DAY OFF FROM THE CRETACEOUS: A moment in Choteau to experience amenities

DAY OFF FROM THE CRETACEOUS 1. The small city of Choteau provides the amenities that makes life comfortable! Hot showers, laundry machines, bars, restaurants, and yes--tires of all sizes! (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

Hallelujah for a shift in the way of BEING--departing the unrestrained vastness of the Montana badlands and entering the tight grid of a small western American city. How different is our dance once we are walking on pavement and our vision is obstructed by buildings and trees? When we interact with one another as tourists and not fossil hunters?

DAY OFF FROM THE CRETACEOUS 2. Sunrise over Camp Makela on a Friday, which is the day off from fossil hunting! (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

Many of life's pleasures dwells in opposition of experience. Out at Camp Makela, we are freed from daily grooming. Who needs clean clothes or showers when from the time you complete your breakfast to the time you sleep you are immersed in the Cretaceous sediments, nose, elbows, knees, and feet (not to mention your flank when falling or resting to eat lunch)? If not walking, sitting, or kneeling on mudstone and limestone, it is blowing about your ears, settling on your scalp and in your eyes and nose. You might even eat some of it inadvertently.

DAY OFF FROM THE CRETACEOUS 3. A leisurely breakfast is tradition on the day off from the Cretaceous. Here it is French toast crafted by Emmy Hill and consumed by dinosaur diggers. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

However, driving to the small town of Choteau along a 20-mile dirt road means hot showers at a local hotel (bring your own towel and soap) for five dollars and doing laundry at a 24-hour laundry mat across from the Wagon Wheel bar. It means a hot yummy lunch, a stroll along the streets window shopping, and getting a delicious coffee at a cafe-gift store. These experiences, which may seem so ordinary to those of you reading this blog entry, are elevating moments to those of us who have been out in the Cretaceous badlands for days, not missing "civilization," but appreciating a city's amenities all the more because of having done without them.

DAY OFF FROM THE CRETACEOUS 4. Econowash, a 24-hour-coin operated laundry, allows the likes of Camp Makela paleontologists and volunteers to load their Cretaceous sediment encrusted clothes into washers and leave for lunch. No worries, no one will take your stuff! (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

DAY OFF FROM THE CRETACEOUS 5. The Wagon Wheel, a bar situated across from the Econowash, is accommodating to visitors whose clothes are on dry-cycle. I was introduced to "red beer"! Tomato juice poured into a light watery beer and supposedly consumed for "health." Notice the paleontologist on the far left bar stool? (photo by Hallelujah Truth) 

Choteau is accommodating to all who enter its dominion. A stop at the visitor's center to use the facilities engages you with hostesses asking you to sign the guest book. These well-coiffed ladies ask you if you are headed to Yellowstone National Park or some other Montana natural wonder. They nod their heads when you answer that you are affiliated with research at Egg Mountain--it's well documented in their local museum (the subject of a future blog)!

DAY OFF FROM THE CRETACEOUS 6. (photo by Hallelujah Truth) 

It is with a full heart that I write about my opportunity to experience these multiple ways of BEING provided by the fieldwork of my dear paleontologist husband, Chiboogamoo (aka Tony Martin). How thrilling it is to shift roles! To go from being a dirt encrusted fossil hunter in the Two Medicine Formation to a curious tourist in Choteau with money in her pocket to spend! To dip my toe in the river of time, sensing the deep and infinite and the contrast of superficial and momentary: the badlands versus the town.

DAY OFF FROM THE CRETACEOUS 7. Preparing for an evening celebration at Camp Makela to bid Ashley and Lee Hall farewell, Chiboogamoo and I purchased firewood to build an evening of light and magic in the middle of the Cretaceous! (photo by Hallelujah Truth) 

DAY OFF FROM THE CRETACEOUS 8.  The sun sets late over Camp Makela. Past 9:00pm, it is still light, but for those working and traveling the next day, we needed to start our fire before darkness. We would be up early the following day. In case you are interested, I am seated in the middle of this photo. (photo by Chiboogamoo)

Thank you so much my darling Chiboogamoo for including me in this western adventure, allowing to collaborate with you, teaching me about the Cretaceous trace fossils in Montana's badlands, playing with images, ideas, and words. You are such an inspiration!

DAY OFF FROM THE CRETACEOUS 9. Paleontologist husband, Chiboogamoo, provides scale for this large American flag in Choteau! (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

That's Coffee with Hallelujah! SOUL BLOG with me. What do you have to share about travel, the shift in the way of BEING? To see more wonderful photos of Choteau in a collaborative blog entry about the "Paleontologist's Day Off" that Chiboogamoo and I posted before my arrival, go here.

