A geocaching unit by a local Girl Scout troop led to the placing of this 8th Pocumtuck Ridge Cache. After getting a taste of caching by finding some different types of containers hidden around Deerfield Elementary School, the girls headed out along the Ridge Trail and selected the specific location for this cache.
At the cache site you will be treated to a small playground of climbable rock deposits. According to Deerfield Academy geologist Andrew Harcourt, “These are large fragments of basalt columns, the rock that makes up Hosmer's Ridge just to the east of Pocumtuck Mountain. This rock body also makes up the ridge that holds Poet's Seat tower in Greenfield. It is pretty rare to see this kind of rock inland, as it is the main component of the ocean floor, but during the Jurassic period the Atlantic Ocean thought it might try to form here. It got a start, but then changed its mind and moved east. The actual boulders you will see were torn off of the formations to the north of us by the Wisconsin Age Glacier.”
There are oodles of hiding places for a cache here, but hopefully enough averaging on the gps has yielded accurate coordinates. The cache is NOT hidden in/on any of the taller deposits.
Trailhead parking for three or four cars is available at the end of Ridge Road, which is off of Stage Road, which is off of North Hillside Road.