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Tuesday, February 12, 2008

"Prehistoric Seabeds"



Part of the kayaking experience for me is discovering my kayaking environment even if I've paddled it before, because the environment is always changing especially on a micro level. This means sometimes you may have to look harder to see new changes or to appreciate changes from the last time you were there. Of course macro changes from floatsam, driftwood, erosion, human encroachment, or pollution allow for very instantaneous recognition of changes in your kayaking environment.

Just beachcombing after a long days paddle or going for a few short hikes when taking a paddling break are great ways to discover little treasures that nature and man has to offer or has left behind in the execution of living and dying.

Here are just a few treasures I've collected on various paddling trips. Some are harvests of the land and others are harvests of the ocean. From prehistoric times to modern, the earth and it's "scapes" have many tales to relate and some can only be discovered by the kayak that takes you there.

The fossils in the images above were found on numerous paddles on lakes and rivers of north eastern British Columbia. Some of these areas are very rich in fossil remains such as Williston lake and Dinosaur lake and the Peace and Beatton Rivers. Soon as you step out of your kayak it is likely that your foot will disrupt a fossil of some sort.

The bottom image is of vertebrae found on a beach on a NL paddle. They are not prehistoric more modern I'd say. They reminded me of dogs and so I put them on a piece of driftwood to reinforce the image I had.

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