da f0ssZ and I decided the drive wasn't worth it so we stayed
home and hunted shark teeth here instead. We really didn't want to cancel our trip, but we
joined the Friends of the Museum group to get into the pit, as did many others. Rather than
just quietly accept it, I wr... |
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Think outside the pit
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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I had not been digging in a while, and DW had some new spots to investigate. We decided to hit a new pond, and as we climbed on the overburden, DW noticed some layer near the base. We quickly dug, and within 20 minutes DW hit paydirt. Fifteen minutes later, another Meg. I had to pour water on his shovel, he was smokin'!!
I finally moved to the other side of the pond, and within one minute flipped out a killer 5" Meg. Probably the best blade I have found. I moved a little more dirt, and saw a... |
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The groan heard around the world
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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The new pond out at the Golf Course still isn't finished, so I dug again in the unfinished edge. I ran across a few busted up teeth before I ran into my first nice find of the day. Its a nice little 3 5/16" megalodon tooth. I found a few more angustidens before it started getting dark, but I ran into a serious bone bed so I ran up to the truck to get my flashlight. I perched it up on the edge of the hole as I dug in anticipation of what could be there. Then I saw the root of a giant tooth. When ... |
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A trio of stealth missions
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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There's a new pond back on the Golf Course (thanx t$ for the info), and I've been out there three times in the evening, and one of those times, I even stayed after dark and hunted by flashlight. Yes, I thought it was that good. There were teeth all over the place, but most of them were beaten to death as you can see in the photos. There were a few nice ones, though, and those are the ones that kept me coming back. The pond is most likely finished now, but I'll check it a couple more times before... |
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A nice hardcore toothing trip.
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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Not knowing where to hunt here, I just hit one of the big ponds that was finished and the Wando formation was still above the water and someone had already walked here to and they missed a lot of teeth, but I'm sure they got all the bigger stuff. I didn't do to bad ehh, for walking.... |
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A nice hardcore toothing trip.
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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This was the last spot I hit today. This spot was a new pond that was only half graded and it was cleaned out pretty well by someone else so I had to dig to find teeth. ... |
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Cold Day Good Teeth
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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I've been real busy lately and slack with the site so this should have been posted sooner like almost a month ago and I still have a even bigger post from last weekend. I remember the day being really cold and I dug for about an hour pulling tooth after tooth out of the rich layer. With my hands freezing and to cold to dig anymore I decided to call it a day and get a bucket of the layer and go home. I just shifted that bucket the other day and found a perfect whale shark tooth that will be pos... |
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Its tough to outdo last week
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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As we expected, the pond was full past the Chandler Bridge, but not that far. We could still see the peaks of the piles left over from past excavations. 2th h00ver picked one side of the pond, and I picked the other. We both picked up piles of little teeth, but he scored the perfect 1 3/4" angustidens on the top of one of the piles still above the water. It was a killer pinkish white color with every serration intact. A total killer. That was followed up with a sweet white angel shark tooth. He ... |
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Its tough to outdo last week
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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The rain had rinsed the piles nicely at the sand pits, and it was my goal to scour them for the killer giant tooth I know is there somewhere. My first stop was to pick up the pieces of the skull that the rain washed out that I might have missed. I ended up with two more vertebrae, a rib piece, and a bunch of tiny pieces that fit somewhere. I lost h00v after that and I walked the whole rest of the pit. Wouldn't you know that that big tooth wasn't there? Oh well, maybe next time.... |
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I knew it would happen eventually
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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Today when I woke up, it took me 30 minutes to decide where to go. Tha duDe was coming over and just he and I were going today because we had to talk about some stuff. We had some decent rain earlier this week, but with the number of quality fossil hunters constantly on the rise, most of the fossils in the developments will be gone by now. Plus, digging has ceased in the places we've been going. I had to think of a place that few people know about in order to have a chance at a good day. Tha duD... |
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The new pond is gone - good thing I have 23 more buckets of dirt to sift
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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We had a hefty amount of rain this last weekend, and it pretty much did in the pond I've been hunting lately. In preparation for this event, however, I have been stockpiling the dirt on my many visits. I have roughly the equivalent of 24 five-gallon buckets of unsearched stuff, and this is about half a bucket worth of fossils, believe it or not! Actually, the 3 larger teeth on the right came from my last trip out there last Saturday, but since it was all broken, I figured I would wait until I fo... |
