January 16-17, 2010 - Cambrian Fossils, Cherokee Co, AL
This weekend trip to northeast Alabama was delayed due to several
weeks of below freezing weather. When the day arrived, a high percent
of rain was predicted. However, being the troopers we are, and seeing
that it has been so long since we've been on a field trip, 21 of us
showed up anyhow! Amazingly, the weather cooperated. A light drizzle
first thing in the morning that cleared up by mid-day, and the
temperature rose to 50. We were excited, and Bob had brought his boat
so we could go to our favorite site on the lake. We got to our first
collecting location, and began scrounging through the pebbles.
Nothing. More looking. Still nothing. This is the first time in many
years that we have had such poor collecting at this site, and since we
missed coming for the past 2 years, we thought more would have been
washed in. Not. So, off we went to a different site that the group
hasn't been to. A few of us scouted it 3 years ago and found a few
small trilobites. Pickings were slim at this site too. Yes, there was
plenty of Conasauga shale, but it was low in trilobites. Ok. Let's go
to the main lake site. We showed up there fully intending to put the
boat in first. However, the weeks of below freezing weather had frozen
the lake! Never had we seen it like this. Several members spent some
time skipping rocks on the frozen lake, to see where the ice ended. It
didn't. Every rock thrown sat on top of the frozen lake. So we
resigned ourselves to collecting near the boat ramp, and saving the
other site for another trip.
Eight members stayed in a cabin
overnight, playing games, watching tv, and generally having a good
time. The next morning, the lake had thawed, but we decided not to go
out without the bulk of the group being there. After about an hour of
collecting along the lakeshore, we headed home.
Several nice trilobite pieces were found, but the collecting was
sparse at all the locations where we stopped. Whether this area played out due to our once a year
collecting, or the site is frequently collected by locals and other people
who found out about it is unknown, but it looks as if this site may be
on the back burner for a while.
Photos courtesy Claire Smith, Ted Nicolle, and Vicki Lais
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