At the Mountains of Trilobite Madness: British Columbia.

To begin, a bit of serendipity. In July of this year, my wife and I arranged a trip where we travelled from Ontario to Alberta, Alberta to Montana, Montana to Idaho, Idaho to British Columbia and finally Alberta to home. It was a great trip where we visited museums, national parks and the odd dive bar (the weirder the better). Driving through Cranbrook, BC - I suddenly remembered that a fellow trilobite enthusiast lived in the area. We had precious few correspondences but I figured it was worth reaching out and seeing if we could drop by. Chris graciously agreed to meet and show off his impressive collection of Cambrian trilobites which he has built over a few decades. It turns out that between him and his dig partner (also named Chris), they have donated and helped describe dozens of new trilobite species. Truly impressive and another example of what can be achieved when academics treat professional "amateur" collectors with due respect and consideration. Many of these new bugs were described in Brian Chatterton's excellent 2016 monograph, 'Palaeontolographica Canadiana no.35'. I've been trying to nab a copy for myself but its a pricy tome! After a few hours of bug war stories, he invited me back in the fall to dig for trilobites on some of the most scenic localities the country has to offer. I was very grateful for this offer since I have not had the pleasure of digging in the Cambrian before. I had hoped for several other trips West in previous years but life always had other plans. A few ground rules were set, to not reveal the exact locations of these legally owned claims and to leave my commercial interests at the door. I was more than happy to follow these requests. In a business of relatively common back-stabbings, site-stealings, critiscm and broken friendships, I prefer to put my energy into building relationships where possible. The two Chris's have been trilobite friends for decades and if that isn't an indication of mutual respect and good character, I don't know what is!

On the morning of September 10th I flew out of Kitchener's tiny airport on a Flair airlines flight. Flair is one of the many "budget" airlines that have surfaced and despite being packed with people who have no airport etiquette, I got where I was going. More-or-less on time to boot. For as long as I can remember, flights out west have been ridiculously expensive. It's often cheaper to visit Caribbean All-inclusive destinations than it is to see my own country, and that's just the flight! I'd recommend checking out Flair for cheap domestic travel within Canada. They make you pay $4 for water though, fair warning. No Flair Freebees on this ride. In any case, I landed in Calgary and picked up my rental, a monstrous, white Dodge Ram with barely 16k on the odometer. The car rental by far was the priciest part of the trip at around $780. I was still expecting to get a shitbox as I signed up for a "mystery vehicle" so this was a relief. You get lucky every once in awhile.

The drive between Calgary, Alberta and Cranbrook, BC, is scenic, busy, occasionally white-knuckle driving. The mountains appear slowly in the distance until they completely surround you. Tunnels go straight through the mountains and most of the scenic views have pull-off spots for photos or just to take in the sights. For me, I had trilobites to visit. The 4.5 hour drive passed by quickly aided by audiobooks.

After arriving in Cranbrook, I headed over to Chris' place for a few beers, stories and of course, looking at trilobites. Chris is also a skilled preparator so we had lots to talk shop about. The McKay group has numerous described trilobites with some localities producing up to 15 species. This is amazing to me as most sites I dig only have a handful of species (The Widder fm in my home range only ever seems to have one!). We make a plan for the next morning for our first run up the mountain. The weather is looking perfect and there hasn't been much rain to hamper the drive. I'll be spoiled by conditions as a logging road has been opened up near the site and it saves us about two hours of hiking in. To get up the logging road safely, Chris acquired a walkie talkie to communicate with the logging trucks further up the mountain. You don't want to be stuck on a single lane stretch of mountain road with a logging truck bearing down on you. It doesn't sound fun OR productive. In the morning, armed with strong coffee, we set off towards the mountain and to say I'm excited is an understatement. Many of my trilobite colleagues speak very highly of Cambrian digs and I'm not sure what to expect yet. Before I can split a single rock though, we have a roughly 2 hour drive up the winding logging truck roads. As we drive up the mountain, Chris checks in on the walkie to give our position to the loggers working further up. It keeps things civil between the large amounts of loggers, hunters, hikers and the two trilobite hunters.

Roughly an hour into the drive, we came across a small forest fire. Perhaps you've heard of the many wildfires running rampant in the province of BC. The entire river valley was nearly shut down because of the proximity of these fires which would have canceled my trip. luckily, this fire is small and contained. It's such a small affected area of forest, it seems to have fallen out of the sky. Driving on, we passed through a shallow stream (avoiding the big rocks) and over a rickety old bridge with rotten beams. The drive gets really fun when the side of the road slopes off into ravines. A little spooky in places but thrilling views. Soon enough we arrive at the hike-in location and suit up. An indispensable piece of kit we'll both be carrying today is bear spray. Grizzly bears are very common up here and though attacks on humans are rare, they do happen. A few days before I wrote this blog, a couple and their dog was tragically killed in Banff National park by an old female Grizzly. I can't imagine too many animals I'd be less happy to see in a hiking situation than a grizzly or polar bear.