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The Angustidens Harvest Continues
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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The weather forecast for last night was for rain, but we awoke to find that little more than a mist had actually fallen. Our plans were to go walk the golf course for megs, and since that's the only spot I am confident of finding a meg right now we stuck to the plan. The road was still dry there, and there wasn't a new pond so instead of wasting any time, we headed off to the new Chandler Bridge spot. Then I remembered on the way that I hadn't checked the Spot that Should Not Be in quite some ti... |
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The Angustidens Harvest Continues
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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The pond was just as we left it yesterday - a wreck. Still, though, there was plenty of area of hunt. Since I expected it to be flooded today, I counted myself lucky and went to work. I filled some buckets for some home based hunting first, then I hunted. m4 actually scored first with his superb, large retroflexus tooth. It is the first complete specimen we've seen from this spot so far. I scored a sweet 2"+ angustidens and shook my head in disbelief at my luck lately. Minutes later I... |
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The Midas Touch
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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I met up with DW, tHaDude, and M4 at LaFarge. We hunted the allowed collecting area for less than an hour, and bailed on the account of low production. Check out my haul, three teeth. Yikes. The Eocene mako is nice, though. We pulled together and develop a collecting scandal.... |
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The Midas Touch
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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We decided to take a chance and hit the pond which DW had called a tooth gold mine. At 10:30 we arrived, and at 10:30:02, after looking down, I spotted my first tooth. This place was loaded; and the teeth were all golden color. A Midas DW touch?? DW scored a killer angy before lunch, and Dude was digging next to him. I berated him for his inability to keep up with DW, but this would later haunt me. This made us all hungry, so we headed to the Bell.
After scarfing our food, back to the... |
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The Midas Touch
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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I always anticipate the big Lafarge trip, and today was no different. tha duDe picked me up early and we drove to the hotel and scooped m4. We barely made it to the designated meeting point in time, but when we did, da f0ssZ was there to greet us. We signed in and walked back to tha duDe's ride to wait to go in. As we left our vehicles behind, many expectantly walked toward the new deposits. As we arrived on the new area, employees of the mine were there to greet us and send us back t... |
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Another triumphant return from the hunt
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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I have done nothing fossil oriented lately that was unrelated to the new Gold Mine chandler bridge spot. When I'm not hunting it, I'm shoveling dirt into buckets and going through them with a hose and strainer at home. Yesterday after work I went out and splashed for a little while and scored a few decent teeth. I brought home 3 small buckets of prime earth, though, and went through one of them this morning. In that I scored like a madman, including my first whale shark tooth ever as well as a k... |
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Last day hunting for this vacation
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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t$ rung me up and asked me if i was going 2thin saturday. of course i'm going 2thin saturday! i picked him up and i really wanted to check to see if the crews were working over at the golf course. everyone else has found something good at that pond, and i want something good, too! 3 hours later, i was only slightly heavier due to the junker teeth i was finding and i wanted to leave. t$ found a little peeler meg, but he wasn't opposed to leaving. onto the next spot we went.... |
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Last day hunting for this vacation
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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we decided to go back out to the pond that 2th hoover showed me a couple weeks ago because people have been rackin on nice chandler bridge stuff out there. i even heard of some whale shark teeth coming out. i only wanted an angel shark tooth, though, so i prepared to spend the rest of my afternoon splashing the cb. you never know what you're gonna find in that stuff. just as soon as we started splashing, we started finding little teeth. They were EVERYWHERE! It was the richest concentration of t... |
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Last day hunting for this vacation
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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Lately I haven’t been out much and I thought it was about time I call Ditchweezil to see if he wanted to go toothin and he was down for sure. We headed out to the spot where thA Dude found his sweet nearly 6inch meg the other week. Finding teeth for me at this spot wasn’t a problem. The only problem was that everything I found was nearly beat to crap or just not worth keeping. Ditchweezil suggested we should move to a better spot and I agreed because there were untold riches to be found from... |
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Last day hunting for this vacation
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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This place has the best chandler bridge I’ve ever seen. I was picking up teeth everywhere and after splashing the chandler bridge for awhile I score a sweet little angy and for other places it would take me sometimes hours just to find a single tooth in it. I decided to take a bucket of this chandler home and I’m glad I did because after shifting the last bit of dirt from the bucket I found my first whale shark tooth. I will definitely be coming back to this place to get some more.... |
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The skunking continues - but only for one of us!
