S I P I

This year’s trip is mostly done now, but for some more clean up and putting things away and a few repairs to the camper and, and, and… I gathered up all the bones we recovered from the the site I jokingly named the RibEye site because we just kept unearthing one rib after another. I haven’t done a final tally but seems like we gathered significant fragments (large parts) from at least 12 separate rib bones. Triceratops critters usually have between 24 to 36 total ribs (in left and right pairs) so we’re nearing about half of one animals complete rib cage. They sure are not articulated, instead they are spread out and going in every which direction in a normal pattern of dispersed bones near each other but kind of all scrambled up. We’ve only come up with one significant bone in this spot that is clearly NOT a rib. Looks like we exposed a robust-sized arm bone in amongst all these ribs so far. But I’ve no reason to believe that there are not more fossils there from this specimen. Hope so. Here’s a photo of all the parts and pieces on a pallet in the fossil workshop at home. Doesn’t look like that much to me, but excavating and jacketing long ribs is a delicate and time consuming process usually involving splints incorporated into the field jackets to help support the thin and long plaster jackets. We’ve no clear idea what animal these fossil bones are from but the arm bone looks to be too robust to be from a hadrosaur, so I’m going with some form of triceratops for the moment. Hopefully we’ll return next year to this dig and go further to discover what all is there!.

I’ve been studying some of the small “micro” fossils I collected at two or three sites near each other and a pile of fun turtle shell that may (or may not!?) go back together into one large piece. It usually happens that the most recent things we’ve found seem the most interesting; over the specimens we’ve collected previously and really are in line to be exposed and prepared next. The new, shiny thing gets all the attention while old, trusty past finds sit like an old toy not being played with! Shame on me and I have no one I may reasonably blame this on but myself! Discipline can sometimes be in short supply around the workshop. And/but when I pick up something from a long time ago, it too, offers up a story and a second discovery when its field jackets to is cut open and we start to explore to find what we thought was XX really is YY. It is all fun for me

I jotted down my driving time and total miles for the return trip I made. It totaled 1331 miles from the camp site on the ranch to our home driveway. I traveled for 3 days and two nights to go that distance. Driving directly with my small camper I used to have took @21-1/2 hours with just stopping for gas and bathroom breaks. Hard to believe I used to drive that directly sometimes with no rest – Yes, very stupid. No more. With the nice new camper we have we can not drive as fast and I purposefully chose smaller state highways over traveling the interstates so that slows you down for sure. My total drive time was about 27-1/2 hours over those three days. That’s only five hours more than my old straight path on all interstates but seemed longer than that. I did enjoy smaller highways, seeing towns and agricultural areas and the scenery from a slower moving perspective. And I liked staying in the camper at campgrounds along the way home. Easier and less expensive than hotels but I’ll have to get better at stopping earlier in the day so I’m not so tired setting up the camper in the dark and then eating so late, etc. Practice makes things better.

All around a fun and successful trip this year. I have a few bones collected by Martin & Thorsten to figure out how to ship to them in Germany and a few more things to clean up and put away. Oh, and get a few things to Jared that he accidentally left in the camper and a thing or two to Tim and return something Jeff left in camp, and? I guess I do have some chores left.!

My last day of this year’s field work trip. I got up and got going from the campground where I slept last night just outside of Dubuque, Iowa. I got in late, the spot I had reserved was filled by someone else, the office closed, etc., so I found an open spot, parked and tried to relax for my last night in the camper. got up early (enough!) and pulled out of the campground to drive into town for a stop at a local coffee shop for my fav drink and to take in the scene before I head out for home.

I don’t recall ever passing through Dubuque before and certainly know I’ve never visited the town. it’s an old city on the West Bank of the Mississippi River and is perched above the river on some heights giving many places a wonderful view “down” into the city and the river below. My wife and I love our old home and gardens and enjoy looking at neat older homes. Ummm, Dubuque has homes. And historic, wonderful downtown buildings, and a plethora of local coffee shops to choose from! I picked “Jitterz” as my stop just because. Because I liked the name, I liked it was in the heart of old town and it looked on its web page as a cool spot. (and if it wasn’t right, there were three other cafes a block away)

