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Hey everyone, Just an update on my recent adventures exploring the Whetstone gulf formation. My last post I went to 2 gorges in the Tug Hill Plateau area known to expose the formation. I didn’t find any significant fossils but it was a good learning experience. On one of my recent weekend adventures I spent all of a Saturday and Sunday hiking another gorge that exposes the Whetstone. I won’t always be posting exact locations in these posts. Sometimes discretion is needed so I’m not blasting localities on this particular one. It happened to be the cold and rainy weekend in the northeast US so they were very cold and wet hikes. It seems the “upper whetstone”......a rather loose term......is more productive as far as frequency of faunal zones from what I’ve read and have been told by reputable sources. This means....you need to get to the upper parts of the formation. These massive gulfs/gorges don’t offer really any access so if you want to get inside the gorges you need to start downstream and hike DEEEEEEEP into the gorges working upstream to get to bedrock that “might” have something. The whetstone gulf formation is dominated by shales with thin sandstone beds inter layered in different concentrations. The upper whetstone has the sandstone layers in more abundance and it is reflected by the debris in the streams. The shale however doesn’t last long....at all! Based on what I saw these 2 field days......the really “good” fossiliferous stuff is in the softer dark grey shales. The sandstones do have nice fossils but extraction is nearly impossible. The fossils in the shales never make it downstream into easily accessible hiking areas either. It’s part of why I think the Whetstone generally isn’t sought out. Just doesn’t seem to attract much attention. On my first hike on Saturday (May 9th 2020) I was determined to hike as far into the undisclosed gorge as possible. I just wanted to see if I could find any sign of these hot zones with fossils. I hiked VERY FAR up into the gorge. No real trails and I had to get a little creative to keep my feet dry and still push upstream. It was Really cold so I tried to stay dry at all costs. I was super far into the wilderness, deep into a massive gorge, and super alone....weird feeling venturing so deep into a gorge and you are sure nobody’s been there for a long time. A few shots of the field terrain. It was cold but sunny during parts of the day...and snow/rained to get me nice and wet. It wasn’t until I got very far and very deep into the gorge that I saw the first sign of a fossil. I didn’t look hard for fossils as much early on cause all the pieces of shale downstream were barren and I didn’t even see shale fragments with fossils so I took that as my queue to keep walking. First sign of a trilobite I’ve found in the Whetstone!! I took this picture cause I was positive it wasn’t going to stay together I grabbed it and it began to disintegrate as expected but...... I found this in the process. A cryptolithis bellus cephalon!!! So cool. I felt like I was seeing a ghost. After all that reading, planning, and walking.....and walking lol.....I finally found evidence of the iconic Cryptolithis trilobite!! I’ve only ever see photos so it was very rewarding getting up close to the real thing. Turns out this is one of my best specimens so far. I found a few other fragments in the same small piece of shale. The articulated crinoid columns are a common feature in the fossiliferous shale. Not sure if the calyx’s show up I didn’t see anything in the literature but who knows. This tiny slab has 3 Triarthrus cephalons too. Continued.....