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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The construction crews wouldn't be working today since its Christmas weekend, so we went out to this awesome new pond. The entire bottom is dug to the chandler bridge and wando formations. In some places, the wando is under a little mud so you can dig everything. We dug from about 10 to 4 and I uncovered several hundred square feet - all devoid of quality fossils. I found a lot, but it was all mangled. tha duDe, however, finally hit paydirt. After a long hiatus from the megalodon glory, he found... |
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How could I keep a streak like I've had lately??
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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The first place I went today was top secret, and it stunk massively. i was only there 30 minutes before i left. There wasn't a single tooth lying around anywhere, and the pit was full of footprints. its all good though because i flew out to the spot that should not be and dug for about 3 hours before calling it quits. i dug a pretty big trench over at the little pond and filled the whole thing in so it was really hard work, and i didn't even find anything good in it. i got tired of striking out ... |
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A Grand Finale
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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Today was my shortest hunt since I only had to fill the time my wife was gone bowling. It was an opportunity for the weEzlinG to burn off some energy, though, and for me to hunt one last time this holiday weekend. Indiana and Buffalo were already out there, and Buffalo was thrilled to have found his first 5 inch plus megalodon tooth that very day by just walking. It had a lot of peel on the front, but was otherwise very nice. They decided to hang out a little longer and dig a little while with ... |
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What I've been waiting for
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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A sunny, breezy, cool day awaited tha duDe, Indiana, an I as we ventured forth into the 2thin grounds. On the way, 2th h00ver called me and said he had a new pond to go check out, so we zoomed over to meet him. It was a deep pond whos entire bottom was covered with a light grey Chandler Bridge. There were little teeth everywhere, so h00v was content to pick them up. For his efforts, he was rewarded with one of the most killer angel shark teeth I've ever seen. The rest of us dug, though. The rest... |
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The Day After Thanksgiving Sales - NOT!
