Denton Creek Canoe Trip – Wrap-up  - by Roger Farish

Sure enough, seems that the third time’s a charm. On Sunday, July 12 after weeks of torrential flooding, we fielded the largest flotilla to ever attack Denton Creek now that it was back in its banks. The ten canoes, an equal number of kayaks and a paddle boat managed to launch despite our silted-in staging area.

Though the current was swift the 5-mile trip took almost seven hours because we spent too much time on the relatively unproductive gravel bars of the upper half of the creek. After all, we didn’t want to miss anything. The more productive lower half didn’t disappoint as can be seen in the photos below. The very last gravel bar was deemed the most productive for all.

Nothing unexpected turned up this year, but the usual Upper Washita sequence of the Lower Cretaceous fauna were available – notably Macraster, Hemiaster and Holaster echinoids and ammonites Eopachydiscus, Pervinquieria and I believe Mortoniceras.

I shot a lot of pictures as did David Hill and Judah Epstein. We hope to get all of them up on our new website when it becomes functional. Thanks also to David Hill for trucking our rack of 10 canoes up from Irving. Experienced kayakers Kym and Kelly Forrest helped guide and rescue members on tricky parts of the creek (oh yes, we did have a fair amount of white water, but only four boats flipped). Watermelon providers Patrick Tillman, Clay Rutledge and Tony Ithaca were also appreciated.

For those who went on the previous trip, Glenn Hilliard was allowed to participate this year, but was forbidden to find another spectacular mammoth tooth like he did last time.