We were invited to go along on a geology field trip, fossil hunting with a group which included a couple of real live geologists.
We left home at 7:45, northbound, I-5, toward Bellingham. There, we met with our group, 19 in all, and drove east to Whatcom County, to an area above Racehorse Creek in the Mount Baker foothills. The area was of interest because in 2009, heavy rains triggered an enormous landslide in the area, and that event exposed a massive amount of Eocene epoch fossils, including lots of subtropical plant and footprints of birds who walked the area 50 million years ago. Fossil finds in the area include the first known footprints of Diatryma, a ground bird taller than today's average man.
I'm rather glad we didn't cross paths with any live ones during our adventure!
Leading our group was George Mustoe, of Western Washington University in Bellingham.
He also showed us some edible wild lettuce.
In an email about the hike we had to look forward to to get to the fertile fossil grounds, the trip was described as "a short steep scramble ... gaining 200 meters elevation in about a kilometer distance, but at a leisurely pace."
Well, being from Seattle (steep hills everywhere and we live on a very steep lot), and fresh from walking the Chambers Bay golf course, where the elevation up and down is over 600 feet each way, (and we walked it in 85 degree heat), we thought Saturday's hike would be no problem. Turns out we were very, very wrong!
A geologist's idea of steep, as it turns out, is probably different that a soft-handed city dweller's, ha ha.
I am sorry I don't have any photos of the face of the cliff we had to scale on all fours. I was too busy hanging on for my life. At one point I was stuck in the same place for about 15 minutes, afraid to move. Meanwhile, Christian was getting our poor children and himself up the bank, which was maybe 50 is feet high, covered in loose gravel and fine, loose soil, and not much else. There was no climbing equipment (for instance, a rope), and really hardly any vegetation you could even grab onto for a little sense of security.
Eventually, brother-in-law Jim the geologist was able to come and rescue me. I couldn't believe the way he scrambled about on that vertical surface. I told him he looked like he was just walking in his living room.
After the sketchiest part it was more, more, more climbing, still very steep, but more big rocks and fallen logs to hang onto, thank goodness.
Have I mentioned it was 84 degrees out at ground level that day? And it felt significantly hotter up higher.
For starters, it was very easy to see where the slide had occurred and its enormity was jaw dropping.
Below is a fossilized impression of "driftwood bark" (the horizontal printed concave at the top of the rock in the middle).
And here's CJ's hand by a fan-shaped leaf fossil.
The professor also pointed out what he believed to be an ancient alligator's tail dragging marks along with its footprints. The long straight line the glove is point to is the tail drag mark. The yellow curved lines are underneath the 'gator's' footprints.
On June 27th, 2015, I climbed a mountain in Whatcom County, Washington, on a hunt to find fossils that were at the mountain. Before we started the hike up the mountain, we were introduced to a geology professor who worked at Western Washington University for 41 years. The professor taught us about some plants that we may have found fossils of on our hike. That gentleman was not the only geology professor in our hike, however, as my uncle Jim, who was also in our group, is an adjunct geology professor at the University of British Columbia. The first part of the hike was nice and calm, but it quickly came to a fork in the path. One path led to an area where we could go if we didn't want to go up the mountain, while the other led to a steep climb to the top of the mountain. Apparently, this time, everyone in our group went up the hill, including our family. Once we got to the top of the mountain, we found multiple footprints left in the rocks by long-extinct creatures, one of which was Diatryma, a large flightless bird. There were also some footprints left in the rocks by some smaller birds, but the Diatryma footprints were by far the most noticeable. On the way down, our family and one other lady who went up with us had to work together to get down to the ground from the top of the mountain safely. My dad used a large stick to help us move from one area to another, and at other times, we had to slide down the mountain from point A to point B. Overall, it was a nice, but somewhat scary experience visiting the mountain.Here's Annabelle's account:
On June 27, 2015 I took a 4-hour hike/cliff climb (a “short scramble” in geologist terms) up the Eocene Chuckanut Formation, in Whatcom county. The hike went up to the very top of the mountain, where I saw plenty of footprint fossils from a flightless bird called a Diatryma. The hike seemed long and it was very hard. There was one section where the rocks were very slippery and the slope was almost vertical. It was worth it at the top, though. We saw plenty of Diatryma tracks and even some crocodile ones as well. I also took a leaf fossil home with me. The climb was very difficult, and it was fun, but I don’t think I’d do it again any time soon.I should note that as terrified as each of the kids were at points on Saturday, they soldiered through, and by Sunday afternoon, CJ was even asking if we could go back there. :)
To learn more about the amazing find on that remote hilltop, check out the paper "Giant Eocene Bird Footprints From Northwest Washington, USA" by George E. Mustoe, David S. Tucker and Keith L. Kemplin, which was published in the journal Palaeontology in 2012.
https://nwgeology.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/giant-eocene-bird-footprints-paper-palaeontology.pdf
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