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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I got up early today and went to Lowes so I could do some quick things on the house remodel, but by 11:30 I was off hunting. Indiana was already out at the spot that should not be, and he had already been there for over an hour when I got there. There were 5 other people digging at other points around the pond, so I felt like I was hunting in public! Since this was a new pond and I didn't know about the quality of the layer anywhere around the pond, I just arbitrarily chose a spot and sat down. ... |
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Hit and Run
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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Tha duDe, the weEzlinG, and I jetted out early today to get some diggin in before dinner. Since it was Thanksgiving, there would be no crews anywhere so we would have our pick of the ponds. We went over to the Golf Course, and wouldn't you know that they started digging another pond for us? This one wasn't finished, though, so we jumped out of the truck, suited up, and started digging feverishly. Except for the weEzlinG - he just kind of wanders around looking for things to either throw or beat ... |
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The lucky streak starts back up
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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Tha boY has taken note of the killer megalodon teeth I've found at the new pond, so he really wanted to go to say the least. I took him out this evening to try his luck at the pond, but we arrived to a double shot of bad news. First, the crews were working so they would chase us off if they were to see us digging. Second (and 10 times worse), the new pond had been grassed. That means the crews are done working on the pond. Digging in a grassed pond is a sure fire way to get thrown in jail for wi... |
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Fortune smiles on me once again
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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We had one heck of a rain storm today so after work I went out to the spot where I've plundered so many megalodons lately. Footprint were strangely absent, but I knew the other fossil hunters were on their way. I walked fast and picked up everything I saw. There weren't teeth everywhere like I expected, but this spot didn't get too much water, so that would explain it. I made my first good find of the day was on the top of the pond. The little meg was completely covered on both sides with mud, b... |
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A November To Remember
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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The remodel is in full swing again, and I spent all day Saturday and most of the day Sunday working on my house. Sunday, though, we finished a little early, and just as I was getting ready to go with her to the bowling alley, she sensed my fossil thirst ahd asked if there was a place I could go for a few hours where I could hunt and take the weEzlinG - he's no good a the bowling alley. I wondered to myself if the new pond that I pillaged last week would be safe, What was there - big piles of dir... |
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A Change of Mind
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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Well today I really wasn’t suppose to go toothing because I had a lot of things to do around the house. thA duDe called me and asked me if I wanted to go and my mom said no, but I was talking to thA duDe for awhile on the phone and she changed her mind just in time. I’m so glad she did because I found the biggest complete whole meg in my collection today.
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Hunting in the Dark
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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This time I had a little more time to dig before it got dark. I dug again in the dark and my mom and little brother took turns holding the flashlight for me this time. I dug for about almost hour and still no whole meg turned up. Oh well maybe next time.
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Out of Time
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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After seeing ditchweezil’s trip from last weekend I wanted to go out there and find a meg to. I got there late and only had 15 mins. of light left before it got dark, but that didn’t stop me. I had took my nephew with me that is only four years old and had him hold a flashlight for me so I could keep on digging :). About 15mins later he was already tired so I decided to just give up for now and try again tomorrow. ... |
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Turkey Day
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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2th h00ver called me up this morning and said "yo weez. let's hunt." I was all "fo
shiZzlE my niZzlE." Not really, but we did go hunt at a new spot he just found out about. He
told me that the other day when he went, he found 5 megalodon teeth lying out in the open. 2
were fully exposed on pedestals. Get this - its been two weeks since a good rain!! This spot
has been just waiting to be hunted. I could see the rocks pouring out of the edge from 200
feet away, and I started... |
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An Eocene Wonderland
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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Today I got a rare opportunity to collect at Giant Cement. Collectors are seldom let in any more, so as you can imagine, I had a pretty good day. The first thing I had to do was figure out the layers, but once I did, I found teeth all over the place. The only problem was that almost all of them were badly worn and broken. Very different than at Lafarge where the teeth are better preserved. I'll bet the reason is the height of the limestone - its elevation was high in the area all around where I ... |
