Cumberland Island
September, 2008Pictures by: Rick and Sandy Jacquot
At the beginning of September, I had already put off my usual dive trip to Florida for over a week due to the flooding in Florida. Another week went by and I finally told Sandy we needed to do something whether we dive or not. Cabin fever was getting to me! We decided to hit Cumberland Island in Georgia for a couple of days and then head over to Ginnie Springs in Florida.
This was the first time in a few years that I had visited the island and the first time I had visited without my son R.J.
Over the years I have made many trips to search the dredge piles for fossils. These piles were put here to be used by the park service for road maintenance. The piles are loaded with phosphate gravel and along with the phosphate comes the fossilized bones and teeth we search for.
Once on the island, we rented a couple of bicycles to get around. This was something new to me. The last time I visited, there were no bikes, you hiked everywhere.
We rode to the south end of the island to check out the old fossil hunting grounds. The dredge piles were pretty much gone the last time I had visited. I was happy to see they had dumped tons of new dredge material to search through.
Down by the dredge piles, we were able to hunt our treasures and take in the variety of wildlife around us.
On the inside looking out.
