Malta - Last Day
8/06
It was cool when we woke up this morning. The promise of rain in last night's clouds was misleading, and it was still and dry. Eggs with salsa, fruit, and LOTS of coffee, while we laid out the topo maps and tried to see where we could access the most promising bluffs. There is not as much exposure available as I had hoped. Still we have found enough evidence of bone that it is worth a more prolonged prospecting trip, I think.
We head south from the little cabin, after packing up all our gear and cleaning to remove all traces of our visit there. It is a great base camp, and I hope that we can use it again next summer to better explore the area here. There is a lot to think about for the next field season. I have learned that few who come out here are adequately warned about the dangers, discomforts, inconveniences and mosquitoes. So, I will have the winter to think over student requirements: a basic first aid course, field safety seminars, adequate provisions, etc. But the chance to be so removed from civilization, and to watch pre-history quite literally unfold beneath your feet will appeal to some, I hope. I can't wait.
We have walked out new bluffs. Beautiful exposures that speak of massive rivers, or maybe beaches, and organic rich, swampy areas. Wind has scoured the capstone into beautiful sculptures that magnify the original cross bedding. No bone, except for some very tiny ossified tendons and a very small dromeosaur tooth. All isolated float, but still testimony to those that once inhabited the plains of Montana.
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Sandstone sculptures created by wind and weather.
Then, we are on the road, 3 hours back to Lewistown, the about-half-way point, by way of the beautiful, stark and wild Missouri breaks country. Much more treed and with greater topographical relief, home to mountain lions, deer, elk, bear, eagles and other raptors. The waters of the mighty Missouri cut deep bluffs in the resistant rocks, and the canyons are steep. As we approach Lewistown, we see the first signs of the deep green that shows irrigation has made it to these plains. Water is more plentiful and available, and the land changes accordingly. Then on to Big Timber (an odd name for a town with hardly any trees!), and from there the road follows the beautiful Yellowstone River, all the way to Livingston. Livingston sits at the base of the Paradise Valley. I don't know what most people envision for Paradise, and some might say cities of gold, but for me, it is the rugged sharp mountains, peaks still snow covered most of the year and shining white against the blue big sky, and green valleys, with trees and meadows, rivers and lakes..just like this. So, it is aptly named.
Then, it is on to Bozeman, and my summer home, where my wonderful friends put up with my frequent absences and my cat. Barney is not speaking to me, whether because I have abandoned him once too often, or whether he senses his time as a mountain cat is almost ended for another year, I don't know. But, I unpack my field gear for storage, and say good bye to another great season, and summer, in the Big Sky country I know and love so well. Soon, another school year, with new students and exciting research, and the classes I love to teach.
Such a change of pace! I will have a lot of new stories and experiences to share with my students. It should be a good year.
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See ya next year!
Posted at 01:20PM Aug 17, 2006 by tppeake in General | Comments[1]
Malta - Day 6
8-8-06
Why is it always so easy to wake up here? The very first sign of changing light, and I am wide awake and ready for the day. The little wind-up clock reads 4:45, so I force myself to stay in bed and drift till 5:30, but then I can't stand it any more. I get up and dress and start the coffee--the most important morning item. Then, it is eggs over the Coleman, and we are ready for the day. It is cool, with dark clouds in the sky and a breeze--maybe it will rain. My boss eyes the sky, and asks if he will need to stake the tent. Hmmmm. I don't think it will storm, so I say no, and we get ready to leave.
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Early sunrise, looking back toward the cabin from the entrance to the prospecting area
It was a great day for prospecting. We revisited most of the sites from last time, but also walked out the bluffs across the road from the cabin, a new site. I am glad my boss is here to help me interpret the geology a little. My one geology class was "Introduction to Earth Surface," a 101 class I took in 1987. I am a little shaky with interpretations and reading the rocks, but with help from lots of friends and colleagues, I think that I can understand what I see here now. The bone-producing units are sandstone river channel sediments, bounded at the base by grey muds and on the top by capstones of densely cemented sands. The bones weather out from the channels and are carried downhill as pieces of float, where a trained eye can recognize them as different from weathered rocks.
We are out in the field by 7am, walking across the dry grass, crunching underfoot. We head up the first bluff. I led for a while, but then my boss went in front---for about 30 yards, when he jumped and made this incomprehensible "gaaaa" sound. Then he turned and said, "Do you hear the rattlesnake?" It was hard to distinguish from the hoppers and dry grass until I was almost upon it, but there, coiled, with black tongue darting in and out to taste our smells, was a huge western diamond-back rattler. I truly didn't think about getting his picture until we were well past, and I wasn't going to go back with my camera. Note to self. Let boss lead. He may make the finds first, but he also makes more convenient snake bait.