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Not bad a bad hour's hunt
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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I had an hour free this afternoon before I went to the fair with the wife and kiddies, so I sped out to the spot that should not be to pick up anything that was left. While I didn't come away with anything that will keep me awake thinking about how awesome it was to find, I still had fun and picked up a few fossils to boot.... |
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Mr. October
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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The whole gang saddled up today for the Lafarge trip. I always love the October collecting day because weather is always so nice. Today was no exception - it was gorgeous. Plus, the best of all situations happened, too. it poured down rain last night at the quarry so it didn't matter if people were sneaking in. We would get fresh ground to look on. As always, the experienced hunters ran past the first hills to the newer material, but there is an obstacle that you must cross to get to it - A big,... |
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Mr. October
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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Mr. October |
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Mr. October
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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Today was the day that the quarry was to open and once again it was my duty to go home with at least one whole ric like every past trip I’ve had to the quarry in which I seem to pull off every time. I rushed to the far corner of the quarry following da f0ssZ who made jumping the ditch look so easy, I should have known it was one of his tricks to keep me from finding teeth right away and I jumped right into a trap because I didn’t quite make it across, but I got out right away losing maybe 2 min... |
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Mr. October
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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I fell asleep Friday to a steady rain, so my hopes were high for a good collecting trip. There was a flurry of activity at the sign-in trailer the next morning at LaFarge since a large number of collectors were at the mine. I wasn't skeered, though. DW hitched a ride into the pit with me, and the vastness of the collecting area left our jaws agape. We philosophized over the correct pronunciation of Miocene mega-tooth sharks during the short ride in. DW left me bedazzled with his skillful lingui... |
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Not the best day I've ever had
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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I got up early today because I thought I was going to hunt in a really cool place. I drove all over looking for the others I was supposed to meet, but in the end, I gave up and decided to look for somewhere else to go. I picked up Indiana because he's pretty much the only person I know who can go hunt on the drop of a dime. We drove to a new lead but they were working so we went on to the next potential spot. It was lame, so we went to my house to grab some scuba / snorkel gear so we could try o... |
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Plundering a New Pond
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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A friend of mine told me about a new spot, and co-worker of mine told be about another, so we had two places to go. It was hard deciding to dig because tha duDe went diving the other day and he had me itching to do that, too. Anyway, I picked up t$ and tried to get Indiana, too, but he bailed saying he hurt too bad from fishing the day before. All I can say it that it would take a little more than pain to keep me from hunting. We went to the first spot and it stunk royally, so we proceeded to th... |
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Plundering a New Pond
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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Well today I decided I would go toothing with Ditchweezil and we ended up going to the spot that should not be hunted. In just a few digs of digging into the layer I find a shamer great white just a little under 2 ½” and it actually had most of the root to. Than I started digging a different area and I start noticing something that looked more like bone at first and it kept going back into the layer. I was getting real excited because I had no idea what it was and it ended up being the bigges... |
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When the wind blows, does the tooth not hear the sound of one hand clapping?
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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Today I could have gone just about anywhere I wanted to go, and I chose Superpit. I hunted alone, so I had a lot of time to ponder fossils and the universe. I even thought of a cool title for the trip :-) Anyway, hunters were hunting in the pit itself, though, so I had to leave without so much as a serration in my pockets. I decided to go back to one of my old haunts to finish out the day. The golf course has a place where a little more digging can be done so that's where I went. It took a while... |
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The Marathon
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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Next on my list of places to visit was going to be the porno ditch, but someone was there when I got there so I decided not to compete and moved on to the spot that should not be. I spent the most time there because its a pretty big development with lots of muddy places that take a while to walk. Soon after I arrived, one of the locals regaled me with hits from the classic rock dumpster. I prayed for incessant thunder, but it never came. Soon after, I found my best tooth of the spot. There ha... |
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Finally a keeper angy.
