Happy As A Clam EarthCache
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This Earthcache is located off County Route 16 in the Village of Angelica, NY.
I’ve always loved fossils. Evidence of a time so long ago that I can’t understand, I sought them avidly as a child. Even now as an adult, they captivate me. When I stumbled across this area when searching for a cache, I could not resist making this into an Earthcache. The road you need to locate to find this cache is County Route 16, in the Village of Angelica, NY. There is parking across the road on the east side of the bridge.
This Earthcache is situated in a small gorge carved out by a stream that drains into the Genesee River Valley. Over time, this stream cut through the bedrock to expose the late Devonian shales and siltstones of the Canadaway group. Erosion has done its work well here, uncovering layers of rock laid down during the middle Paleozoic era, known to geologists as “Age of Fishes”.
This area was once part of a vast shallow inland sea that teemed with coral, fish, sponges, arthropods (like trilobites), echinoderms (like star fish) and brachiopods. But what would an ocean be without mollusks? The ancestors of clams, mussels and scallops also lived on the muddy floor of this ocean. These creatures left their remains behind in the mud, to be buried deeper and deeper in the sedimentation, finally making the transition into fossils as the weight of eons transformed the mud into fragile sedimentary rock like shale and sandstone. Not surprising to anyone who lives in this area, all the fossils you will see here are Carboniferous indicators. (Translation: Oil and gas are probably here, too.)
Above the narrow footpath, the unstable Devonian shale and sandstone shelves are weathered and crumbled, cascading from the ledges above to mix with topsoil, vegetation, decomposing rocks and other material. Very nearly every sedimentary rock you see here contains fossils: neospirifer and mucrospirifer are abundant, along with the round cross sections of crinoids’ attachments to the ancient ocean floor called columnals. Many are degraded from exposure to rain and weather, which causes both the fossils and the rock in which they exist to decompose.
Special care should be taken at this cache. A boardwalk extends far enough to admire a handsome bridge built over the stream, but to claim this cache, you must walk somewhat further on an undeveloped footpath that will ultimately lead to the streambed. You will wish to stop where the debris collects from the steep hill your right and explore the rocks that are found here. Small seeps and drainages can make this a muddy area, so it is not the place for good clothing or unsturdy footwear.
NOTE: I had a VERY hard time getting good coords here. You would do better to follow the description, since the coords seem to take you across the stream and it is NOT needed. Once you leave the boardwalk and go past the wooden fence to the path, the hillside at your right is littered with fossils, and as you go down to where the footpath pretty much disappears, there are more specimens. You do NOT need to descend into the streambed itself. Suggested parking coordinates are: N-42-18-670 W-078-01-799
To claim this cache you must locate a fossil-bearing rock and take a picture of a fossil with your GPSr and estimate how far the ledges of the Devonian shales are above you (clearly visible from the footpath).
Final footnote: I learned a great deal about fossils and our area from this cache and I encourage folks to go to their local library and pull some books out on the subject.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Jrne tbbq fubrf naq pybgurf lbh pna trg qvegl!