After a pretty cold and miserable winter we finally had a weekend with nice temperatures so we took my Old Town Osprey canoe out. I bought this thing when I was in the 8th grade with my grass cutting money. There’s a beaver dam at the head of our creek so we set out to find it. But lo and behold, over the winter they’ve moved it 500′ down the creek and cut off a cool fork you could take.
There’s a number of fossil sites along the creek that are a couple feet thick of Jeffersonian scallops. It’s fun to go by at low tide and see if there are any good ones. There are tons sitting in the water, but they typically have barnacles or oysters growing on them so it’s best to go after a big storm when fresh ones get washed out.
We were in luck because I found my biggest and best one yet! Apparently these lived during the early Pilocene era 4.5 million years ago.
What’s super cool is that it has a round drill hole from some ancient gastropod that turned it into lunch! In the couple dozen shells I’ve pulled out or seen I haven’t come across another drill hole. I think I’m going to make a nice varnished plaque and mount this guy on it and hang it on a wall.
We mudlarked our way back to the dock and found a rusty garden hose outboard motor flusher and a coffee mug in perfect condition. I don’t know if it is a one off or mass produced. There’s no name or symbol on it that I could find. It had a very light scum so I don’t think it’s been in the water all that long. Unfortunately I doubt it fell off Captain John Smith’s exploration shallop. Either way I cleaned it up, ran it through the dishwasher a few times, and it’s in the mug cabinet now!
That was an enjoyable afternoon for the first time on the water this year. We rowed about 2.5 miles and saw a couple bald eagles, lots of blue herons, an osprey, some periwinkles, and a dead speckled trout.