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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Today I wanted to go to Super Pit, but I was run off by hunters. So I decided to go to the spot that should not be hunted with my little brother. There were already three collectors looking for teeth, but they were new to the fossil collecting game and missed lots of teeth. Just like DaFossZ always says, "Don't hate the player, hate the game". I was unable to get ground shots of the angys today because it was raining and I don't want to ruin my camera. I ended up finding today the best angy I'v... |
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A Midsummer Night's Dream
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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Well, I got the lawn mowed yesterday and by wife blessed a mid-week fossil hunt. I floundered a bit on where I should go, and when I finally left it was already 6:15. I originally was going to Top Secret, but mid-trip, I remembered about the Spot that Should Not Be. I had my trusty camera, and I knew I needed to take pictures of that place for the site, so I changed my plans and went there. They had done a bunch since the last time I was here. There were new piles all over the place, so I had to... |
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Deceptively Bad
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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As soon as I got off work, I was on the way to this new place that the crazy canuck told me about. It had been several days since rain, but there were new, unexplored piles everywhere. I walked all to my right, and most were devoid of fossils and layer. Just as I finally hit an area with potential, a wicked thunderstorm started blowing in. I tried to ignore it, but it kept bearing down. Finally, I smelled the smell and I made a mad dash for the truck. There's a smell that goes with a summer thu... |
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Passing the torch
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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The long 4th of July weekend started off Thursday with a failed trip to the big ditch. I
thought it rained wednesday night, but when I got there, the high scum quotient told
otherwise. I only hung out for an hour, because there was nothing to be found. I went home,
and salvaged the day by doing chores and hangin with the fam. Friday morning, I hit that
giant pit my dad told me about a few weeks ago - the one that's the size of a football field
and has killer Chandler Bridge e... |
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Quantity is good, too
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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Yesterday at work my dad called me to tell me about this giant hole in the ground that he saw. It was hard to make it through the day, but I finally did. Last night I went out there and found a HUGE hole - 15 feet deep and as big around as a football field. The entire non-submerged bottom is Chandler Bridge or Wando. Its a total fossil dream spot but its so new that the Chandler Hasn't weathered enough yet. So I really didn't find the killer angustidens I was expecting. I did, however, find plen... |
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Triumph at Lafarge
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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Going to the quarry always brings with it a bag of mixed expectations. All week long I've been looking forward to going because of the possibility of finding something awesome. At the same time, though, I've wondered if I should skip it because I haven't done so well there the past few times. Ultimately, I knew I would go because m4 (Miocene Marine Mammal Man) was coming down, and I'd promising him for months to show him around the place. Plus, da f0ssZ was making the trek. Add tha... |
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Triumph at Lafarge
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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After a short, cramped ride in the Weezil ride, ThA Dude, M4, DW, and myself arrived at LaFarge admist a plethera of other collectors. A quick view of primo exposed layer instantly activated our marine fossil salivation glands. The past few weeks rains eroded the fossil overburden fairly extensively. The best finds are two nice 1" I. Praecursor, and a 2.5" C. Auriculatus from the Santee Limestone. I also scored half an archaeocete molar tooth, which was found about 20 feet from DWs. The t... |
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Triumph at Lafarge
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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My best day at Lafarge so far!... |
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Still looking for a new spot
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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With our failure on Monday and the complete clensing of the ditch yesterday, we needed a new spot. We tried to get into this one new place but this guy wouldn't let us in. 2th ho0ver told us to call him today sometime if we wanted to go, so we did. We went out to one of his old haunts - this gigantic canal out near Jedburg. We walked and walked, but there were no fossils to be found. Finally, when we reached the other end (near a road) we found loads of the good stuff - gravel all over the bo... |
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The short day
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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Today the whole gang got together for a little holiday foray into the world of fossils. Years ago, da f0ssZ used to score teeth in this creek, and today he wanted to revisit. We went in where he used to, and we dug around for about an hour with no luck, so we decided to go somewhere else. Since I did so well at the office ditch last week, that was our target. We always start off with such enthusiasm, but after about 2 hours no one found anything good and we decided to call it quits. 2 spots w... |
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The end of a spot??
