BackWoods Drifter

I was going to go camping today but plans have changed and camping probably won’t happen till Tuesday or Wednesday. I did go for about a 70 mile ride in the mountains. What started as a casual ride in familiar territory ended up being and exploratory ride in a totally unfamiliar area. It was cool though and I actually ended up finding a way through the mountains to go from Bolt to Edwight. So now the totally unfamiliar area is no longer so because I happen to know Edwight pretty good and my ride today just connected Edwight to Bolt Mountain via Hazy and Schumate. To someone that doesn’t know this area I know I’m talking Greek but basically what I mean is I added a huge new area to camp, hike, hunt ginseng or whatever.

But all that aside, as the title suggests, let’s talk fossils.

On my way home from exploring I stopped in the area of my last fossil find and found 7 more fossils all of the same thing as the last one but with some slight differences.

Something unique about my find this time is that I found the upper and lower half of the same fossil. In other words, the fossil and the fossil preserver – for lack of a better term.The photo below is what I assume to be the top section of the fossil.

The fossil above would have been oriented with the pictured face down on one like the fossil in the photo below. With the first find I wasn’t sure if I had the actual fossil or the impression of it but it is now obvious I do have the actual fossil because the impressions (top photo) are very different. The fossil above does fit one of the fossils in the photo at the bottom but without the soft bedding I didn’t want to chance damaging them trying to find it’s match.

Sandwiched in between the two fossils was a layer of what appeared to be fine grain charcoal (soft bedding) about 1/16 of an inch thick. With testing I’m sure it would be the actual un-fossilized remains of part of the tree. This little bit of evidence further solidifies my theory of the orientation of the two fossil types.

If it does turn out to be the actual tree remains, how cool would that be? The blue plastic wrap behind the fossil contains the black material. Now if I can just find someone with some knowledge in the fossil category, willing to satisfy a curious mind, I just may learn something about this area in West Virginia from 300 million years ago – give or take a day or two.

This is my entire fossil collection.

Most of these fossils have been added recently. The ones I have had for awhile are the two grey ones at the top of the photo and the one in front of the modem. Out of the rest, two of them I found last year and one this year that are known as three dimensional fossils. In other words, a 360 degree branch/root section with markings of the fossil all the way around.

One thing I am beginning to learn about collecting fossils… questions far outnumber answers. Out of all the fossils on this table only one has been positively identified. It is the Sigillaria root fossil in the bottom right corner and it is about 307 million years old. It is one of the three dimensional root sections I found last year.

If I’m going to start collecting fossils I have to find a safe method of transporting them. Although I find my fossils in pieces, I have no intentions of doing them further harm. Imagine… these fossils have survived for eons, I would hate to break one even by accident. I do see this as a new hobby because the last few trips to the mountains, I’ve had fossils on the brain.

Like I really needed another reason to go to the mountains.