This has nothing to do with finding dinosaur fossils, or cleaning and preparing them, or teaching about anything fossil; nope. Instead this entry is all about taking in what life gives you and Looking for good things wherever you are. Look at these homes –

I didn’t want to leave, but had a long drive still ahead to get home today. This being my third day on the road trip home. I seemed to luckily be just behind a significant storm rolling across the Midwest wreaking havoc everywhere with super high winds, excessive rain, flooding and bringing down trees and limbs all over the place. I did not experience a drop of rain the whole 3 day drive home until I got to Greencastle, IN (about an hour from home). But saw extreme damage with really big downed tree limbs for hundreds of miles throughout Iowa, Illinois and Indiana. Impressed and pressed on continuing to stay on only smaller state roads and highways, avoiding the interstates on purpose. I saw so much beauty; agricultural, homes, little cities, animal life, it was a real pleasure to slow down and take the “blue” highways all the way home from Montana. (Blue highways is an old term from when we only had paper maps of the roads. The interstates were colored in red to make them clearly standout, and the smaller, local, state roads were always drawn in blue ink. Therefore, traveling on “blue highways” meant you were avoiding the huge and fast interstates in exchange for the opportunity to better “see” the country you’re traveling in.). I enjoyed my trip home on our blue highways!

And so it went. I traveled the 1400 miles home over three days and two nights, stayed on smaller roads, stopped when I wanted to, explored a little, found cute coffee shops, saw beautiful homes, and cool commercial buildings, and passed through many neat little towns. Arrived home safe and sound at 9:15pm (local time in Indiana) and experienced no problems traveling with the new camper, the “WolfPup” all the way there and back. Oh, and we have a few dinosaur fossil bones to unload and learn about!

Up and going this morning from Ortonville, MN to find a coffee shop in this cute little downtown. But first, did I happen to see a bug or two last night while trying to get to this campground before dark? Did I drive next to countless bodies of water as dusk set in? Answer, YES. Take a look and you judge.

I drove small highways all day today. No interstates again today, and I enjoyed myself. It is slower, and I like going a little slower. My legs and knees may not totally agree but the little towns and beautiful scenery along the way make up for it. I stopped for a “roadside” lunch in Redwood Falls, MN. I saw it had a river running through it and I pulled over in the little downtown area, walked through couple of streets with nice old homes and found a gazebo kind of overlooking the river where I had my lunch. I also saw an old IOOF building (please look up IOOF if you don’t recognize them abbreviation). It could be acquired and fixed up to become…? I know not what. But thought it was a very cool building. And I noticed something I had not seen or felt for the last month – humidity and green. It wasn’t that hot but certainly was humid across Minnesota today and it is every shade of green possible. It had gotten so brown and dry on the ranch and surrounding property that I’d almost forgotten what green looked like!

I drove and drove today on so many different state highways. Unlike Monday’s drive that was all on one highway, today I switched and moved and jogged and changed a bunch. Slightly more involved driving having to watch for my turns and weave and bob a bit. And beautiful scenery and good weather, all around a wonderful day today. I did push myself a little too far on where to camp for the night. I thought I could be to the campground west of Dubuque, Iowa by around 6pm, but… it was not to be. I was on super rural small roads and did get to the campground as dark settled over me at 8:30. Not fun to hook up the water hose and electric and a few other set-up things in the dark. AND the spot I reserved had a truck and camper in it already, the office was closed for the day, so I made an executive decision on the fly and pulled into a different spot, one of only 2 or 3 I could see that were empty and made due.

With some trepidation and some physical soreness I completed the breakdown of the camp and packing up the truck and loose items in the camper that has been my “home” for the last month. I was tired, my hands & knees super sore, I’m ready to either take a break or head home. Home it is. I left Baker, Montana around 12:30 and drove east ending up at a campground about 9:30pm in Ortonville, Minnesota on Big Stone Lake/the Minnesota River.

I stayed on state highway 12 every mile from Baker to Ortonville. It was very pleasant to not fight traffic and high speeds on my usual path of being on interstate highways. I was almost never passed by another vehicle nor did I need to pass more than one or two in a nine hour drive. Rally nice. I stopped for lunch in Lemmon, SD and ate my packed sandwich in the petrified wood park there. Same place I visited with Tim on our drive west a month ago.

