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Category: Field Trips

August 21 field trip

When: Sunday, August 21, 2022, 9 am departure

Travel: Meet at Helmcken Park & Ride at 9 am to arrange carpooling.

Exposure: Please see the email sent to paid VicPS members for details.

Exposure: Please see the email sent to paid VicPS members for details.

Equipment: Geological hammer, chisel and safety equipment (gloves, goggles, safety helmet advisable) and footwear suitable for wading. Bring water, snacks/lunch and sunscreen.

Please RSVP to Jerri Wilkins if you plan to participate

July 17th field trip

When: Sunday, July 17th, 2022, 7 am departure

Travel: We are going a little further afield on this trip, so set your alarm clock! Meet at Helmcken Park & Ride at 7 am to arrange carpooling. Or meet us outside the Courtenay Museum at 10 am.

Exposure: Please see the email sent to paid VicPS members for details.

Exposure: Please see the email sent to paid VicPS members for details.

Access: This site is not as easily accessible as other sites; some hiking and scaling of the riverbank is required and current water height in that section of the river is unverified. Good mobility, alertness and care required.

Equipment: Proper footwear for hiking and riverside collecting. Basic hammer and chisel (like equipment used on shales at Mt. Tzouhalem and Chemainus River). Bring the usual daytrip essentials: hat, sunscreen, insect spray, jacket, lunch, water and an endless supply of curiosity!

Please RSVP to Jerri Wilkins if you plan to participate

June 26 – VicPS Field Trip

Mark your field trip calendars!

When: Sunday, June 26, 2022
Travel: Meet at Helmcken Park & Ride at 9 am to arrange carpooling.

Paid members will have received the field trip destination description via email. Any others may plead your case to VicPS President Jerri Wilkins.

Access/Equipment: Site suitable for collectors of all ages and activity levels, although productivity of the site varies due to its protected nature. Parking is within a few meters of the start of a fifteen-minute walk on mostly flat ground to the site. This is an intertidal site, so expect slippery rocks. Fossils are found in the rock and in concretions, so small chisels and even a sturdy jackknife for the mudstones and a good hammer or sledge, chisel, and protective eyewear are required for the harder rock. Bring jacket hat, sunscreen, water and a lunch.

April 24 – VicPS Field Trip

Sunday, April 24: mark your field trip calendars! Originally scheduled for November, this fieldtrip was postponed due to the atmospheric river, so let’s hope for better luck this month.

Note the earlier meet-up and departure time of 8 am at the Helmcken Road Park & Ride. The target site is north of The Malahat and we need extra to/from driving time.

Paid members will have received the field trip destination description via email. Any others may plead your case to VicPS President Jerri Wilkins.

February 20 field trip

When: Sunday, February 20, 2022

Travel: 9am, meet at Helmcken Park & Ride. Arrive at Java World in Duncan by 10am to meet participants from the Duncan area, then proceed to our destination. Return to Park & Ride between 3-4 pm. Return times are approximate, subject to Malahat traffic.

Exposure: Paid VicPS members will have received details in their email as to where we’re headed and what fossil specimens to expect.

Equipment: A good hammer, chisel, and protective eyewear are recommended, as is a glue/water solution to stabilize fragile pieces and newsprint or paper towel for wrapping. Wear sturdy shoes, dress for all weather (rain, wind) and bring drinking water and snacks.

RSVP: Jerri Wilkins, Field Trip Lead, via the via the VicPS Facebook page or via email.

January 23 field trip

Change of plan. The roads in the woods are apparently quite wet, so in the interest of safety and actually reaching our destination, we’re moving to plan B. Boomerang Lake will wait for us.

Annual membership renewal for 2022 is this month; dues must be paid up to attend fieldtrips. Please see the membership page for methods of payment.

Field Trip – Mt. Tzouhalem

When: Sunday, January 23, 2022

Travel: 9 am, meet at Helmcken Park & Ride. Arrive at Java World in Duncan by 10 am to meet participants from the Duncan area, then proceed to the mountain. Return to Park & Ride between 3 – 4 pm. Field trip and return times are approximate, subject to Malahat access and return traffic, which can be unpredictable.

