2nd Annual Conch Fossiling Expedition guided by Mark Renz! April 1, 2006

[The Chairman]

I found a bottle that has been estimated to be anywhere from the 1930s or all the way back to the 1890s. It was an apothecary bottle (cork style).

As for paleontological finds: about 50 sharks teeth, ivory off of a tusk, several pieces of bone, the remarkable horse tooth Walter mentioned, as well as a part of a mammoth tooth.

My partner, Jen-ny, found a couple of Meg teeth and had the most impressive collection of leverite that I have ever seen! Go Jen-ny! Hermie found more fun than all the rest of us combined.

It was really great to meet Mark. I found him incredibly knowledgeable as well as unassuming. Too many experts that I have met are quite prepared for you to grovel in awe at their feet. Not so with Mark... in fact he was more than willing to help dig the gravel under our feet! I hope this will not be our only encounter and I encouraged him to join ScubaBoard to give us some insight on the fossil world here!

 

[CBulla]

A full report eh? Well, first off I showed up late to the party but I found the camp site set up, tents up, people partying, and there were shovels and sifting screens everywhere! I guess Dennis, Roxanne, Jenny and my wife had convinved the others camping (Si and and his lovely bride to be were yet to be seen) in our camp and others around that there was a LARGE Pliocene excavation to occur there and if they helped out with the initial ground breaking they'd all be in the local Hee Haw news paper and on TV show Saturday morning... turns out that in reality it was preparation for a fire pit that Steve skillfully coaxed to life with the use of flammable petrolium based liquids slightly before others found fermented based flammable liquids! Master of fire starter Steve earned everyones respect with a fireball that even NASA radioed in as "a spectacular lauch of a styrofoam cup! Obit was attained in approximately 2.45 minutes!" Simon was reported as commenting later "nice fire pit, we could barely create plasma with that thing.." as he donned his sombrerro for the weekend.

Saturday morning started out with the howling wails of Broke Back Dog Mountain at 0633 hours.... ahhh, the sounds of nature! Once everyone was roused from slumber it was decided that we should invade PRCG's chow hall for a filling brekkie of eggs, pancakes, sausages, coffee and OJ... then off to meet Mark at BK for a second breakfast before our drive to Wachula! ("bless you.." ..."No, really the town is named Wachula")

Screens and shovels were the order of the day and everyone eventually made their way to waters edge. After some girlish screams from someone with what started out as a masculine voice ("Ahhhhh... its cold!") folks got down to the nitty gritty, digging in the river bottom, dumping into sifting screens and staring intently for something neat to take home and move around the coffee table for a year or two everytime folks came to visit! I believe everyone found something cool to take home... Pete proudly found a more modern peice of history, the bottle, I found some interesting bits of broken green glass and what appeared to be a set of dentures, Simon found a cow skull, my wife and Jenny and another couple found fossilized horse molars, Steve... Matt.... Dennis??? I have no clue what they found but folks generally seemed happy about our geological reorganization of that little area of the river Saturday night.

Saturday night was an incredible feast of hot dogs, burgers, sausages, and a variety of side dishes and sweets. I was full and happy feeling and very much enjoyed the company... Then Mr Stay Puff showed up and left a wicked mess. OK.. in reality Steve, in a moment of insanity, created a half dozen marshmellow guns and handed out to some of the kids... and eventually Simon to. At one point so many marshmellows were flying around it looked like sample under a microscope that Mr Stay Puff had left.. with the exception of the ones hitting the fire and bursting into flames... those were more like mini comets.

On Sunday... well, we had coffee, sweets that Roxanne and Dennis had stashed, hung out a little bit, realized we were an hour behind packed and got the heck outa dodge!

Thanks again for the good times, great laughs, and incredible company & comradary that is ever present at all Conch outings!

 

[thedaddy]

We did alright fossiling - my son found a near perfect scute from a giant armadillo and my daughter found a tooth that Ron/Mark said they thought was from a hornless rhino (as opposed to the horny ones - guess thats why they died out) .

Lots of small shark teeth (1/2" to 3/4"), rib bones, and turtle shell fragments. Not quite as easy pickins as we expected, but we had a lot of fun. The weather and temps were beautiful, water was clear, not too cold, and ranged from 1' to 3 1/2'. I would like to thank the adults for helping out the kids when they saw an opportunity. It made all the difference.

Camping was a lot of fun. My contribution to the potluck went awry due to too much water in the steamer, but the dogs liked the spam! I was happy to see that the kids enjoyed the mmallow guns and that Colin was able to figure out a mod that helped Xavier use his better. I will post the link or measurements for the marshmallow gun in a thread on the main board. Also, if you all were serious about the fold-up grill, the link is: http://www.skrazoinc.com/
The model I had at camp was Mary's Baby, M#8563 and the case for it is only $2 extra (I highly recommend it to keep the soot off the rest of your stuff.).

We packed up Sunday morning and I think the last 3 cars left the campsite about the same time. We went off and found our kayaking friends and spent the rest of the afternoon lolling about on the bank and paddling around in the kayaks until around 5:30 or so.

All in all, and excellent weekend!

 

[SFLDiver]

Some pics from the trip .. didn't take my usual photo essay quantity.

Very good company!

We ended up with a wide assortment of fossils just from the fact of keeping anything with any interesting look to it. Our take included a bit of pre-mammoth era tusk, dolphin earbone, and teeth from all 3 versions of tiger shark. A few bits of megalodon tips, and more than a handful of sharks teeth.

Mardie and I broke camp sunday morning and took the kayaks up river for an hour or so. Made it home in time to clean up gear and was in bed before 9pm.

Rumours were of some sort of weaponry for the Ginnie Springs trip?
Rules and regs forthcoming I suppose?
I plan on bringing both Scupper Pros for the Ginnie trip
as we could do some paddle up river and drift down with em.

Oh, and as for the big experimental results ..... Peeps dont burn!
Little buggers just melt into a goo.
4 out of 5 campfire shooters recommend real marshmallows,
and Digeridoos are capable of shooting full-sized marshmallows.

And Finally, there were rumblings of making this an annual trip,
but I'll leave that for the true organizers ... all of which deserve a deep bow,
handshake, and a cold one of their choosing for a great trip!

 

[cardzard]

What more can I say it was another great "Conch Camping Event" with lots of fossils for everyone.
For those who came can't wait to camp with you folks again, Roxanne and I had a Great time.
For those who missed it SHAME SHAME It's a great Family event and you should start planning for next year now.

 

[CBulla]

The talk is an annual trip the First Weekend of April - easy for planning for us and for Mark.

 

[baitedstorm]

Wow, I just heard some very interesting stuff about "TheDaddy" (thanks Colin for the heads up, no marshmellow is safe around that guy huh)!!!! :laughing:

Sounds like a blast, I hate that I missed it, last year was so much fun...

 

[Sea Dragon]

I just wanted to thank everyone for making me feel so welcome at the campsite. Matt always speaks so highly about this group and I was glad to finally have some quality time with you all.
I have not been camping in such a long time and we could not have asked for better weather or company. Could have done with a little less motorized vehicles rip roaring up the trails, but as the sun went down… all was right with the world!
I am very much looking forward to Ginnie Springs and hope to meet many more of you there!
Mardie

 

[CBulla]

By the way, upon some information review about Mark Renz, we not only got a great opportunity to spend a day fossiling with him but April 1st is also his BIRTHDAY!

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

how cool is that? Please let him know we send birthday wishes!!