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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We've been hitting the new spot all week, and today we beat it to a pulp. We had 6 people there digging, and it wasn't long before the edges were nearly vertical! Any more access to the layer would require digging off several feet of overburden, so the opportunity cost (to apply a little toothin economics) becomes too great. It all ended with no one finding a meg, but t$ did manage to find a sweet mako. There is still some undug ditch way in the back, but it will have to wait until I'm workin... |
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Another Peach
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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Since my last post, the Crazy Canuck and I have been digging in this ditch right across the street from our office. We could have actually walked, but its tough to carry all the tools across 4 lanes of traffic. So we've been doing the lazy American thing and driving the 50 yards. Anyway, Tuesday and Wednesday, we didn't really find much. He hit a little pocket of teeth yesterday where he found a nice meg chunk, several broken teeth, and one nice angustidens. I kept the faith, though, and I kept ... |
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Everything is progressing as I have forseen
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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Today I went digging back at the golf course for an hour during lunch. I found those 3 meg pieces really close together last Saturday, and I just had a hunch that there would be more there. I just kept peeling back the edge a little further where I had dug Saturday. I had dug for a length of about 20 feet, and it was almost time to go. On one of the last digs, I peeled back a little layer and exposed the root and part of the blade. I so wish I had my camera! Anyway, I carefully extracted it a... |
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Almost a killer day
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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Tha duDe and I met up with 2th h0oveR this morning at the crack of dawn with the promise of a new spot to hunt. It was a beautiful day, but man, it was COLD! We followed h0ov to the new spot and parked. There was nothing in sight. A short walk through the woods later, and we saw the glory. A little, overgrown ditch dug right down to the layer. There were white rocks all over the bottom and I just KNEW that there was nice stuff here somewhere. We'd have to dig, but it would eventually be worth... |
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Almost a killer day
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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We decided to go try some other spots. Why waste all day at one place if you're not finding anything? We investigated another old ditch, but it was so overgrown that you couldn't find anything in it. After a trip to Taco Bell, We finally ended up over at the Golf Course. We spent the rest of the day there, and again my spirit was crushed by broken megs. Why couldn't these sharks be more careful?? I didn't dig the wall back but 6 inches or so, though, so I'll bet there are more teeth to be fou... |
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BIG scores at Lafarge today
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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I found it hard to fall asleep on Friday night because of my anticipation for the Lafarge trip. We've had so much rain lately that the mine would surely produce big. In our excitement to get to the new part, thA duDe and I headed straight down the first giant hill toward the other side. There is a big ditch at the bottom that is full of water and fine silt. I looked for a place to cross where my boots wouldn't sink, but thA duDe just took the plunge. He sunk DEEP, too. Past his knee. His boot fi... |
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BIG scores at Lafarge today
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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I can't believe the luck df has! While my brother and I were scurrying down the first hill like crack fiends to a buy, df was casually combing the side of the hill. He yells out - "WEEZ! I just found a 4 incher!" I yell back how cool that was and that I would see it later as I pulled my brother from the mud hole he was stuck in to his thighs. I didn't see df again for a few hours, but he had found another beauty, this one around 3 inches. And he had another 2 inch tooth, too. I couldn't belie... |
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BIG scores at Lafarge today
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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t$ also went to Lafarge today and found some really great stuff. It was a hard day to find anything because there were so many people. The place gets hunted out in an hour with so many people, but its still worth going. ... |
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No encore
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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We took a pit stop at the Bell and continued on to the Golf Course ditch. I thought that after my success on Saturday that I would fare well at this spot. We chiseled at the hardening edges for quite a while without anything noteworthy. I came up with a few ok teeth - a small angy with a nick on the root lobe and a small mako with some nice color. T-moNey did pretty well there, though. He found a nice small angy and a cool lookin isurus desori tooth. No repeat performances today, but as we all k... |
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That was a short dry streak
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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I still had another place to go. I drove over to the golf course to walk the ditch. I know it rained hard there because I work really close to there. And that ditch doesn't retain water, so by the time I arrived, the water level was low and the layer was exposed and well rinsed. Well, not as well rinsed as I would have liked, but it was good enough. I took my shovel just in case I needed to dig some immense tooth out of the wall. I walked in and found where the layer started, but I was really no... |
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The Jem
