Contest: Two nights free at Adventure Inn for a rock hound who will educate us

They get stepped on, scraped, run over and kicked aside.

They get tossed like playthings and even cursed at, mostly by people in tender bare feet.

I’m talking about the stones and rocks on our otherwise sandy Lake Huron beach. Rocks get no respect — unless you slow down to admire them.

These photos were taken in December before the ice came in and on the very day that I resolved to own up to how little Nicholas and I know about geology — and to do something about it.

Of course, not every toe-tripper on the beach is a complete mystery….

Contest details are below. You can enter on behalf of yourself or nominate someone else. The winner might be a geologist or a paleobiogeographer — or your friendly neighborhood rock hound.

What might someone tell us about the rocks and fossils on our beach? What to call them, for starters.  How and when they were formed. What they can tell us about the time before man made footprints in this sand.

The beach along our stretch of Lake Huron about an hour from Detroit mostly has fine sand sprinkled with rocks.  But right at the water’s edge, the terrain changes, varying from little pebbles to larger rocks, sometimes overnight. Why is that?

Here’s a sample I toted from the beach. I recognize a Petoskey stone near the center and a fossil at lower right, but the rest? Lovely mysteries.

And what about these little guys? I pick up every one I see.

Between them and my fossil collection,  the basketful on my kitchen island is too heavy to pick up. More mysteries. Do you know someone who can help?

Our lovely rocks are not mere stepping stones on the way to a dip in the lake. They have names, and if they could speak, I’ll bet they would ask that we not take them all for granite.

Ba-da-boom. Here are the contest details:

Before March 8, send an email to Adventure Inn Bed and Breakfast, and in 100 words or less tell us how you or the person you’re nominating is qualified to educate us about our rocks and, if you wish to add it, a pitch telling us how this free three-day, two-night stay at Adventure Inn is richly deserved. Include full contact information for the nominee.

We will choose someone and invite him or her by March 15 for a stay for two people between then and June 13.

For everyone else who’s not a rock hound, check out the special winter and spring packages posted on the Adventure Inn website. Fun ways to spend time, attractively priced.

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