I would imagine that any amount of rain would do wonders for the pit. Think about how much dirt was turned over by determined fossil hunters to find megalodon teeth. Consider how many footprints have loosened sun baked Yorktown over the past few weeks. That loose dirt washes away easily with only a little rain.

I only have one and a half buckets of Pungo left. We go through it really fast. The weezling won't let that stuff sit around long because he knows what's in it. We actually just went through half a bucketfull this past week. There really wasn't anything awesome in this load, but I brought home material from two different areas in the pit just because I had a theory about that formation and I wanted to test it out.

I read the latest update on elasmo and feel for the folks that collected this past weekend.  Although some nice things were found, it's obvious it was slim pickin's.  There is always a definite potential to find something awesome, I think the drum we keep beating is that without rain, the amount of effort you need to put into searching increases exponentially.  Instead of just walking along looking from 5 or 6 feet up, you need to hunker down and crawl.  When you do this in a decent area of Pungo, get real close, like 12 inches away from the ground, let your eyes focus, and I think you would be amazed at how many tiny treasures start to show up - they are so well disguised!

When I went in a couple weeks ago, the bus was full of a lot of 1st timers.  One fella walked up to the bus at around 1 pm and told me he thought this was his first and probably last time.  I don't think he found much of anything, but I'm not sure how much effort he put into it.  I didn't see many folks with knee pads either, probably symptomatic of them being 1st timers. 

I think there's some decent rain forecast this week for that area, so pray if you're scheduled for next weekend. 

Daryl.

Just wanted to thank everyone for the helpful hints for a first timer.  The pickings were slim on Saturday May 12th but we had a fantastic time.  We came home with loads of teeth, bones and shells.  There were two highlights of the day.  The first was a black bear in the parking lot. Okay, so he was dead and in the trunk of a guides car, but it was still exciting.  After much deliberation it was decided that a roadkill bear in your trunk might be illegal, immoral and not very nice.  The bear was removed from the trunk and placed in the PCS parking lot.  DNR was called.  The responding Game Warden must have been a nice guy - he told the perp that he could have fined him $2500 for picking up the bear and then he could have arrested him for felony littering (apparently litter over 15lbs is considered a felony so dumping a 400 lb+ bear in a public parking lot is applicable).  There were a few other "misdemenors" cited that also carried stiff fines but I can't recall the specifics now.

The next highlight is more fossil oriented.  Keith, a member of the Aurora Fossil Club and a very helpful guide, found a Megamouth tooth.  From the amount of drool I saw puddling at the top of the ramp - it was obvious that this was a once in a lifetime find.   I felt privledged that I could be there to congratulate him and see this tooth up close. 

After leaving the mine at 3:00 we headed to the museum - WOW!  Must get back there another day so I can spend more time looking at the displays.   Still not fossiled out - we headed back to the parking lot and spent another 1.5 hours picking up teeth and bones.  I think I actually found my biggest tooth in the parking lot.

What a day - I can't wait to do it again!  If you would like to see pictures please use the following link to access my webshot photos.  http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/559030082MDqzmy

Thanks to everyone and especially to the Auroa Fossil Club and all the guides - Y'all do a great job!