It has become very hazy and the sky smoke filled the last few days in Montana and I noticed again today on my drive due east across S. Dakota. Very Smokey from distant fires in western Montana, Idaho and Washington State.

Saw a lot of agriculture along my path and was enamored with the huge fields of sunflowers. I think they actually turn toward the sun daily so if you had a time-lapse image you’d seem them “rotate” with the sun. Zoom in to see the flowers –

I made it to the campground along a lake too late to enjoy the view until the next morning. All went fine and I’m starting to really like this staying in my own mobile “house” with a pretty quick set up and then have my own bed, kitchen, food, shower, etc. I may just do more of this kind of travel?

A long day today, my last field day for this season in Montana. Started with a beautiful surprise and interesting cloud cover. Took a photo in camp at 7:30 to try to capture what I saw.

I took off for the dig site to remove the big rib bone field jacketed yesterday so I could jacket the humerus right next to it. Flipped the rib successfully without loosing bone out the “bottom” of the jacket during this big movement. May jacket this open side or just protect it and take it as is. I jumped on the large humerus bone to be sure we found the complete exterior shape of it and could clear the matrix away to pedestal it so it would be ready for the wet plaster and burlap strips making up the field jacket. I went too far in matrix removal and/but it turned out okay. Take a good look at the photos and you’ll see this big bone is precariously perched on almost no rock. That’s a pedestaled, my friends!

I then turned to the 4 additional nubs of bone found yesterday nearby. two turned out to be part of rib 036-134 that is much larger & longer than I realized. And two were each substantial additional rib bones to be uncovered and jacketed for transport. It was time to break down the dig site and protect it from the elements. I dismantled, packed, tossed down the hill, etc. to get the site clean and clear. Then the worst part of any dig, to cover the remaining bones with a tarp and then OUT ROCK & SOIL BACK ON TOP OF THE BONES! We spend so much time carefully uncovering fossils, difficult to reverse the process and toss shovel after shovel full of overburden back on the spot. Goal is protection to return another day….

I did sneak away for a quick sojourn over to a prime spot I like to visit on the ranch; a known micro site where I often find tiny bits and pieces of fossil remains. Found things like: triceratops partial teeth, crocodile teeth, fish scales, turtle shell, sting ray teeth, one small meat-eating dinosaur tooth, facial bone from some fish as well as sharp fish teeth. Donets exactly make sense, but there I was at 6pm laying on my belly searching for teeny, tiny micro fossils!

Back to camp and I startled the process of packing up the camper and loading the truck. So many things to do as we break down camp and get ready to head home. I worked until dark and then called it. Time for dinner, a shower and some sleep!

Got out to the dig site around 9:30 this morning by myself; dropped Jared off last night in Dickinson, ND so he could catch his flight home from there today. Not sure how much I can accomplish in my last couple of days at the dig while I also have to pack up the truck and camper for the drive home. I plan to leave here Monday sometime to start my trek Eastward.

I worked on uncovering more of the large bone started yesterday by Jared and now believe it is an upper arm bone, a humerus, and may be from a triceratops. If so, all these ribs scattered about likely belong to this triceratops. I’ll need to excavate and find more before I can confirm exactly what I think it is. I’ve dug and prepared quite of bit of hadrosaur bone and although they are big animals, the triceratops is just simply stout and strong like a tank. Its arms and legs are massive and huge and its ribs are ribs, but they are also more robust than other animals alive during the time frame we are digging in.

Pretty exciting and a little early to be making any big pronouncements, so I’ll stay hush for now, and I think it may be a tric.

Here’s a photo from today after some more surrounding matrix was removed. The second photo has my markup on it showing the approximate outside shape of this likely upper arm bone, a humerus.

Before I could begin to apply a field jacket to this arm bone I needed to see what is happening next to it. There’s a nub of weathered bone exposed at the surface about 3” away that also appears to be positioned vertically (rare and odd) that I need to find out if it’s only a scrap or is it a new bone to remove? It took a good amount of time but I worked to remove the surrounding matrix from both the humerus and this new surface find. And behold, this weathered fragment at the surface is in fact another rib; this one being almost 32” long and @2-1/2” wide. It’s a big rib bone. Cleared it all the way out to the tip of the rib and decided we needed to get a field jacket on it, then remove it before we try to remove the arm bone.