DAY OFF FROM THE CRETACEOUS 10. Sun setting on Camp Makela. (photo by Hallelujah Truth) 

DAY OFF FROM THE CRETACEOUS 11. I'm so thankful for the expanse of this beautiful Earth, the generosity of others (including my husband), and the multiple ways of Being offered us! (photo by Chiboogamoo) 

CRETACEOUS SCAPES: A reflection of my being mortal, the land immortal

CRETACEOUS SCAPE 1. A reflection of my BEING. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

Hallelujah for the inner and outer scapes of our BEING! Hallelujah for how we might project our internal thoughts on this beautiful EARTH's surface and see ourselves reflected in her horizons.

CRETACEOUS SCAPE 2. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

For eight days in July, I spent all of my waking hours outdoors in the Two Medicine Formation, the rolling Montana badlands. I saw purplish dinosaur bones eroding out the limestone underneath my feet and Cretaceous invertebrates revealing their presence along rock faces in a heiroglyphics of horizontal and vertical burrows. 

Time and time again, after being fully engrossed in studying the ground searching for patterns that would disclose some aspect of a creature that lived here 75 million years ago, I would suddenly look up. The broad open landscape engulfed me. Points along an infinity continuum converged--that of deep geological time represented by the fossils, my presence, and the ongoing future of this landscape. And there was complete silence, mostly...a stillness--even when the whir of flying grasshoppers grew loud or the wind started moaning.

CRETACEOUS SCAPE 3. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

During these days of endless roaming up and down hills, I experienced myself expanding. The vast sky overhead and the land continuing on forever. Does this state of BEING have a name? Rocks pierced my wool-socked feet through the thick soles of my hiking boots. Often I lost my balance on the rubble, sliding, and sometimes falling. The flesh on my hands bled. Temperatures varied. When it was hot, I suffered and drank water until it ran out. Often the days were cool. Then I rejoiced.

CRETACEOUS SCAPE 4. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

I meandered in this vast Cretaceous world while my dear husband, studied and recorded the presence of traces fossils in a particular location. I also prospected for trace fossils in these meanderings but allowed myself the luxury to indulge in playing with my imagination, my connection to the Earth, and my BEING an artist.

With delight, I experimented with this cow skull in the wide landscape. Moving it around, turning it over, and examining it, I once again felt all of existence converge--the past (this time the more recent past of this animal's life), the present (my examination of the skull), and future (when I too have gone). Oh to sip from the NOW of my own mortality and to have my feet grounded in the immortality of the Earth.

CRETACEOUS SCAPE 5.  (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

CRETACEOUS SCAPE 6. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

CRETACEOUS SCAPE 7. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

That's Coffee with Hallelujah! SOUL BLOG with me. Does a walk in your garden, neighborhood, mountains, or wider world expand you? 

Other blog entries about my July 2014 experiences in Montana, as well as my husband's can be found on my blog page "Cretaceous Summer 2014."

DANCING FLOWERS FOR PEACE: Rooting and blooming moving authentically in our life's gardens!

ROOTING AND BLOOMING. Creatively moving with The Dancing Flowers for Peace on Saturday, August 2, 2014, was rich with discovery, connection, and fulfillment that comes through being our authentic selves. (photo by Elizabeth Schowalter)

Hallellujah for DANCE! Hallelujah for PEACE! Hallelujah for the Dancing Flowers for Peace and their workshops at the Schwartz Performing Arts Center at Emory University! 

Today the Metro-Atlanta community of women 40-and-over were invited to move authentically as they experienced their "roots" and "blooms" and all that occurs inbetween! 

ROOTING AND BLOOMING. Here Lori Teague, a co-director of Dancing Flowers for Peace, asks us to dance in pairs. How would we express being "roots" and "blooms" with a partner as we moved across the dance studio from one side to the other? One dancer could be the roots and the other the blooms, or we could take turns. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

I was delighted to be joined by my sister, Elizabeth Schowalter, who is visiting after two years of teaching English, math, and science to fifth grade boys in the United Arab Emirates. And, to make it extra special? My dear art friend Callahan Pope McDonough, came to a Dancing Flowers For Peace workshop for the first time.