We walk into a clearing and start the hike down to the first locality. A few large piles of spoor litter the clearing, possibly a mountain cat by the shape/size. The smell of trees and earth is heady as one of the most complete, deep silences I've ever experienced takes hold. No sound whatsoever except for us humans moving through the brush. Truly remarkable to experience this total silence in nature. Not even a bird was calling.

The elevation here is roughly 6000 ft and I'm quickly out of breath. I'm hoping this is due to the thin air but I'm sure I could be doing more for my physical state and stamina when not on expeditions. I silently chide myself for my love for beer & tacos and continue the hike down to the 'bowl' of the ravine. Chris has tied off a nylon rope to get down the ravine a little easier. It's a steep incline made dangerous by the fact that trilobites can be found here in hard little nodule 'caps' that wash out from higher on the hill.

It's easy to misstep when trilobites are scattered across the steep terrain. The nodules feature a number of different species of trilobite, some quite rare. Almost no preparation is needed as the nodules are quite hard.

These 'cap' nodules are fascinating to me as calcite 'needles' create a sort of shroud around both part and counterpart. The example Chris used to explain it was like one of those 3D needle puzzles that you can push your face into, making a sort of low res copy of your face. The calcite needles do the same thing in these nodules.

After around an hour of cap hunting we head to the bottom of the ravine and follow a feeder stream up to another locality. The streamed is fairly narrow and bordered high on both sides by another ravine. A few spots were tricky to climb up but overall, the journey to the next location was very enjoyable and exciting. Trilobite bits litter the stream and I found myself more focused on the ground than my feet (I may have tripped once or twice). We are far from civilization and medical aid so I must remember to take more care in future trips.

The next location is very different, a steep slope of thin, shaley rock that juts out at every possible angle from under the scree. The formation itself sits in nearly every orientation. imagine a pile of books tossed in a huge pile with the pages representing the layers and direction of the shale. The idea here is to dig down past the flaky, rotten shale and clear off a bench to work from of fresh, more stable rock. Finding a toehold or a stable place to stand while you work is nearly impossible. My lack of experience digging here sent me sliding down a few feet constantly in the first few hours. Eventually I got the hang of cutting myself out some stable footholds and began to work methodically through the shale. The place is trilobite city! The bugs are incredibly plentiful and nicely preserved. The trick is that the fissile/fragile shale often breaks the trilobites out badly. Tiny pieces of shell are easily (and frustratingly) lost, sometimes in the occasionally strong updrafts of wind. However, it's a numbers game. Keep digging and you'll get nice bugs. Several species of Orgymaspis are found in this locality and it's the most exciting trilobite hunting I've had the privilege of doing. The mountain views, perfect temperatures, lack of bugs, isolation and the frequency of trilobites is nothing short of amazing. Mountain goat tracks are clearly seen on the neighbouring ravine slopes. I work feverishly as the daylight begins to wane. They say time flies when you're having fun and I'm inclined to agree with the famous idiom as this day has blown past me. It's important to start hiking out of the ravines before it gets dark for many obvious reasons. One more reason is that we've been without cell service for about 9 hours so far and I realized I forgot to warn my wife about the total lack of contact. Since there's a 2 hour time change (2 hours later in Ontario) I'm starting to worry that maybe She'll be really worried about me. Just hiking out in the grizzly wilds on a mountain in the dark looking for rocks, no big deal. Hiking out I start to feel exhausted as I've packed up around 50-60 pounds of rock that now has to be carried up and out. My heart is pounding so hard at the top of the last ravine that I'm worried bears will hear it on the next mountain over. We make it back to Chris' truck and begin the long drive back to civilization. A moose and her calf peel out of the forest and run ahead of us down the road for a ways. It's the closest I've been to a living moose. Incredible animal. Roughly 1.5 hours later we pull off the logging road and regain cell service. My worries were unfounded as several pictures of my dogs flood my phone from my wife, Clair. Some excellent food awaits us back at Chris' place and the first dig day is in the books. A truly awesome experience.

The next morning we repeat the drive and hike into the same area but hit a few different spots. The next location has smaller numbers of trilobites but they are larger and rarer than yesterday's site. The shale is similar but has to be worked down to carefully as a large Mckelleri or Jenksinsi could pop out at any time. We spend about 5 hours here with varying degrees of success. I have found a large double Mckelleri, one ventral on dorsal that could be quite nice when prepared. As of writing, I've only prepared some of the smaller, complete bugs which I'll add photos of to the bottom of the blog. We return to yesterdays' dig spot in the Orgymaspis beds for an hour before heading higher up the ravine. Roughly 100 ft higher on the slope, Orgymaspis can still be found but tend to be much larger than in the lower layers. We start to close in on some promising rock (after a couple maddening missing negatives) but soon have to pack it in. Time, once again, has completely gotten away from the day and the sun is already hurtling low into the sky. On the hike out, I thank Chris for trusting me, essentially a near-total stranger with these sites as I could have been a maniac or a sociopath. Without missing a beat Chris says "I carry the pickaxe for two reasons". That's just good fieldcraft! Reflecting on these digs, I'm shocked not only how quickly this trip went by but also how quickly Chris and I settled into an easy friendship.