And, what is becoming very common at this dig site, in removing surrounding rock from a bone I keep running into new fragments of bone (that may, or may not, become a new fossil bone to collect. Here’s a shot of the location of 4 more apparent rib bones. They are each covered up to preserve and protect them from us digging out the two larger bones.

Took a much needed work break and went to relax with my back against a shaded wall at 4:30. Felt good and almost fell asleep there! Woke up and took this photo of the dig camp with shredded canopy pieces just flopping and dangling off the frame in a stiff wind. I’ll also try to upload a video I took from my resting spot looking out over the site and my shade relaxing.

Here are a couple more photos showing the progress made in exposing the edges of the big humerus bone. The tip of the exacto knife blade is pointing right at a small ossified tendon protruding from the side wall of clay. Don’t know if I can preserve it, but I’ll try to expose and collect the tendon piece.

Didn’t make it over the site Jared found Thursday on the steep side of a butte. I’ll do my best to get over to it tomorrow to try to confirm what it is and if it seems to be a significant find, then cover and rebury it to protect it until we can come back next year.

Headed back to camp and saw the results of heavy smoke in the air again today. The setting sun was very strangely covered over and showed a bright pink/orange hue. Here are a couple photos I took on the drive back to camp trying to capture what I was seeing. The close up of the sun is just what it looked like – no AI, no photo trickery, just what it looked like from the trail back to where we camp.

It was Jared’s last day today with me at the dig. He flys home in the morning and I’ll be wrapping up this field season in a couple of days and then be heading home myself. The new (used) travel trailer camper I got this year worked wonderfully and all who stayed with me in it enjoyed the comforts it offers. Good sized kitchen, full bathroom, dining area and nice comfy couch, working hot water, air conditioning, stereo system. All was very nice.

Jared and I spent his last day with me at the RibEye site and it appears to now need a new name!? I worked on carefully removing 4 long fragments of what appears to be more rib bones from the northern area of the dig site. These kept appearing as we removed bones that were above them and it was time for them to be gotten out of the way. Seems like they may be all from one bigger, longer bone; and will not know until we get it all home to the prep lab to clean them up, remove the fossil from the rock matrix and see if pieces fit together?

Jared started in on the large “ball” of exposed fossil that has been present from the first walk by many weeks ago. Just had not gotten to it yet. The exposed hunk of bone marrow looked like it could be only that; just a large weathered piece of bone on the surface that leads to nothing. Here are a few before and after photos from his work on the specimen. Neatest thing about it is that – IT IS NOT A FOSSIL RIB! So we may have to alter the dig nickname to something else, from “rib central” to “large bone set upright in the matrix!?”

We cleaned up and out the tarp over the exposed bones to protect it all for a nights rest and headed back to camp. Got cleaned up and Jared packed up for the drive to Dickinson for dinner and a drop off at his hotel for the night. On our way up to the interstate we encountered this. There was no going around it, nor under it, nor through it so we drove moderately fast behind it a good part of the way. Oncoming cars had to pull over into the grass a bit to be able to pass it coming from the opposite direction.

And yes, if Jared is involved, we did stop at the local DQ and got an ice cream treat! He is plainly a terrible influence on me. Drove back to camp and off to bed.

We started today by driving out to the triceratops frill site to see if we could successfully “flip” the field jacketed piece over without losing all the fossil bone material out the bottom of the jacket in the process of flipping it over. Success! We did stop at that choke point I mentioned in yesterday’s note to widen it a little more. We rubbed one side of the truck against solid rock when exiting last night, so we worked for about 15 minutes to dig and pick axe an improved pass. Here are a couple of shots of the jacketed triceratops piece and the hole it left in the side of the butte where we dug it.

