A surprisingly warm sunny morning sparked a return trip to the Cretaceous-Jurassic exposures near Harrison Lake, British Columbia. The lake and hotsprings at Harrison are an easy one to two hour drive from Vancouver. My work leads me a ways past the town exploring logging roads along the lake. Without goggles you could easily lose an eye working the unyielding siltstones. Much of my collecting was spent wincing as small, bullet-like projectiles went pinging past my face… others making contact but not enough to deter my efforts. No pain no gain.
After a few hours of work I've done pretty well. Looking down at my pack I'd managed to unearth a fine selection of ammonites of the Callovian Mysterious Creek Formation, including the small, fairly well preserved Cadoceras (Paracadoceras) tonniense and smallish Cadoceras (Pseudocadoceras) grewingki. The other bits and pieces were mostly fragments but included one relatively complete specimen of the larger, smooth Cadoceras comma and some perfectly preserved belemnites, cigar-looking numbers from ancient squid. For interest, I've popped in an image of an ammonite from Fernie. I'll post one of the ones from Harrison when I did out my digital.
Interestingly, the ammonites from here are quite similar to the ones found within the lower part of the Chinitna Formation, Alaska and Jurassic Point, Kyuquot, on the west coast of Vancouver Island. I'll have to write up the trip I did with the VIPS to Kyuquot a few years back. We enjoyed fantastic scenery and wild west coast adventures. I'd like it on record that that was not the trip the coast guard had to be called, but it remains memorable from the great company, fantastic fossils and the fact that my car was stolen at some point. Ah, living.
The siltstone here at Harrison has also offered up a small section of vertebra from a poorly preserved marine reptile, a find I'm rather keen to make one day. So, after much hammer swinging, I've enjoyed a splendid day, collected beautiful specimens and feel a wee bit closer to the big find. Returning like a soldier from battle, I carefully package and log my booty, returning home the happier for it.
I'll be heading back to the fossil beds of the Myseterious Creek Formation at Harrison on Monday, May 18, 2009, as part of a fossil field trip for the 2009 BC Paleontological Symposium. If you're about, feel free to pop by and say hello. I drive the big black tank, and yes, it's alarmed!