We gingerly made our way around the angry snake, and his head on top of his tightly coiled body turned slowly to watch our progress. Phew. Now I see the difference easily between this rattler and the bull that invaded my outhouse last week. We did find dinosaur bone, and identified the layers from which it was weathering. I collected a few diagnostic pieces for teaching, but there is nothing in place, and by about 11 we have walked out all the exposures in the immediate area. However, as we rounded one bend, there was a concentration of bones weathering out, and unmistakable signs of an invader!
Someone else was looking along these bluffs. There was a very nice femur, just the front part weathering out from the hill, but both ends intact, and some other miscellaneous bones. Marks of a pick and a plastic bag filled with float and debris! Because this land is privately owned, only our team has permission here, so we will report this to the landowners.
Next, it is back to Fanny Hill, where I can show my boss the complete formation exposed, and hope that we can better interpret where we are in section. We revisit the old bone bed, a quarry my former student worked from which at least 7 dinosaurs had died and become disarticulated. The site also included large logs--fossil wood, against which the dinosaur bones had come to rest in some long ago river channel, building up behind the log and getting quickly buried. There are many microenvironments here so it will make a good study for differential preservation. Then, we return to the bluff for lunch and an incredible view of the badlands, and the Milk River wending its way through the shales of the Cretaceous Claggett Sea, cutting down into the muddy sediments of the Cretaceous inland sea, its banks lined with the only green out here.
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Cottonwood Creek before it drains into the Milk--and the trees concentrate around the only water anywhere
It is still overcast, and cool, with a light breeze--perfect weather for dinosaur hunting! After lunch, we head to the Andisaurus site, walking out the ridge of sandstone that has been productive. I find another bone or two embedded in the sandstone wall, but they are not associated with anything else, and mostly fragmented. I think this is another case of "leverite" bone, and I do.
We walk out the backside bluffs. We have lost our cloud cover, and it is heating up intensely. Our presence causes major trauma to the cows watering there, and they make their displeasure known--loudly, and long. Again, we see more bone. There are lots of dinosaur bones here, but none that seem significant for collecting, as they are little more than isolated fragments. Then, we check out one more site, the one where both Andi and Paul found significant bones. The first thing I see as I walk down the draw is a large bone--the distal articulating end of a long bone-probably tibia, just at the base of where the others were. I don't know how we missed it before. I think that both sites bear much more exploration. All in all, a good day, and I am feeling more confident in understanding where we are in section, and what layers will be most productive. We had about 8.5 hours of solid walking, up and down bluffs and gullies, scrabbling across loose talus and grabbing on to sage or juniper to prevent unstoppable slides, with only 20 minutes or less for a lunch break. We have both taken a few falls, so it is probably safest to stop before they get worse.
So, we headed back to camp about 4, to find my boss' tent upside down and about 30 feet further away from the cabin. I forgot that I predicted no wind, and recommended no staking. Boss didn't forget. We relaxed and tried not to move more than necessary, until weather and we were cool enough for cooking. I decided once again to take my chances with the outhouse, and after today's encounter with the rattler, a bull snake wasn't quite so scary of a thought. But, no snake greeted me. Still I caught movement, and looked just in time to see a grey blur disappear into an abandoned toilet paper roll. A frightened deer mouse cautiously extended his nose out the other end, and when I tried to shoo him with the end of my rock hammer, he jumped inches off the ground, and tried to run up the seat instead of out the door. Finally, he got the message, and ran away. Safe. Until I sat down, THEN noticed the other mouse, frantically trying to follow his friend out the door, but getting disoriented and running right for my shoe--which was, of course, attached to my leg. Still, better mouse than snake. I am giving up on outhouses.
Next, a great meal of spaghetti with veggie sauce, fresh grapefruit, and cold drinks from the cooler. Now we are watching the sun go down and the dark clouds move in. Last night was a full moon, and the prairie grasses were silver. The coyotes sung us to sleep, and it was beautiful and peaceful. Tonite, I don't think we will be able to see the moon. It wasn't supposed to rain, but it sure looks threatening. I am not sure where we will explore tomorrow. But I think we will head back to Bozeman tomorrow evening, rather than Thursday morning. I will welcome the shower!
Posted at 01:15PM Aug 17, 2006 by tppeake in General | Comments[0]
Malta - Day 5
8/7/06
I met my boss at the airport about noon. His job is to check out this field area for its potential as a working site and training area for students. I have this sneaking hunch that, when it is 97 and 110% humidity in Raleigh, day or night, his REAL reason for coming here might enhanced by the promise of 55 degree mornings, and our late summer 4% humidity. He got the rental car from the Bozeman airport, and followed me down the 20 or so winding miles of country back roads to get to the ranch where I am staying for the summer. I had fun showing him how "real westerners" drive! Montana has only had an official speed limit for about 5 years or so. I learned fast. I mean, FAST.
