mibeachrocks
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since September 2013
Posts: 198
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Post by mibeachrocks on Jun 26, 2014 9:07:35 GMT -5
The family and I just got back from a four day trip to Alpena for a fossil/rock/hiking/biking trip. Wow! One of the best trips that I've had. I owe Jugglerguy (Rob) a big thanks for scouting some locations for us along with giving us some tips. Rob and his family were great hosts. I highly recommend the Alpena area for a trip especially if you are into fossils. It is going to take me awhile to unpack all of our finds (see below) but we did find several trilobite fragments, echinoderm fragments, parts of crinoids including a partial calyx. We also found the usually host of Michigan beach rocks including Petoskey stones, Pudding stones plus some other types of conglamorates. As I unpack, I'll be sure to post some pics. In the meantime, here are some of the finds. Overall haul About 80 pounds worth Petoskey stones from Rockport Quarry State Park Fossils in a black shale matrix from the shores near Rockport Quarry State Park (for scale, the stone on the left is about 18 inches wide) Beach washed Petoskey stones from various beaches (mostly near Alabaster MI)
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Post by Jugglerguy on Jun 27, 2014 21:03:55 GMT -5
You must have gotten terrible gas mileage on the way home! There are some big chunks of Petoskey stone at Rockport, aren't there? Are you using most of those as yard rocks? I'm interested to see some of the smaller fossils you picked up, especially the trilobites. I haven't found any trilobite fragments that I know of, so I need to see what to look for.
It was really nice to meet you and your family. Your kids were really well behaved for being late in a very long day for them. Stop back any time.
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mibeachrocks
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since September 2013
Posts: 198
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Post by mibeachrocks on Jul 1, 2014 9:04:35 GMT -5
Thanks Rob. Lousy gas milage and worrying that the suspension on the minivan would break were on my mind the whole way home. The trip was better calculated in gallons per mile. Well worth it. It was only after I got home than thumbed through "Lake Huron Rock Pickers Guide" that I found the perfect quote. In reference to those traveling in the car with you that you need to take your haul back with you "YES, the car will handle this much weight, and NO, we can't put any rocks back". I'm thinking of have a sign made for the dashboard of the car. I hate to admit it, but I think we've had more than one trip where no one was able to put there feet on the floor boards the entire way back. Unfortunately I still unpacking from the trip and just starting to find some of our better stuff. Here are some pictures. Unknown fossil from Rockport State Park (don't worry, it is an old quarry and one of the only state parks in MIchigan that I know of that allows collecting) Unlike many of the other finds in the park, this one was not readily exposed. I had to split some weathering shale to find it. Well worth it though. Here is the final destination of the Petoskey stones collected from Rockport. They made a really nice addition to the garden. The downside to petoskey stones collected from Rockport is that they did not go through complete fossilization, which means much of the original structure and shape is preserved. This also means that they are more fragile and not good for polishing. However, you can find complete colonies with their natural shape. The large rock in the middle (I will get a better picture) is actually a cross section of a complete coral colony. It fans out from single corallite all the way to the top of the rock where the head of the coral is. Rockport SP is the best place in Michigan that I've seen for full petoskey colonies. There are some there that are several feet in diameter. Prior to the trip, Rob (Jugglerguy) and I kept going back on forth on sites. The University of Michigan had released detailed descriptions of site many years ago. Some of these sites no longer exist while others are hard to find. One of the most promising find based on their research was an old shale pit in Alpena; however, neither of us really knew where it was. While Rob was out doing detective work on the groud (thank you again), I was searching through old publications and maps. Together we found it. Site 31-8-21 SW is Middle Devonian (Traverse group-Potter Farm formation) The area where it is located is quite famous for the Burkholder ditch (more information to come) where you can pull many fossils without matrix attached. This site is just as good if not better (you are not sitting in a water filled ditch). The site is located across the road from Burkholder and next to Sytek park. (looking South to the site from Sytek parking lot) One you cross over the entrance to Sytek and along the bike trail, you come to a field of scrub with a shallow swamp. The ground does not look like much. (looking back North towards Sytek). It is not until you get down on your hands and knees that you see a ton of fossils free of matrix. My daughter had the patience to pick up the crinoid stems to make some jewelry. This was one of my favorite finds. As I was helping her pick up crinoid stems, I found this rock exposed as is. The tail end of a trilobite. We ended up finding a few more at the site but not as nice as this one.
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donkeyrokman
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since June 2014
Posts: 78
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Post by donkeyrokman on Jul 1, 2014 9:43:21 GMT -5
You must be thrilled that your kids share and enjoy your hobby. I found my first fossil when I was eight years old at Moosehead Lake in Maine, while on vacation...almost fifty years ago...and the memory is still vivid. Luckily, my father knew enough about fossils to explain what I'd found, and I was hooked for life. But it was a solitary hobby that no one else in my family or circle of friends shared. To go rock hunting as a family must be wonderful. And children learn so many valuable lessons from this hobby, not the least of which is patience.
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Post by Jugglerguy on Jul 1, 2014 9:50:46 GMT -5
That trilobite is great. Guess what I'm doing today.
My daughter made an entire bracelet out of crinoid disks from that ditch.
