One love, one heart
Bob Marley
Let’s get together and feel all right
I kind of don’t know where to begin today. I was expecting a pretty low key day, but it turned out to be a pretty crazy day and it’s not even over yet! After breakfast we drove about 2.5 hours to Middle-of-Nowhere, UT to the U-Dig Fossil Quarry. We’ve learned that we need to be a bit catious about following Heather’s (Google’s) advice when it comes to directions out here. One time she tried to convince us to drive directly through the middle of a field. When she told us to take a right, but didn’t specifiy the name of a road as she usually does my skepticism kicked in and we continued on the highway. However, she kept insisting that we U-turn back to the “road” so as soon as we hit a spot with cell service Molly pulled up directions on the website that we followed with no further issue.
We pulled in, pulled on our boots, lathered up in sunscreen, and had a snack. As they say when fossil hunting “first we snack, then we whack”. We made our way to the shack where we met our fossil hunting guru Cole. He outfitted us with hammers, buckets, and a print out with pictures of the types of fossils we could expect to find. He showed us some real examples of each of the fossils and then led us to a pile of recently excevated rock. He demonstrated the proper rock whacking technique and on the first rock he cracked open found a beautiful little trilobite fossil. Then he told us to get whackin’ (my words), so we did! I felt the potential of every rock I picked up and went at them with an indefatigable spirit. Sometimes I would find dozens of little criters in a single rock. Sometimes I would go through dry spells where I thought I’d never find another. There were even a few rocks that held awesome 1-2 inch sized trilobites. After our two hours of whacking we carried our pails back up to the sorting area. Cole spotted a couple that he said would polish up very nicely and took them to a bench grinder where in just a few seconds he brought out awesome detail in the fossils. If you’re ever anywhere near Delta, UT, U-Dig is worth the stop!
After stashing our cache of fossils we climbed back into Fred and headed South on the packed gravel road to the highway. I made PBJ&C’s for everyone. Zoe cheated and had goldfish instead of cheetos. As we approached the highway we noticed a couple on a motorcycle who seemed to be having some trouble so we pulled up and asked if they needed any help. There was nothing we could really do to help but offer a cell phone to call for help. Service is pretty hit or miss out here. Between the four of us we have three different carriors, so usually at least one of us has something. They were able to call Harley Davidson for help. Unfortuantly, the nearest dealer is in Sandy, UT, about a 3 hour drive away. We offered water and food, but they refused so with nothing else to offer we continued on to Baker. If they’re reading this I hope everything worked out well for you and you’re able to continue your trip soon!
Molly drove the last hour to Baker, NV with no more drama. In fact the most exciting thing that happend was trying to decide between the 40 bottle of water pack for $7 or buying single bottles at $1/each. Obviously, we went with the pack, it’s hot out here, and I’m a sucker for a good deal. We arrived at the Stargazer Inn and were greeted in the office by Jake who remembered us from two years ago. After catching up we settled in our room for the night and headed out to the patio to play games. We were chased off by a passing thunderstorm pretty quickly so we’re in the room writing now. Tonight we’ll have dinner Kerouac’s and repack our car and packs for our first backpacking trip of the summer tomorrow. It looks like there’s a lot of snow in the mountains here, so I’m not exactly sure where we’ll end up hiking to, but wherever it is it’ll be nice to be out on the trail for a couple days!
