Daryl,

I could tell you but your midi-chlorian count is much too low...

Guides are selected by PCS based on recommendations from several sources.  Ultimately Curtis Ormond has the final say in the selection process.  We go through annual MSHA training provided by PCS.  All other expenses are out of pocket.  Our main responsibility is enforcing the rules and providing support for collectors.  It's not that we don't collect, but if your main goal is to be in the mine more than 2x per year you won't get selected to be a guide.

I have no say so in the scheduling process but my feelings are that if a guide could only work one or two days (living farther than being a convienient trip) it does the rest of the guides no good.  It means we have to work more often and cannot do other things during the collecting seasons.

We do learn the collecting areas more intimately because we're there more often than the day's collectors but the odds are still in favor of the collector finding the "big one" rather than one of us.

I wouldn't want to haul any kind of pump into the collecting area... unless it was going to be a permanent addition and not necessary to haul back out!  Some rain would be nice though...

I try to forget those days...

As one of the original PCS guides, I can say it is an extremely rewarding (if unpaid) job. I have met many knowlegeable people and made many new friends, had access to fresh air and sunshine every weekend in spring and fall and enjoyed the companionship of my guide-mates. I have also frozen my butt off when I'd rather have been warm at home, given away all my water to those who foolishly used theirs to pour over their heads, donated all my food to those who "forgot"to bring any and got stuck all day teaching others about the fossil fauna in Aurora and how to find fossils.  Two weekends ago we had to cancel the fossil trips for both days. Us guides were the ones who had to stand in the parking lot in pouring rain to "greet" each visitor that day and deliver the sad news--even tho they had come from Maryland, Ohio, and Asheville, NC, they would have to go home. It is not always pleasant. Some were nice about it--and some were nasty. This season, I havent yet taken away enough fossils to fill a dinner plate...and yes, I have an intimate kicking relationship with every single rock in the mine!! Someone has to be the last in the mine, someone has to go the far side, someone has to stay close to the ramp. Others are needed to roam. But it's all for safety (to insure our continued access) and the always important PR. Through the years, we guides have developed a working relationship where one rarely needs to be told where they are needed. If you arent very experienced with the overburden of PCS mine in every weather condition, you are dangerous to us. If you dont have a good working knowledge of the geologic formations and fossil fauna of Lee Creek, you are worthless to our visitors. If you cant commit to at least every other weekend, we cant depend on you. Yes, PCS pays for our MSHA training, but they expect something of us in return. Every single current PCS guide has commited 6 months out of the year to this endeavor. We are given a schedule at the start of each season and expected to work it like a paying job. None of us complains because we enjoy what we do. It is a sometimes rigorous routine. But in the backs of our minds, we always say the next person we meet might have that special sea urchin or shark tooth we want to trade for.

PCS guides are in the mine to enforce Safety rules and assist visitors--anything else is a bonus. We are not a hand-picked elite group who are give special fossil collecting priveleges because someone deemed us worthy of it.

Yeah, I'll soon age-out, but it will be with regret. I'd be just as happy to sit on the ramp and wait for ya'll to reurn at the end of the day--just to enjoy your finds with you. Pat