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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I guess I gave up on the germanic pit too soon. You see, its been raining all week. Every day, it has poured down rain, so even though the grass is growing, there are still spots in the pond that are eroding, and there are still lots of teeth to be found. And I found all these in an hour at lunch today. Not bad, eh? Then, I found the Jem. This little angy is perfect in any way. It is one of just two teeth I have ever found that is worthy to be a necklace for my wife. I just have to get some gold... |
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Another one bites the dust
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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Its so hard to find a good place to hunt fossils. You finally come across one that produces, and you kindof get used to hunting there. Its like a safety net. It’s a beautiful day, you're gonna fossil hunt! Where ya gonna go? You never have to ask that question because you just know. Then, all the sudden, the work is finished and they put grass all over the new spot to keep the edges from eroding. Sure, if it rains once or twice soon after the terrible grassing, you can pick up a few more ... |
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Another lunchtime fossil hunt
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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Something must be going on because its early August and the high temperature today was only 85, and the humidity was like 37%. For coastal South Carolina at this time of year, that's unheard of. I had no choice but to hunt teeth at lunch. So for an hour, I went out to the pond and walked the edges. I didn't find anything spectacular, but I did ok. Lots of lamp teeth (that's what I call the small perfect teeth. I have this clear glass lamp and my goal is to fill it with perfect small teeth. Its a... |
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déjà vu
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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Last Wednesday and Thursday afternoons we had serious rain storms right as I got off work, and this week was a repeat performance. How odd! I'm not complaining or anything, I just think its weird. Anyway, I scored some more nice teeth from the edge of the pond. They were so adamant about no one digging up their pond once they had graded it, but now its seriously eroded from all the rain. They're going to have to grade it all over again before they grass it now. I don't care though, because the m... |
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There must be something about Wednesdays
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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Like clockwork, it started pouring down rain right as I got off work. I
called thA duDe and tipped him off, and then I left work. I got soaked
on the way to my truck, I had to drive slower on the way home to avoid
hydroplaning to my death, and I got soaked when I went home. I cooked
some dinner (we ate shark, coincidentally!) and then asked my wife if
she minded if I went out to the field, since there was such great rain,
and she gave me the nod. Of course, I washed the dishes before I lef... |
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One last ditch effort to harvest fossils from Wednesday's rain
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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We were originally going to the river today to scout some new places where we might actually be able to sift, but my success the past few outings changed my mind. With that many teeth just lying around out there on the ground, why should we go scout new places? RIGHT! I couldn't think of a reason either. So, we waited until the afternoon so the workers would all be gone for the day and headed off to the pond to walk. When we got there, wouldn't you know it? There was still some dudes working, so... |
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I shouldn't be this lucky
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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This morning I woke up early. I have no idea why, but the first thing that crossed my mind was that I could go walk the ditch before work. After all, my wife told me that it had rained steadily all day yesterday. I quickly prepared to go, and within 20 minutes of waking up, I was in the ditch. The first thing I noticed was that there was scum all over the bottom. Had there been any substantial rainfall, this place would have been relatively scumless. Rather than waste time, I decided to go to th... |
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Score!
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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Timing was on my side today. I was sitting at work and it was about 3:30 when it just started POURING down rain. And it rained sheets for well over an hour. I was salivating. I couldn't wait until 5, because I just knew that that there would be lots of stuff laying around out at the field because a new pond went in about a week ago, and it hadn't rained since. I got off, and I was the first one there! OH MAN! I thought it would already have been crawling with other scavengers like myself, but I ... |
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Success at the sizzler
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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Once every 3 months, Lafarge opens its pit to the fossil collecting public. The owner of this place are so great - I just had to give a big thanks to them before I did anything else. Anyway, today, the weather was HOT. And Lafarge has very little in the way of shade. I think the air temperature was about 95, but the heat index (humidity factored in with heat) was about 110. I was drenched with sweat from head to toe within 30 minutes, and I had drank my 2 quarts of water within 3 hours. I walked... |
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Raw sewage and a mud hole
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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Doesn't the title of my trip today just make you wanna get out there and hunt for some teeth? Well, I generally don't get into the idea of playing in that stuff either, but we really didn't know what we were in for when the day began. I say we because da f0ssZ came down and so did the earthbeater from up way up north in arctic Pennsylvania. I told him some time ago that I would take him to find some teeth, and I figured he would do better sifting than digging, so we hit the old creek first. We a... |
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