Back at Chris' house, we play guitar and have a few beers reflecting on the day. I've been very lucky in my life to play music as a job and it's often been like another language I can use to connect with people. There's seems to be quite a few fossil folks that also play music and It's kind of awesome to be able to mix those passions.

I'm excited but a little sad that my last full dig day is already upon us. This time, we're taking another logging road further up with controlled trails that require a permit (which Chris has). We're being joined today by two of Chris' local friends Jordan and Heidi. Not necessarily 'trilobite people' but experienced, outdoorsy folks with a love for nature and hunting. They make for good company. How can you beat hunting for half-billion year old arthropods on a mountain in the Canadian wilderness!? The site we're heading to today has much thicker bedding planes and very diverse fauna. Over a dozen species of trilobite can be found here including Cernuolimbus, Housia, Wujiiana, Irvinella, Anechocephalus and the elusive, mostly unknown- 'razorback'. Before we get there, it's roughly an hour long hike up an old logging trail and into a wide streambed. Chris was shocked at how much this stream bed has changed in the last three weeks. A roughly 8ft tall wall of river rock in the bed was completely flattened by water cascading down the ravine. The deluge has also sent trees and shrubs every which way. The power of nature! During this walk I'm told to keep an eye out for large nodule caps which could contain either assemblages of trilobites or the highly sought after 'Pterocephalia', a large and impressive trilobite which I'd love to get my hands on. These nodules wash out from higher upstream at elevation and next time I'm going to spend more time tracking one down. Despite walking with "eyes on", my internal, mental discipline for surface hunting, I found no such beasts. Eventually we arrive at a steep slope where our focus for the day lies. The slope sits at an extreme angle and not for the faint of heart. footing is once again tricky and I'm the least experienced on this mountain-goat terrain. Luckily, Chris has lots of advice on where and how to start and it isn't long before I find my first bugs. The trilobites in this layer are dependant on good lighting. Generally, the bugs seem to be 'ghosted', where the impression of the trilobite can be seen positive/negative but in very low detail and low relief. This is actually a blessing since the bug will be protected in one side or the other. Typically, the side with higher relief or detail has the trilobite so keeping both part and counterpart is essential. We found a killer plate of shelly Wuji's and a few other nice pieces. I found, what should be, a nice Anechocephalus or 'fork tail' trilobite along with a heartbreaker headless Cernuolimbus. After some moving around, Chris and I decided to tackle a promising, more-or-less flat horizon to bench out. We were getting out huge, flat slabs and finding plenty of trilobits and other good signs of productivity. We eventually found a big Wujiiana and a couple (hopefully) awesome Cernuolimbus. Time will tell when I finally get a chance to prepare some of these over the winter. Working together we prepared a big, flat shelf bench from but of course, once again, that sun started setting. I'll miss this locality the most since we were just getting into the good rock when we had to start the long hike/drive back out to civilization. Camping is an awfully tempting prospect though perhaps not without a high caliber rifle in case of bears. It was another fun drive out to the city of Cranbrook sharing various stories and anecdotes as the sun fully set on the mountain and my last full day of collecting.

I stayed up till' about 1am packing up all my stuff and preparing boxes for shipping stuff home. As I write this, the boxes beat me home from South Carolina but sadly Canada Post employees decided to use it for an impromptu soccer game or something and the contents were fully shattered. There are no sure things in shipping fragile items. especially when logistic companies have this kind of power of being the only affordable game in town. ($160 isn't overly affordable but you get the idea). Before I started the long 4.5 trek back to the airport in Calgary, Chris and I visited a fairly well-known lower Cambrian site that occasionally produces some great bugs including Olenellus. The shale here is remarkably similar to the Pioche Shale in Nevada not only in color but in density and character. Unfortunately, I more or less struck out here with only finding a few heads. A much larger scale dig would be required here to properly access the right layers. Next time. On this morning I also got to meet "The Other Chris" who was very friendly and interesting. He makes his living selling trilobites which I very much respect (it is NOT easy). Part of that respect is not having any personal involvement in selling the local material commercially. Trust is a currency and one I pride myself on receiving and protecting. That said, if interested, contact me and I'll put you in touch with one of these fine gents. There's so much these two guys have contributed to further the trilobite knowledge of the area that I'm extremely impressed and humbled. Both are down-to-earth, humble guys in a field populated with contentious relationships, braggarts and ego-driven characters.

With an invite to come back, I say my farewells and start my commute to Calgary and the flight home. At this point I'm feeling sad to leave but energized to return (and see my family of course). By the time I get home at around 1:30am the following day, I have a few days to pack for my 11 day trip to South Carolina to see my friends from Palmetto Fossil Excursions.

It's a monster of a trip and one I better start writing an outline on. Cheers for now! Scroll down for pics of a few completed pieces.

Mike Meacher - Stormbed Paleontological Oct 5th, 2023