With summer in full heat, and all our gardens burgeoning with abundant blooms, Lori Teague, one of the co-directors of Dancing Flowers for Peace, invited participants, to start on the floor and to find where our "roots" were. I found my roots expanding from the back of my knees. Then one of my elbows decided it wanted to "root." I found that as I listened to the music and to my body, my connections to the Earth kept changing, evolving, releasing, and rooting. Oh what a glorious movement exercise!

DIVA WALKS. After close to 2 hours of rooting and blooming, we were invited to do our own individual "diva" walks. How did we want to express being fulling embodied--rooted to the ground...and to the heavens through our blooms? (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

As the morning progressed, we danced solo, in pairs, trios, and a flock. We stretched from the foundations of our imagined roots, opened into blossoms, then closing and blossoming again and again. We played with our roots connecting with one another, seeing ways to grow intermingled. Oh what fun!

Words on a white board invited our roots and full blooms to think about ways of being:

Curiosity
Hope
Resiliency
Strength
Willingness
Strength

That's Coffee with Hallelujah! SOUL BLOG with me about the ways your roots and full blooms express themselves. How will you experience these qualities in your body listed above? Have you done your very own "diva" walk?

ROOTING. I asked the bouquet to express the concept of connectivity with one another through their "roots." This wonderful photo captured the feeling of the rich and rewarding dance workshop. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Thank you to Lesly Fredman, one of the co-directors for The Dancing Flowers for Peace, who invited me to their Saturday warmups starting in 2013. I have not stopped moving since! And thank you to my Chiboogamoo, aka Tony Martin, who makes all things possible. Special thanks to my dear sister Liz, who came to the Dancing Flowers workshop with an open mind and heart!

CRETACEOUS SUMMER 2014: The End of a Field Season, the Ongoing Discovery of Deep Time (blog #11)

DEPARTURE DAY BEGINS WITH CAMP MAKELA SUNRISE (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

Hallelujah for seasons of exploration in the fields of Montana and into our minds, gaining deeper understandings of LIFE and one another! Hallelujah for the concept of DEEP TIME and how the study of dinosaurs and other life forms from 75 million years ago engage us in the matters of existence.

Monday, July 28th, was one of FAREWELLS. The gentle and gradual gathering of different paleontologists and volunteers over the month of July has now dissipated. At noon, my Chiboogamoo and I were awaiting our departure from Camp Makela. The Branvold Bone Crew had left at 10:00 a.m. Soon afterwards, the Egg Mountain Rubble Rousers left for their dig site with David Varricchio.

JULY 28TH CAMP MAKELA PHOTO. At the end of a late morning, members of Camp Makela break up to go their various ways. I, Hallelujah, asked to be in this group photo and my great ichnologist husband consented.  (photo by Chiboogamoo, aka Tony Martin)

BRANVOLD CREW DEPARTS CAMP MAKELA. The crew that worked in close quarters on the Branvold Bone Bed left before us. Lazaro, from Cuba, travels on to New York to see the American Museum of Natural History there. The others return to Livingston to continue their paleontological work there.  (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

Camp Makela's distinctive teepee has been taken down in the beginning preparations to winterize the camp. The camp's manager, Brian, has also dismantled the shade cover which stood in front of the food trailer. Tent hill now only has 2 tents remaining on it. 

TEEPEE DOWNING. Sadness plucked at my heart seeing the Camp Makela teepee come down. I had assumed it stayed up year round. But considering the harsh winters in the Two Medicine Formation, it makes perfect sense. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

Our tent is stowed in our luggage and we departed with Jared Heuck, who is put a few hours in at Egg Mountain before he drove us to Great Falls, where we overnighted before returning to Atlanta. Just before we left camp, the rabbits and ground squirrels scurried around the trailer where "Team Ichnology" had been resting and collecting our thoughts before saying goodbye to the Two Medicine Formation.

AWAITING TENT DOWNING. The dramatic sunrise photos you have seen here on this blog were taken east of where I am sitting. What a glorious place to camp.  (photo by Chiboogamoo, aka Tony Martin)

Glancing around the space where we consumed cups of coffee and hot bowls of oatmeal, I notice now how nicely marked the cabinets are in our food trailer. Previous Camp Makela dig crews have left their artistic dinosaur images above labels of cereal, condiments and spices, and cookies. 

Upon further noticing, I collect titles from the bookshelf next to the water cooler. It is filled with dinosaur-themed books such as Jurassic Park, The Dinosaur Hunter, and The Lost Dinosaurs of Egypt -- appropriate titles for this crew!

