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The weather was promising, the husband wanted a good place to hike, and the dog had cabin fever. So I loaded them, along with my gear, into the truck and drove down to Crystal Lake to hunt around in the Madison limestone while the husband and the dog went for a romp in the Big Snowy Mountains. On the dirt road to the area, we drove past a mama black bear and her cub, hanging out only about 30 feet from the road. To avoid aggravating either, we didn't slow down to take pictures, but my husband was pretty "bear"-anoid about running into them again Well, the mountains weren't snowy and the lake wasn't much of a lake, but the weather was great and the shoreline looked promising, so I set off to start combing through the countless dead snail shells to find myself some brachiopods. Most of the shoreline was water-worn limestone chunks, but the outcrops of layered stone jutting from the shore harbored some wonderful fossils. My first find of the day! Can you spot it? After my first little brach, I started seeing a lot of crinoid and coral hash plates. This plate was several feet across and still half-buried. I had been finding some nice little brachiopods that I suspected were some sort of spirifer, and decided to start splitting some limestone to see what else I might be able to find. After a few hours, the husband and dog came back and started smothering me with their boredom. So, in an attempt to appease them, and perhaps scout out another good spot or two, we started off on the trail that circled the lake. There wasn't much in the way of good exposures, but the dog ran most of her energy out on the little trail. We picked along the opposite shore on the way back to the truck, finding a few more small brachs and crinoid bits, but I didn't want to go home yet. I talked my husband into letting me stop at a few roadcuts on the way back to the highway, and he agreed as long as he could nap in the truck while I hunted. Perfect: now I don't have to entertain him. The dog was pretty pooped out too, so it was a nice stress-free hunt-and-peck down Crystal Lake Road. Until my angry bowels could not hold out any longer. We swung over to Cascade Falls Trailhead to use the outhouse, and there was a tiny little exposure near the parking area of the trailhead. I couldn't help it. I had to check it out. A whitetail doe hanging out on the right side of the hill played peek-a-boo with me as I scoured the well-split limestone. My last find of the day is probably my most favorite. After researching these a bit more, I believe these are a type of Cyrtospirifer, lower Mississippian and common in this area. I believe that there are at least two different species present in this plate and need to do some more research to find the species of each. I believe I found the impression of a Schizophoria on this piece. Bryozoa? I have a fair bit of homework to do, and as always, I am extremely happy with my finds. Thanks for stopping by; have a great day!