Well, I had my trip into the mine yesterday (Sat).  I stopped by Green Mill Run on my way and sifted the stream gravels.  A few hours later, and several cuts on my fingers, I left with only a few small nasty worn/broken teeth, one small decent great white, and a nice rostral tooth.  My trip into the mine was a bit more fruitful.

Thanks to all (BWD,DW,etc.) who helped with info over the last couple weeks on identifying the formations, pointing out where to look, etc.  Going to Lee Creek for the last few years I've learned that unless you go early in the season, like the first week or two, later on it becomes almost impossible to find much, especially if it hasn't rained.  Heavy rains can transform the collecting area and turn it from unproductive to very productive.  So don't give up hope if you end up on a trip late in the season.  Sometimes they even expand the area and you might be there the weekend they do it.

Anyhow, knowing that Aurora had no rain in the last couple weeks, and being it's the fourth weekend of collecting, I planned on taking several 5-gal buckets with me to fill up with some Pungo dirt for sifting at home - I like to look for those tiny gems of shark and ray teeth - stuff you won't find suface collecting.  Thanks to BWD, I found the Pungo areas on the left and right side of the ramp.  I dropped my buckets off there as we headed down the ramp and headed off to one of the Pungo areas.  I immediately picked up a huge upper Hemi (1 7/8"), the biggest I've ever found.  After that I picked up a couple small makos, and things got real slow.  Folks spread out pretty quick.  Within 15 minutes I could only see a handful of folks in the distance.  The hills are tall so people dissapear easily.  I saw lots of Pungo areas, some mixed in with James city.  The Pungo areas I came across were never real productive, at least not like the Pungo areas I've collected before.  After a while I set out in search of the Yorktown.  I came across the areas that were dug up and moved on to other areas.  I never saw even a tiny tooth in any of the Yorktown I came across.  By noon, it was in the 80's, and I new I needed to head back to the ramp to fill buckets.  I had'nt found much surface colelcting, so I did'nt want to waste any more time.  I headed back to the ramp and started filling buckets with the Pungo dirt.  I filled 5 buckets from the left side of the ramp, and thenanother 5 buckets from the right side.  The dirt from the two areas seemed a little different so I wanted to make sure I sampled both.  It took me about 2 hours to fill a total of 10 5-gallon buckets and carry them up the steep ramp back to the truck.  Thank God that Ron drives that pick up truck for our buckets and gear and for the extra water!  Follks thought I was a real nut case for working so hard, but I didn't drive almost 400 miles for a couple of mako's!

I'll wash/sift this dirt over the next couple weeks and go through it.  I'll report back on the results so others might know if it was worth it.

Afterwards I stopped by the Aurora Fossil Museum and had fun looking at all of the teeth I wished I had found that day.  I was dissapointed that they didn't have any more of the navy blue baseball caps with the embroidered Meg on the front.  I saw someone at an MGS meeting with one and they said they got it at the museum.  I was planning on buying like 3 of them, but they ran out  - bummer!  Anyone got an extra I can buy?

Overall I had a lot of fun collecting and seeing all the usual Lee Creeker's!

Daryl.

Chimp wrote I'm going down this weekend.  There is a chance of a little rain. I don't expect much if there's not a bit of a soaking.  Daryl's right, the first and second week's people get the best spoils unless the area for collecting is moved.

There have been some NICE fossils coming out of the mine, just not in good numbers.  It also depends on how much you want to work.  I'd say the easiest collecting is done the first 2 weekends.  Erosion is the key.  I'll wager that after the first good rain (1"+) the finds will surpass the first 2 weekends.

Keep a sharp eye!

To add to what I, BWD, and others have said about the collecting conditions, here's another couple of collecting tips.  First, before you even arrive at the mine, you spend days or weeks thinking about your trip, envisioning that huge Meg just lying there, or coming across something rare like a Paratodus or the like.  Your planning is tied to your trip date.  An early date in the season, like the first weekend, means you'll probably do much better covering more territory while surface collecting.  The only problem with an early trip date is deciding where to collect; i.e. Pungo or Yorktown, and that might depend on what you're after!  If your on the first day of the season (you lucky bum), then it's really confusing, because there's no forknowledge of where the formations are.  You find yourself in almost a panic as you set out into the mine because your afraid that if you stop too soon to search, you might miss out on that huge Meg lying out 100 yards further, but then again, if you don't stop to search, you might walk right past a similar awesome tooth (I've read many an elasmo reports where people found beautiful teeth just steps away from the bus).  I can't tell you how many times I've layed awake at the Econolodge in Washington, NC, the night before my trip into the mine, trying to plan my method of attack.  There have been times that I've had a plan, then learned some tid-bit of info from Becky or one of the other guides, and wound up doing something completely different.

If your trip is later in the season then you really need to count on either more rain to expose new fossils (oximoron), or hope that they expand the collecting area.  Last year I was in the mine during the third or fourth weekend.  I wasn't expecting to find much, but an announcment was made that Candace was driving us around to the other side of the pit to enter from the opposite side.  What this meant for us was that unless folks from the previous weekends had walked all the way across the pit to this other side, this side was basically virgin territory!  As we walked down the ramp folks took off in every direction, scattering like roaches when the light is turned on.  I decided to head off to the left closest to the ramp since I figured folks probably neer made it all the way across the pit to this far side.  Well, I was right!  I immediately started finding tons of little teeth in the several nice Pungo areas.  As the day went on, I never came across another set of footprints.  I hunted 5 finger like penninsulas up and down each side, taking my time since no one else was coming around.  On the last "finger", I found my first ever Paratodus - just lying there!  All in all I found 40 makos, a few cowsharks, a few small Megs, a dozen cuvier's, and tons of other common stuff.

Now, back to the present.  As I stated in my trip report under this same thread, I didn't find much last weekend, but neither did many other folks.  Yes, there were a few nice things found, but it took 50 people scouring the earth to find them.  If I were going in this weekend, barring a decent rain storm, I would recommend going to the furthest areas of the collecting grounds.  It appeared to me that most folks collected the first two or three hills quite heavily, but never quite made it to the last couple of hills.  I would start there and work my way back.  In addition to that, your best bet is to hunker down in an area of Pungo and look for the little goodies like Bramble teeth!

Daryl.

I can't suggest a particular hill that will be better than others, but if you want to look where people have been excavating it should be obvious (although not everyone working that hard has found a meg digging).

See you in the parking lot.