I had most things ready to go, so we loaded all the gear into the rental, and headed east to Big Timber then straight north in an unbroken line for Malta. A slightly different route this time, but still just as straight and bleak. Two and a half hours of getting caught up on department issues (lots of changes), Raleigh news and politics (ummm...), and North Carolina weather (hot, wet, humid and 95 degrees since late May, perhaps cooling to 90 in the evenings), then we stopped in Lewistown for gas and food. I love this little cow-town, sitting completely alone in the geographic center of the state, an anomaly for its beautiful stonemasonry and very few timbered buildings. There are no trees here for building materials, and in the days of the Copper Kings and the building of the railroads, there were even less. But, you can see the pride that the immigrant settlers took in their handiwork, and the talent they brought from their homelands. The buildings still stand 150 years later, with all their intricate designs and embellishments intact.
Food, gas and ice-filled coolers later, we head north again, for another 2 ½ to 3 hours, and again the familiar names pop up on the road signs. This way to Winnet, straight ahead to Malta, past Zortman, Harlowton, Judith Gap...we stop in Malta for an ice cream cone, and head on to the little cabin once again. Not much has changed--but there is a newspaper on the bed we didn't leave, and we had to call the manager for the key. Out here, you trust the neighbors, it's the newcomers and passers-through that make the padlocks a necessity.
So, we unloaded and sat on the little porch in our borrowed chairs, fighting mosquitoes and watching the incredible prairie sunset, only tearing ourselves away from the view after the colors had all faded to black. One thing I am so impressed with is the absence of human sounds. Wind in the tall, dry grasses, prairie birds singing their night songs, crickets and frogs, but no television sounds, no booming music, no cars, no voices.
Dinner was mac-n-cheese over the Coleman stove, and finally bed, in the cooling night. The sun goes down, and mosquitoes come out in force, but the temp drops rapidly, until it is quite cool. My boss struggles to put up his tent in the dark, cussing out mosquitoes every other second, and me--I am in the cabin. Hot, but I had a bed! This is the kind of boss-employee relationship I like!
Posted at 01:11PM Aug 17, 2006 by tppeake in General | Comments[0]
Malta - Day 4
7/30/06
It is Sunday, but the routine is the same here. Wake with the first hint of a lighter sky, throw off the blanket with its covering of mosquitoes. Walk outside in the grey dawn to use the bathroom (still not brave enough for the outhouse again), dry grass crunching underneath bare feet.
Back to the cabin to clean up and get ready for the day--I make lunches, Lonnie makes coffee (MUCH more important at the moment than breakfast or lunch). Watch the sun come up over the badland exposures, and the sky turn from night dark to light grey to brilliant red, then the burned light of full sun. Pack the packs, fill the water bottles, check for specimen bags, and we are off.
Today we are walking out two new coulees we haven't seen before, and then will come back and explore the ridge across from the cabin. We hope to end a bit early today, head to town for showers, then one of the local landowners has invited us to a barbecue. It is a good chance to meet more of the folks around here, something I really enjoy.
It was a great day. Hot, and the morning was kind of disappointing, we didn't find much of anything. I was tired, and didn't walk at the pace I did yesterday, but took some breaks to just look around and enjoy the view. Then, walking back to the vehicles, I ran into Paul, who said Andi had found what appeared to be more bone, but she wasn't sure so could I come look.
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Vince, excavating Andi's second great find! Arrow shows femur shaft.
Well, what a great find--two in a row from the newbie! The bone was absolutely pristine in preservation, coming out from the wall of a sandstone channel, and it had all the hallmarks of being theropod (meat eater). It was in a channel lag, mixed in with other bone and some wood. So, Vince decided to work it back, and the rest of us looked over the rest of the face. Soon, another was spotted. I scrambled up on a ledge, took one look, and it made my day! A beautiful Albertosaur tooth, shining in the sand wall, serrations obvious in the sun.
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At last! A theropod tooth!
Then, another bone, found by Andi's dad Paul, and then, Vince said "there's more bone behind this one." So two mini quarries revealed a lot of bone, all very well preserved. Full inventory and identification awaits, but it was a good day.
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Vince and Paul, with part of jacketed limb! The Millers outdid the old hands!