It has definitely been a privilege to be present at such a significant dinosaur dig, to meet the paleontologists and dig volunteers -- some hailing from Japan, Sweden, Cuban, and England -- and to assist my husband on his assessment of the ichno-assemblages in the Two Medicine Formation. Thank you Chiboogamoo! Thank you David Varricchio! Thank you dig crew participants one all! Thank you Camp Makela! Thank you BIG SKY MONTANA!

Here are some other photos that capture the morning of our departure from Camp Makela and some of the discussions among its paleontologists. What are endings in juxtaposition to beginnings? Deep time as expressed in findings from the Cretaceous--how does it speak to us today? Time is so relative: isn't it?

READYING TO DEPART. I will miss the flurry of activity that takes place around 7:30 as dig crews ready to depart. Monday, July 28th, Camp Makela inhabitants stayed busy packing, sharing information, and saying good-bye.  (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

SHARING FINDINGS. Tony Martin, ichnologist extraordinaire, shares the location of dinosaur-bone sightings he and I made on Sunday, July 27th, when we were prospecting for trace fossils. My honey had suddenly developed "osteo-vision," as he calls it.  (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

COLLEAGUES CONNECTING AND COLLABORATING. David Varricchio and Tony Martin have know each other since graduate school days in the late 1980s. Over the years since then, they have had the opportunity to collaborate. Here they are discussing the ichno-assemblages identified by Tony and make plans for how that information will be expressed.  (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

"TEAM ICHNOLOGY" READYS TO DEPART. Thanks to Lee and Ashley Hall, who started calling my Chiboogamoo and me "Team Ichnology." It has been wonderful to accompany my very own ichnologist throughout the Cretaceous. It helped to further develop my "ichno-eyes," and to develop "osteo-eyes" as well. What a fun journey it has all been. I am so very grateful.  (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

STOP AT EGG MOUNTAIN. On our way out of the Two Medicine Formation, we stopped to say goodbye one more time to the Egg Mountain crew. Tony and David also discussed Tony's work on the trace fossils at the famous site where a Troodon egg clutch was discovered by David.  (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

WI-FI AT CAMP MAKELA. I'm so grateful for the Wi-fi at Camp Makela, which allowed me to blog about my experiences of my "Cretaceous Summer 2014" with Tony Martin, and to broadcast it on Facebook.  (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

That's Coffee With Hallelujah! SOUL BLOG with me. What does our finding of dinosaurs and the existence of other creature's lives 75 million years ago mean to you? What do you think of deep time, a sense of life so far back it is difficult for us humans to imagine?

THE DIFFERENCES POST FIELD WORK. This Super 8 Motel provided all the comforts of home with its hot shower, toilet, and bed, but my Chiboogamoo and I lamented the loss of our fresh air and freedom.  (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

FINDING DINOSAURS IN GREAT FALLS, MONTANA. This Sinclair gas station is right next door to our Super 8 Motel. We were not without our dinosaurs last night.  (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

CRETACEOUS SUMMER 2014: Impressions, Imprints, Love, and Friendship at Camp Makela (blog #10)

IMPRESSIONS AND IMPRINTS. What is time? How do we fathom geologic time? In the Cretaceous 75 million years ago, did clouds like these drift above the Maiasaura's heads and over the invertebrates burrowing in muddy sediments? Who are we in relation to this far distant past? What is love, friendship, and being human all about? These clouds hovered over my head at Camp Makela on the evening following horrific winds with speeds of 55 miles per hour that imprisoned us indoors for hours before they subsided. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

Hallelujah for the Camp Makela paleontologists, love, friendship, and being human! Hallelujah for the bon vie at the camp set in the Two Medicine Formation! Hallelujah for this precious Earth and its fearsome beauty!

Time dwindles here for me and my Chiboogamoo at Camp Makela. Our days lived at the foot of the badlands can be counted in various ways...

#1 WAY TO COUNT TIME: The paleontologists and volunteers arriving and departing. Let me introduce you to a special paleontological couple!

MEET THE HALLS FROM L.A.

