With all the rain and wind the last couple weeks I haven't gotten out to the straights for a couple
weeks. The last trip I made was quite dangerous as while checking out a new collecting site I
hiked down on top of a new slide which was kinda, well it was stupid. I figured after that I
would let the rains subside a bit before I became a fossil myself.
The rains were good and exposed alot more areas to fresh collecting though buried some of the
old standby spots. Luckily I was not there when it happened but this pic shows one of the slides
that was good. About 20ft more of the bluff is exposed here. It was once covered by the sluff
off which has now gone through natures sluice box. I picked up quite a few gastropods and clams
as well as some promising concretions here.
After that I hiked over to another good bluff which had also slid. I found a nice piece of Aturia
here. Wish it was complete.There were also many concretions here with the parts of the claws of
Callianopsis exposed making for easier preparation.
After checking out some slide areas I hiked over and up to a bluff I had not checked out before.
The hiking is steep and slippery. I have found myself slipping and sliding on my butt to the
bottom of some of these more then once. Fun as a kid but I don't care what anybody says Alder
trees are hardwoods! I found some more fossil bearing concretions and some more clams.
In the pic below you can see some concretions in the seam.
On the way back to the truck I found the vertebrae of something in a concretion. I scoured the
area for more but no luck. I also found some of the biggest pieces of teredo I have found so
far. the big piece is 9 inches long.
It was a great sunny day, to bad the sun was on the other side of the bluffs I was collecting at.
During my breaks I watched the waves breaking on the beach as the wind blew spray back over the
tops. Also there was smelt hitting the beach in some places and the birds were eating good. I
should have enough material to keep me busy for a week or so.
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