Some of the local folks had a barbecue for us at the end of the day, out at the reservoir. It was quite a production! They grilled some of their own free-range beef, on an amazing contraption that was part railroad car, part covered seating, part oven, and part massive grill, all on wheels. Barb and Gary really went all out, cooking an amazing spread for not only us, but some other orphan geologists they picked up from Greece and other faroff places, as well as a host of "locals."
The discussion was quite---lively--and we got a lot of insight into various political opinions. I was busy trying to change subjects a lot. And, I was busy trying to avoid mosquitos. I made the mistake of walking down to the shoreline to wade, and they were lying in wait, hordes and hordes. They followed me back to the barbecue in a large grey cloud. Everyone gasped and ran for cover, leaving me standing outside. However, Barb, our host, provided the best remedy yet for my welted legs and arms--pure apple cider vinegar, applied directly to the bites! I was surprised, it really did work. I wonder if it works as a repellent as effectively? It is annoying to walk the badlands smelling like a pickle for no reason. But then again, pickle scent is better than what we USUALLY smell like by the end of the day. All things even out.
I will be back in the Judith River one more time before returning to Raleigh. My last of field work until next summer. Hopefully that will be another productive, yet shorter trip. And, hopefully I will have more finds to report.
Posted at 02:24PM Aug 14, 2006 by tppeake in General | Comments[0]
Malta - Day 3
7/29
We walked out two coulees today. In some areas we found fragments of bone weathering out, some quite large, but we could not see any more bone or parts, just lots of "float" bone. All the bone belongs to hadrosaurs, or "duckies", the duckbilled dinosaurs that were so plentiful around here that they have earned the name "cows of the Cretaceous". As soon as I heard that, I determined never to study them. I mean, cows are BORING, but even for hadrosaurs, there is something absolutely amazing about being the first human ever to touch the bones of something so old and once alive.
It was windy all day, and not a cloud in the sky. The wind was great, because it kept the hordes of man-eating mosquitoes from doing as much damage as they could have without it, and kept the horse and deer flies to a minimum. The latter are not remotely affected by bug spray, and, to be honest, neither are the mosquitoes. At all. I think that if a chemical company wanted to test the efficacy of their sprays, there would be no better place than the Milk River in the height of summer. And, it seems that *I* am that piece of fly paper that one hangs from the roof to draw all the flies, so others aren't bothered. Except, I draw mosquitoes. Sigh. I guess someone has to.
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Lunch break. HOT. No shade. Predatory cows eyeing our sandwiches.
When we had no luck at the first coulee, we split into groups and walked all the draws draining into Horse Camp Coulee. Some of us more reclusive types went alone, and we covered a lot of ground--so much that I feel confident saying there are NO dinosaurs at that level at all. But, Walt had the best experience of us all. He walked to the end of the draw, and came upon a stand of small bushes. He heard some rustling, and looked up in time to see a cougar dart out and up the hill away from him. He said that this was the biggest cat he ever saw, on a par with some of the African lions, and was within 30 feet--fortunately, going the right direction--away! Suddenly all of those fresh scattered cow and deer bones I had been seeing took on new meaning.
We ended the day with a trip to better exposures, on BLM land. We wanted to get an idea of how the strata were inter-related, and that was where we could see the whole section, from the base Claggett Shales to the top capstones. The Judith looks completely different there, and the cut-aways are spectacular. The land goes on forever, split only by the sharp green lining the meandering Milk River, highlighted against the parched yellow grasses. Bob found a petrified log, complete with knots in the surface, that I will pass on to a colleague who studies fossil woods. Maybe this find will eventually get her out here!
Then, at the end of another hot, dusty, dry, and not so fruitful day, we headed back to the cabin. The dogs were tired, and grateful for the chance to just sleep in the shade. We started to get dinner, and I decided to take advantage of a few minutes of down time to walk the 1/8 mile to the outhouse on the property. I was reliving the day, and not paying much attention to my surroundings. I struggled to get the spike out of the lock on the door, and wandered in rather absentmindedly, my mind on other things entirely, when I heard a rustle in the outhouse and a sound similar to crackling parchment, only LOUD. I looked up to see a 5 foot snake crawling up the wall right by the seat! Ok, so I AM a girl, I screamed. "There's a rattlesnake in the outhouse!". I was really glad that Bob and Lee had decided to pitch camp outside our cabin. They both came running. Bob, who is always prepared for anything, brought his pistol. By then, I had quit shaking, and hollered "let me get my camera!" and raced off after them. They gingerly opened the squeaky door, and sure enough, there was the snake, down from the wall now, and wrapped around the seat and sidewall. Ugh.
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I DON?T need to go, after all!