Ashley and Lee Hall, Both paleontologists, decided to take a vacation from their day jobs in Los Angeles to work on a dinosaur dig in Montana! Ashley wears a couple of hats. She works as a paleontologist educator at the

-->Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and the Page Museum at the Labrea Tar Pits. Then she is also the curator for fossils from the Kaiparowits Formation at the Raymond M. Alf Museum. Her husband, Lee Hall, is not new to Camp Makela! As a Montana State University paleontology graduate, he spent considerable field time in the Two Medicine Formation and elsewhere, even as a camp manager. In L.A., Lee works for an environmental consulting company, which does surveys for pre-construction, construction, post construction. He gets fossils to museum and provides resource mitigation for concerns in such arenas as archeology, paleontology, and biology. -->

AT THE GATEWAY TO THE DINOSAURS. Lee and Ashley Hall arrived at Camp Makela on Saturday, July 19th (the same day as me) from Los Angeles for one very full week of fieldwork in the Two Medicine Formation. spending the majority of their time at the Egg Mountains site, and making contributions to the summer's discoveries at this world-famous dinosaur nesting site. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

TAKING AN ICHNO-TOUR. Both paleontologists, Lee and Ashley Hall were familiar with my husband's extensive work in the field of both modern and ancient ichnology and wanted to spend time with him. Tony Martin (aka Chiboogamo) was delighted to take them around the Two Medicine Formation east of camp to show them ichnological "treats," such as coprolites that were well studied by paleontologist Karen Chin, and what he has been studying on-and-off for the last 14 years, and more recently--two weeks. In this photo, they are examining the fossil cocoons at Pete's Pupa Peninsula. (photo by Hallelujah Truth) 

DIRT TIME WITH RUBBLE ROUSERS.  Spending the majority of their time at the Egg Mountains site with the "Rubble Rousers," the Halls made a significant contribution to the summer's discoveries at this world-famous dinosaur nesting site. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

MAKING CRETACEOUS OOZE.  The night before their departure from Camp Makela, Lee and Ashley worked late into the evening, adding water to pulverized mudstone to create an ooze that - when pressed through the screens you see here - would reveal missed fossil bone and eggshell fragments. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

READYING FOR DEPARTURE

Their love of paleontology is a strong bond between the Halls and has resulted in such creative expressions in their relationship. Lee devised a creative way to propose to Ashley which involved imaginative use of the movie, Jurassic Park. They made their dinosaur-themed engagement available for the world to see here at Jurrasic Park Proposal, which has more than 70,000 views! You will not be surprised to learn that their honeymoon was also paleontologically themed. Fans of Ray Troll, they traveled into the North American Mesozoic using a map from his collaborative book with Kirk Johnson, Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway: An Epoch Tale of a Scientist and an Artist on the Ultimate 5,000-Mile Paleo Road Trip. Stay tuned for more from the paleontologist couple, The Halls! It was sad to say good-bye them on Saturday, July 26, but in geologic time, this brief blip in time means little. Hurray for the Halls!

#2 WAY TO COUNT TIME: Friendship, food consumption, showers taken or not taken and bathroom visits...

CREATURE COMFORTS OF CAMP MAKELA
Staying at Camp Makela is "cozy," says one the Rubble Rousers. The site, where some stay the entire field season of approximately 31 days, has its creature comforts! 

THE FOOD TRAILERS.  Camp Makela has two trailers designated for food! And all who stay here, they never need worry about going hungry. The food trailer shown in this photo provides breakfast and lunch foods that all Camp Makela folk make for themselves. Cereals, milk, teas, coffee, breads, meats, cheeses, endless variety of chips, and cookies abound in abundance. The other trailer is the "dinner" trailer and Camp Makela denizens take turns cooking and washing dishes. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

HAPPY HOUR AT CAMP MAKELA.  Once Cretaceous fieldwork is completed, Camp Makela relaxes. Inhabitants converge for an adult beverage and discuss "finds" for the day. Overall, it is pretty darn exciting and relaxing. See the shade cover here in this photo? It was damaged in the high winds experienced a few days ago and was taken down. Four more days until the end of this field season. Ahhhh....(photo by Hallelujah Truth)

CAMP MAKELA SUNRISE.  Early morning risers like me are rewarded at Camp Makela! The slow sunrises seem to take an hour from 5:00 am to 6:00 am! From my tent, I amble toward the "facilities" which are embodied in a small white trailer with green lights beckoning when available and red lights indicating otherwise. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

THE FACILITIES.  Hallelujah for such wondrous bathroom facilities at Camp Makela! For one who has camped in the absence of a place to "sit" to do one's business, this bathroom trailer is greatly appreciated. Few here take showers in order to conserve the water, which is quite precious. Showering in Choteau on Fridays is often enough! (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

I'M WATCHING YOU POOP.  Word had it that there was an awesome work of art in the "men's room" at Camp Makela. With encouragement, I entered the sanctity of this bathroom facility to procure this image for you! There you have it! Tyrannosaurus rex watching you poop, and don't you forget it! (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

Whoops! This blog entry is long enough, and it is dinner time here at Camp Makela. I am called to join the camaraderie, to my love's side at the table where we are consuming beef stroganoff engineered by, yes, Chef Emmy Hill! I would have like to share images and thoughts about the following. Stay tuned...

