Monday, June 4, 2007

Fossil Wood Hunt

Ben and Kim went on a fossil wood hunt with HGMS on Saturday. (Where was Nate? Camping with the scouts, of course!) We drove 2.5 hours to Sam Rayburn Dam and met up with 25 other rockhounds. Then we traveled onto Temple-Inland property (with permission) to "hunt" for fossil wood. Only, the wood wasn't hard to find..



...every log you see was petrified. The hard part was hauling it up out of the creekbed that was 10-12 feet deep and then up the steep hill another 100 yards to the trucks. Of course, we're in SE Texas so it was in the mid-80's for temperature & humidity.



Once everyone was spread out along the mile of creekbed, it was really peaceful. We saw all kinds of forest invertebrates like centipedes, millipedes, weird blue&black dragonflies and these
neon orange mushrooms. Reportedly these had ridges underneath and were edible. If they have paperthin sections then don't even touch them!


We didn't try them.




After hauling out two buckets full of small pieces and two backpacks/arms full of large pieces, we were beat. It was a great workout and a beautiful spot. Too bad the company is selling that property - we won't be able to go back.


But we did get enough to do some polishing and to make great accents in our garden.

1 comment:

Rebecca and Co. said...

That sounds like a great trip. Your garden looks cool.