But, Bob and Lee started laughing, sympathetic as usual--"it's only a bull snake, what are you so upset about?" Hmmm. I don't CARE that it wasn't a rattler. I don't think I will be able to go to the bathroom for a month! A 5 foot snake of ANY race and gender is not going to be my friend in the outhouse.
Ah yes,THIS is the glamour of paleontology.
The sun is just setting over the horizon, the dishes are done, and we are once more enjoying the peace and cool of the evening on the porch. What a life!. When I was young, I used to pray that I would not have an ordinary life. That prayer has surely been answered, though not in the way I expected. But life is good. And you sure never know what waits around the bend. I am blessed. And I am grateful.
Posted at 03:22PM Aug 10, 2006 by tppeake in General | Comments[0]
Malta - Day 2
7/28
The sun is rising--what a great night! Now, the red light of sunrise comes in from the opposite side of the one-room cabin. I think it will be hot today, but there are dark purple clouds hanging low over the bluffs, and they could either dissipate as the day progresses or hold the violence of wind and hail and lightning and rain that is common here. Those storms don't last long, but you REALLY don't want to get caught in them.
I just remembered---whenever I have mentioned to my friends out East that I will be prospecting out of Malta this summer, they have this very awed and impressed response. I couldn't understand that until one said he didn?t know there were dinosaurs in that part of Europe! Since I grew up here, in Montana, I didn't think at all that maybe someone might confuse the two. Malta Montana is NOT the Malta they are thinking of at all, just a prairie town built around cattle and railroads, right up here on the highline next to Canada. I don't think they'd be too impressed if they could see us now!
Time for coffee and packing for the day. More later.
Boy it was HOT! You know, they compare heats and it is always "well it's a dry heat", but they forget to tell you that that dry heat that makes it bearable out here sucks every drop of moisture from every orifice. Cells cannot produce enough moisture to balance that drained from the body by heat and wind, and 4% relative humidity. Fingernails crack and peel, skin turns scaly, and windburn is a constant companion. I was thinking today that there is a kind of mystique to paleontology: a romantic, "Indiana Jones" notion. But, there isn't much romance in a man (or woman) who has a permanent bend at the neck from always looking down, leathered skin from too much sun, squinty eyes from looking into the distance against the sun, and the far-away dreaminess that comes from always looking for that next great find just beyond the next horizon--oh, and did I mention the welts from mosquitoes and flies, the scratches from scrambling up scree on all fours, and the constant odor of bug spray and calamine lotion? Not the most "romantic" vision.
We had a productive day. First, what appears to be part of a skull--to my best guess, hadrosaurian. Next, Leah, one of the Museum crew, found a beautiful vertebra with a still-attached neural spine, in a vertical sandstone face.
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Miller Lite and her find of a great articulated foot and leg!
How lucky for her--the face of the cliff was in the shade most of the day, with a gentle breeze to keep things cool. The rest of the crew were encouraged with the finds, and scattered across the rest of the coulee, coming back around the other side about 1 pm, when the sun was at its peak and the heat was blazing. First, Paul found a very large rib, but the find of the day went to Andi (Miller Lite), a newbie to paleo. She found 3 large and articulated metatarsals (foot bones), with some phalanges (toe bones) off one end, and the tibia (shin) and part of a femur (thigh) heading back into the mountain. We usually give our dinosaurs field names, so this one has vacillated between "Andisaurus" and "PeeJaysaurus", the latter after her dad. Paul, our preparator, set to work getting it ready to field jacket, and I took off by myself to explore more.
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Andi's find in more detail! Cool!
In the city, I can barely find my way out of a parking lot, but here in the badlands, somehow it is easier for me. I walked a long ways, head down and eyes squinty, and finally started noticing bone chips. Soon I saw the end of a bone, disappearing into the hill. I dug out a bit--a beautiful long bone began to take shape. The way it splintered gave me hope that it was perhaps a theropod!I love the big meat-eaters most. But we won't know till it's prepared a bit more, or maybe we won't be able to tell because the ends are both missing. For now though, I can hope. We don't have too many meat eaters from this part of the formation--and you can never have too many Albertosaurs!
Even tho we enjoy our little hunting cabin with no electricity or water, we headed to town for the glorious and unplanned luxury of borrowed showers. Only one day, but those showers felt heaven sent. Then back to the quiet of the little porch where we watched the sun fade and the stars come out, one by one. My friend Bob--the finder of B-rex and a long time buddy, is here to help with prospecting, and we laughed and caught up late into the night, with Lonnie and Lee no doubt thinking we were crazy. It was good, and I sure had no trouble falling asleep!
Posted at 09:44AM Aug 09, 2006 by tppeake in General | Comments[10]