#3 WAY TO COUNT TIME: Sunrises and sunsets...
#4 WAY TO COUNT TIME: Trace fossils found...
#5 WAY TO COUNT TIME:Critters heard or sited...

LOVE IN THE CRETACEOUS! Thank you honey for being my companion, my teacher, and editor! You are the reason I am here loving you in the Two Medicine Formation and learning about geologic time first hand!

That's Coffee With Hallelujah. SOUL BLOG with me. Let me know how you count your days and ways in this world.

CRETACEOUS SUMMER 2014: Wind Swept Day at Camp Makela (blog #9)

SWEPT AWAY IN THE CRETACEOUS. High winds increased in intensity throughout Thursday morning (July 24, 2014), making it difficult to move throughout the badlands from outcrop to outcrop searching for fossil traces. In this photo, my beloved Ichnologist stands atop an outcrop documenting our fossil finds before the winds forced us inside. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

Hallelujah for the Montana BIG SKY extending out before us from Camp Makela as Chiboogamoo and I walked into the Cretaceous to search for trace fossils. Hallelujah for refuge later in the morning in our camp's communal trailer from high winds sweeping through that BIG SKY and the resulting camaraderie in such close quarters!

50-MILE WINDS ENDED CRETACEOUS FOSSIL SEARCH. "Team Ichnology" was the first to retreat from the high winds to Camp Makela's food trailer. We were followed by the Egg Mountain Rubble Rousers. The Brandvold Bone Bed crew came in last since their dig site was cut into a hillside and protected by a large black tarp, which provided some protection from the strong winds. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

HATLESS IN HIGH WINDS

"Team Ichnology," as Chiboogamoo and I have been dubbed by our camp compatriots, continued our survey of the Two Medicine Formation's badlands moving from outcrop to outcrop. The delightful coolish morning temperature made it easy to climb rocky hillsides, steadying our feet as we peered down at the eroded rocks looking for plant root traces, tracks, burrows, and coprolites. 

Then the winds started. First, we continued our work, being pushed this way and that each time we reached the apex of a hill. As my hat began to refuse to stay atop my head and the grit blew into my eyes, which were already dried from the wind, it became distracting trying not to fall and to see clearly enough to find trace fossils.

TWO FOR ONE ICHNOLOGICAL SPECIAL. One of the "finds" Team Ichnology discovered on this windy Thursday morning was this hadrosaur track with vertical burrows. This trace fossil shows us that after the hadrosaur had stepped in a muddy fluvial sediment, its track was filled with sand. Later invertebrates burrowed in the sand filling the track. (photo by Chiboogamoo, aka Tony Martin)

Although our findings for the morning had been successful, the trace fossils were randomly scattered throughout the outcrops, with many outcrops offering nothing but highly eroded rubble bearing blank faces, absent of ichnological information.

BRANVOLD BONE BED CREW. Team Ichnology was in the neighborhood of the Branvold Bone Bed and dropped in to say "hello" to their Camp Makela comrades and see how their work was progressing. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

Finally, as the winds continued to pick up speed, our prospecting for trace fossils became too difficult and felt somewhat dangerous as we kept losing our balance on the loose rubble, which felt like marbles under our feet. We decided to head back to camp after repeatedly doing the "Two Medicine Formation sleigh ride," as Lee Hall describes the quick precarious fall down the badlands slope. "Safety takes precedence over science," my Chiboogamoo exclaimed!

When the winds finally died down after dinner, many of us had to put our collapsed tents back up.

CHIBOOGAMOO TO THE RESCUE. My husband persevered throughout the day making sure our tent and all of our belongings did not blow away. Here he is after dinner re-staking it to be ready for bed time. Thank you honey! (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

As the sun set on this windy Thursday July 24th evening, we had savored calm blue skies with fluffy clouds for several hours. The fast winds were to return the next day.

ALL IS WELL AT CAMP MAKELA AFTER RAGING AFTERNON WINDS (photos by Hallelujah Truth)

That's Coffee with Hallelujah! SOUL BLOG with me! Stay tuned for for several more blogs from Camp Makela. Team Ichnology returns from Cretaceous Summer 2014 in three more days.