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Yesterday turned out to be a great day to go on a fossilhunt in Central New York. We arrived at Deep Springs at 10am and found that while there was still some snow and ice, there was also plenty of exposed rock to search through. On the ride out, the sun had stayed behind the clouds mostly. And then when we arrived, almost on cue the sun popped out the entire time we were there. We immediatly got to work. For me the day was about collecting "fossils", not just Dipleuras. It has been so long since my last hunt I wanted to collect any worthy specimens. For those who know me, I am not much of a shale splitter. I much rather pull up slabs. But due to the weathering that has gone on from the emtreme freeze/ thaw the rock was not cooperating to pull slabs. That was fine though because there were plenty of slabs lying around from previous trip that only needed a light tap of the hammer to break. Many I could break with only my fingers. But this turned out to be a blessing and a curse as many worthy items ended up crumbling. We all found some decent items though. Trilo parts and pieces were abundant. Greenops, Eldregeops, and Dipleura pygydiums and cephalons. Devin and I both found nearly complete greenops, just missing spines. Dylan found an imprint from a decent size Dipleura thorax. As always there were plenty of brachs, bivalves, gastros,and a few cephalopods. I found a nice criniod piece with a bunch of segmentswhich later got stepped on by tiny feet and broke in half. But I kept it and will glue it back together. David found a few things but he isn't as into fossils as the rest of us so he only kept a few small items. We stayed for about 2 1/2 hours and decided to hit up Cole Hill, which is about a half hour drive from Deep Springs. Sadly , on the drive over the sun disappeared. The temp definitely got cooler, but it was still not but for January. When we arrived there it was pretty much the same conditions, some snow and ice, but plenty of exposed rock. I climbed up to the ledge while the boys looked in the talus pile at the base of the cliff. David decided he was done for the day so he sat in the car to take a nap. Unlike Deep Springs, the matrix is much harder here. Not easy to split but I did what I could. I told the boys we would only be there a few minutes. Yeah right! Soon I heard the luring siren call of 6 inch Dipleuras. Cole hill is getting harder to dig at due to the fact that those who have been digging there the past couple years are leaving their tailings right on top of the trilo layer. Years ago when I first started going there, the ledge was clean as a whistle. Everone tossed all the loose broken bits over the side of the cliff. Now everyone just leaves it where it falls at their feet. So now to get to the layer you have to spend a lot of time and energy clearing this out. I know in some locations this can't be helped, but here there is a cliff. Throw it over! Anyways at one point I lost my footing and toik a 25 foot ride down the talus pile on my hands and knees. I didn't have my gloves on at that moment and tore up my knuckles a little. It felt much worse than it was. Banged up my right knee too, but I am ok. It started getting late so we left a little after 3pm. I found a couple pygidiums and cephalons and was about it. Even though there were no amazing finds today, I did have a great day fossilhunting with my boys in January, which is, for us New Yorkers a rare occurrence. I will be posting pics thoughout the day as I have some chores to attend to so please bear with me. Hope you enjoyed! First few pics are of Deep Springs. #1 The entrance #2 a slab that I was trying to break down #3 the main area that I was digging at