Fossil Hike

Because of the threat of thunderstorms, Cyberduck and I cancelled our hosting of a dayhike last Saturday (I plan to try again this coming Saturday). Alternatively we made a few scouting forray to nearby areas to assess their potential for future hosted hikes. One of these was a series of fossil cuts accessible via various US Forestry service roads in northern Georgia.

Firstly, I use the term road loosely, these are simply cuts into the forest sprinkled lightly with gravel and left to the devices of nature. Nonetheless, one in particular cut through some of the local strata and exposed an area that sources indicated might bear fossils from the Mississippian period (320-360 million years ago). We weren’t expecting to find anything impressive, having neither the appropriate equipment or expertise, but we found the spot and decided to take a brief hike around.

Most of the rocks in the area are fractured in jagged (and surprisingly sharp) shards and plates. The local strata is almost perpendicular to the current land which gives you the impression of looking at a slice of cake turned on its side.

After a bit of hunting and pecking, only two pieces seemed to strongly resemble fossils to our laymen eyes. One was an unimpressive coarse bark-like imprint. The other was a fairly distinct half of a fern-like leaf of some sort. As soon as a I can convince my aging digital camera to take a decent macro shot of these two I’ll post them here.