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mibeachrocks
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since September 2013
Posts: 198
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Post by mibeachrocks on Jul 1, 2014 10:25:41 GMT -5
You must be thrilled that your kids share and enjoy your hobby. I found my first fossil when I was eight years old at Moosehead Lake in Maine, while on vacation...almost fifty years ago...and the memory is still vivid. Luckily, my father knew enough about fossils to explain what I'd found, and I was hooked for life. But it was a solitary hobby that no one else in my family or circle of friends shared. To go rock hunting as a family must be wonderful. And children learn so many valuable lessons from this hobby, not the least of which is patience. I am very very lucky that it is a hobby that we share as a family. My wife knew better when I said that I wanted to take a vacation to Alpena since I've never been there. She said that the real reason is we are going is for the rocks and fossils. I could not deny it. We had a blast. The kids really enjoy it. Sometimes too much. I wish that I would have taken a picture of my four year old son the other day. We went to a large nursey to buy some plants. The plants are sitting on some crushed gravel. He knew enough about rocks to pick up the nice granite and quartz. He would hold them up and tell me that it would make a good one for tumbling. I would examine it, ID it and we would move on. Unbeknownst to me, he did not put them down. He was loading his pockets. I about fell on the ground laughing when we got to the checkout later. He was walking out of place and his shorts fell to his ankles with a big thump. He had loaded his pockets with rocks like he knows to do at the beach. The cashier laughed and let him take them home. They are now in his rockpile in the yard. All my wife could do is look at me with that look of I wonder where he got the idea.
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mibeachrocks
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since September 2013
Posts: 198
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Post by mibeachrocks on Jul 1, 2014 10:27:07 GMT -5
That trilobite is great. Guess what I'm doing today. My daughter made an entire bracelet out of crinoid disks from that ditch. Have fun!!!!!! I would rather be up there. We left Alpena last Monday and it was in the low to mid 60's. By the time we got back down to Detroit it was in the high 80s with humidity. It sucks. It is currently in the 90's with humidity.
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Post by Jugglerguy on Jul 1, 2014 10:59:36 GMT -5
It was like that here yesterday too. Today is nice. Probably upper 70's with a breeze. The close you are to the lake, the cooler it is. I used to live two blocks from the lake. It was surprising that the temperature on the other side of town could be 15 degrees warmer.
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donkeyrokman
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since June 2014
Posts: 78
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Post by donkeyrokman on Jul 1, 2014 11:24:49 GMT -5
You must be thrilled that your kids share and enjoy your hobby. I found my first fossil when I was eight years old at Moosehead Lake in Maine, while on vacation...almost fifty years ago...and the memory is still vivid. Luckily, my father knew enough about fossils to explain what I'd found, and I was hooked for life. But it was a solitary hobby that no one else in my family or circle of friends shared. To go rock hunting as a family must be wonderful. And children learn so many valuable lessons from this hobby, not the least of which is patience. I am very very lucky that it is a hobby that we share as a family. My wife knew better when I said that I wanted to take a vacation to Alpena since I've never been there. She said that the real reason is we are going is for the rocks and fossils. I could not deny it. We had a blast. The kids really enjoy it. Sometimes too much. I wish that I would have taken a picture of my four year old son the other day. We went to a large nursey to buy some plants. The plants are sitting on some crushed gravel. He knew enough about rocks to pick up the nice granite and quartz. He would hold them up and tell me that it would make a good one for tumbling. I would examine it, ID it and we would move on. Unbeknownst to me, he did not put them down. He was loading his pockets. I about fell on the ground laughing when we got to the checkout later. He was walking out of place and his shorts fell to his ankles with a big thump. He had loaded his pockets with rocks like he knows to do at the beach. The cashier laughed and let him take them home. They are now in his rockpile in the yard. All my wife could do is look at me with that look of I wonder where he got the idea. Thanks for the laugh!
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Post by Jugglerguy on Jul 1, 2014 11:32:26 GMT -5
I missed that post! My wife just asked me if I was going to share what I was laughing about or not. She laughed too.
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mibeachrocks
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since September 2013
Posts: 198
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Post by mibeachrocks on Aug 19, 2014 8:55:37 GMT -5
I finally got around to cleaning up and sorting other finds from the trip. Here are some of the other fossils Brachiopod parts. Various shells Fenestella Crinoid parts Echinoderm calyx and spikes (left) and trilobites fragments (right) - sorry for the bad photos
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mibeachrocks
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since September 2013
Posts: 198
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Post by mibeachrocks on Aug 19, 2014 9:13:22 GMT -5
We also picked up some rocks on the beach. The kids usually commemorate the trip by picking a rock or two to make into furniture knobs for their rooms. These are what they choose. Raw stones (dry) Raw stones (wet) - Jugglerguy (Rob), the upper right stone is very similar to the mystery stone that you posted and showed me. It is very soft and seems to contain some organic material. After stage 1 After Stage 2 After Stage 3 After Stage 4 (dry) - All that is left is to mount them to the hardware A few more pics
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mibeachrocks
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since September 2013
Posts: 198
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Post by mibeachrocks on Aug 19, 2014 9:40:33 GMT -5
These are some more rocks from Alpena and elsewhere in Michigan. Rough Stone (dry) - All are from Alpena except the Basalt with inclusions to the left. This was given to me by a friend who picked it up in Lake Superior. Rough (wet) After Stage 1 After Stage 2 After Stage 3 After Stage 4 (dry) From the same batch as the above stones and furniture pulls. The left two are agates. The bottom is from a bag a landscape gravel that I had to buy (I am ashamed that I did not have enough of my own rocks). It looks like a Lake Superior agate. The top is from Alpena. The right is something that I had left over from the rock shed that did not polish completely in a previous batch. Rough (dry) Rough (wet) After Stage 1 After stage 2 After Stage 3 After Stage 4 (dry) Additional Pics The final part of the batch was a bunch of driveway gravel that my son picked up while at out family's cottage. While he is only 4, he knows how pick out granite (his favorite). I told him that I would polish them for him. Rough (dry) Rough (wet) After Stage 1 After Stage 2 After Stage 3 After Stage 4 (dry) - there ended up being a long agate in there (right/middle).
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