Back to the rib-eye site for more work exposing, field jacketing and removing individual bones. In the process of exposing and preparing to remove one 24” long rib fragment, I touched (And did not break!) four more bones. It’s the perfect storm of a dig site. As we dig one piece we expose another bone, then another, and so on. It’s such a great and fun “problem” to have! Here are some photos from today’s work at the rib site –

While I was working on the ribs, Jared took off for a walkabout prospecting for new finds. About an hour after he left I got a squawk over our walkie-talkies saying he’d possibly found something cool. We talked a moment or two then I walked to a very nearby high point to see if we could make eye contact. We spotted each other about a mile apart? He sent me over a video of what he’d found and it looks exciting! We agreed over the radios to have me look at what he’d discovered on our way out back to camp. We met up at the existing dig site, covered up everything to close out the site for today and drove back on the ranch trail to where Jared had come from. He walked me back to the spot on a steep side slope of a butte and showed me a pile of very large chunks of bone, very large pieces that indicate they came from a large bone. We scampered up about 20’ of that steep slope to find what he had uncovered. I do not know what it is, but it’s definitely fossil bone and it’s kind of a large piece with a surface that is unusually “slick.” Here are a few photos but I’ll have to get back to it in the next few days to try to determine if it’s another possible dig site!

To end the evening here are a couple of my favorite things (from today).

Started off heading in to town for a few provisions, some ice and a nice breakfast treat at my fun coffee shop I enjoy so much. Thought I’d share a couple of photos from The CoffeeHouse at Lawler’s, “my” chai tea place I frequent.

We got back to camp, gathered some lunch provisions, stocked the truck cooler with drinks and headed out to the rib-eye dig site where I worked the afternoon away clearing matrix from around some of the many ribs found here so far. It has gotten warmer, for sure, but not super hot like it had been. And it’s been quite cool overnight so sleeping is wonderful in our camper.

We left the ribeye dig site around 4:30pm to try to find a way to drive over to where a piece of triceratops frill was found by Martin last week. He and I looked it over and agreed what it is and I said I’d go back and try to finish exposing it and apply a field jacket to this specimen piece so it can be transported home. Jared drove the truck and I walked in front of him looking for gulleys too deep to cross, rock impediments, paths we might or might not be able to follow to actually drive up to this site. I walked to it with Martin but have never driven to this general area in the past. It was harrowing as I encouraged and Jared gingerly drove up, around and through different places we had no right to try to go with my truck! At one choke point we got our picks and shovels and worked to widen a small gap between a hillside and a very large rock formation/hoodoo type thing. I have no photos to document this foolishness but by evidence of me writing this down right now, we made it both to this new dig site AND back out of there! We pedestaled the parietal triceratops frill piece (about 1/3 of a triceratop’s bony shield behind its head) and then undercut this pedestal so we could get the aluminum foil to “grip” under the outside edges all around the piece, cut some metal pipe and Jared custom bent it to follow the curve of the frill, and we used these pipes as splints on top of the piece to help stabilize it. We mixed up some plaster, cut a bunch of strips of burlap into different length pieces and covered the top and all outside edges with the plaster slurry, embedding the metal pipes in the burlap/plaster wrapping to lock them to the piece. We were hot and tired and ready to head back to the rib-eye site to wrap it up for the night, then headed back to camp.

Met up with some of my best friends on the drive back to camp. They even politely stopped to pose for portraits!

We cleaned up, enjoyed the evening sunset from camp and had a delicious steak dinner.

We got up and going headed out to the dig site this morning to a very pleasant 65 degree, sunny morning. What a pleasure it is to prospect and work on a set dig site in such nice temperatures. We got the dig area uncovered by removing the tarp so we’re ready to see what can be discovered today, or put into a field jacket or mapped and then removed from the site.

Here’s what the dig site looked like today on this beautiful morning.

I worked on the rib-eye site, breaking the pedestal on a long rib (about 44” long) that was plastered the day before. Then carefully flipped it over and it all stayed in the field jacket. Jared helped me put a top on it of burlap soaked in wet plaster to keep all pieces right where they belong. Also cleaned up another rib (fragment) that ended up being about 18” long. And in doing so discovered two more new bones just peaking out. Great problem to have, discovering new bones as you’re cleaning up around an existing one. See the photo above.

Jared took a few photos of the site from a different perspective; from the top of a nearby butte. It looks like the site and me are up in a forest from this view –

We wrapped up work for the day by storing all loose items on the ground near the bones then carefully pulled the tarp over the whole affair and weighted it down well with rocks, shovels, buckets of water, chairs, anything we can find to help keep the tarp in place to protect the fossils from any potential water.

Back to camp for a nice evening meal and a beautiful evening .