Exposure: Mount Tzouhalem is a high point of land that overlooks Cowichan Bay. Much of the mountain is forested, and some of it is protected by an ecological reserve, but the northern side of the mountain, originally intended as a golf course, is slowly being developed into single family homes. High on the mountain, in undeveloped areas, fossils are found in the rock and in concretions; hiking steep inclines is required. Where subdivision construction is in progress, lower down, fossils can be collected on newly excavated flat lots and in debris piles beside newly paved streets with ample parking. The matrix is black shale, ranging from very hard to extremely friable. Preservation of shell is typically black in colour. Fossils at this locality are characteristic of the older part of the Haslam, including the typical ammonites (Haeuriceras, Eupachydiscus, and the heteromorphs Eubostrychoceras and Glyptoxoceras). A wide variety of clams and snails can also be found. Along with the more standard fare, the exposures here have yielded some rarities, such as the crinoids Uintacrinus and the spiny ammonite Urakawites, which are unknown from most other Haslam localities. In 2021 an impression of Pseudoxybeleceras was collected, which is pending donation to the Royal BC Museum. Plant material is common in some areas, mainly Metasequoia (dawn redwood); a well-preserved flowering cone collected at the site by a VicPS member, also donated to the RBCM.

Equipment: A good hammer, chisel, and protective eyewear are recommended, as is a glue/water solution to stabilize fragile pieces and newsprint or paper towel for wrapping. Masking tape is useful to secure a wrapped specimen and to accept a description of where and when it was found. Wear sturdy shoes, dress for all weather (rain, wind) and bring drinking water and snacks.

RSVP: Jerri Wilkins, Field Trip Lead, via the VicPS Facebook page or via email at jlwilkins2@hotmail.com.

VicPS meeting Wednesday, January 12, 7 pm

Our first meeting of 2022 is PARTICIPATORY!!.

The evening will be structured around a photo tour of the 2021 field trip season, emphasizing specimens collected.  We’ll tap into our collective knowledge to understand the sites and fossils found.

To participate:

  1. Review the list below of sites/formations visited in 2021,
  2. Dive into your collection and select a few corresponding fossils (many of you have visited these sites/formations over the years!),
  3. Accept the Zoom meeting notice sent to paid VicPS members, and
  4. Show upshare the specimens and knowledge you’ve collected over the years, and help identify specimens.

Field Trip participants, please have your specimens on hand for show and tell.

List of VicPS 2021 Field Trip Locales:

  • Muir Creek – Sooke Formation
  • Northwest Bay – Pender (?) Formation
  • Chemainus River – Haslam Formation
  • Stephenson’s Point – Comox Formation
  • Ladysmith – Thicke Road area (Upper Comox (?), Lower Haslam (?)

See you Wednesday at the Zoom meeting!

Dino Lab tour Nov 21

As an alternative to our cancelled field trip of Nov 21, VicPS President Jerri Wilkins has had Dino Lab offer to give VicPS members a tour at 4 PM tomorrow, Sunday Nov. 21, for $32 a person. That price is a 20% discount from their standard entrance fee. We can take up to 10 people.

Anyone who wants to go will need to pay their own fee and RSVP Jerri in advance by email.

Dino Lab contact details are:

2 – 491 Dupplin Rd
Victoria BC 

ph: 778-966-3466

CANCELLED: November 21 field trip

The planned November 21 field trip is cancelled, or possibly postponed to another date. Malahat traffic is presently one-way alternating, 24/7, and is intended for essential travel.

Instead, we are planning a VicPS tour of local fossils, for members only, with details to be announced. Stay safe, and stay tuned!

DriveBC Malahat closure
Image courtesy of Drive BC

October 17 field trip –

When: Sunday, October 17, 2021

Where: Please see email to registered members for location details.

We are revisiting the second site from the September field trip to investigate further. It consists of a few pits, appeared to be created by blasting. In September the hard matrix revealed brachiopods and what appear to be trigonids.

Site suitable for families.

Travel: Meet at Helmcken Park & Ride at 9 am to arrange carpooling.

Equipment: The rock is TOUGH, with fossils in bedrock, not concretions. Bring your big hammers, chisel, safety glasses and gloves. Big boulders can be slippery; hiking boots recommended. Bring drinking water and bag lunch. Dress for rain, wind or sunshine (windbreaker, hat, sunscreen).

Exposure: Upper Cretaceous (90MY before present), Nanaimo Group, Upper Comox to Lower Haslam Formations. This small exposure of Nanaimo Group sediment is gritty sandstone/mudstone similar to Stephenson Point and thought to be Upper Comox to Lower Haslam in age, although no definitive reference could be sourced.