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For Those About To Rock... Letterbox Hybrid

Hidden : 9/24/2010
Difficulty:
2 out of 5
Terrain:
3 out of 5

Size: Size:   small (small)

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Geocache Description:

Welcome to the Agassiz Rock Reservation, one of the Trustees of Reservations properties. This 7”x7”x2.5” Lock 'n' Lock is meant to complement the other cache near Little Agassiz and encourage folks to walk the whole loop trail. The Related Web Site above is the Trustees' web site. The difficulty rating is such because the trail is mostly uphill and moderately steep at times, with rocks and tree roots in it. This cache is about a 20-foot bushwhack off the path.

Big and Little Agassiz Rocks are dramatic examples of giant boulders plucked from bedrock and carried far away by the last glacier. A short loop trail leads up Beaverdam Hill where Little Agassiz Rock appears as a giant granite monolith silhouetted against the sky. It rests - seemingly precariously - on a small jagged stone, leaving an opening below. A short distance away, other boulders lie perched on the edge of this glaciated upland.

Below, in a small shrub swamp, rests thirty-foot-tall Big Agassiz Rock. No one knows how far below the ground it is buried. As the glaciers scoured this landscape, the mass of bedrock forming the hill proved more resistant than the surrounding soil, forcing the bottom of the glacier up and over the hill. The north side was smoothed and the south side left steep and rugged as the glacier broke off chunks of rock as it passed. In October 1874, a group of students from the Essex Institute formally named the site to honor Louis Agassiz (1807-1873), the professor of natural history at Harvard University who first theorized that the rocks that dot New England's landscape were shaped and deposited by glaciers. Agassiz supposedly visited the site at the suggestion of its then-owner, Frederick Burnham. Agassiz found its erratics great lessons to advance his theory and to bring it to the attention of science. "Big Agassiz" is the largest glacial erratic in Essex County. Prior to Agassiz's theory, it was widely believed that the scattering of rocks throughout New England were the result of Noah's great flood.

Dogs are allowed but must be on a leash.

JuJy 2013: We have teamed up again with 20mermaid to bring you this cache as a Letterbox Hybrid. Please leave the stamp in the container, do NOT swap it out. We added the stamp image to the gallery. Please don't forget your paper, rubberstamp and ink pad!

Please also check out our other nearby caches across the street at Cathedral Pines / Millstone Hill (GC2GZBR is easy, GC2FPQW not-so-easy). First-To-Find prize is an American coin rarer than our usual leave, a 5¢ Buffalo nickel from 1937 for our fifth cache. 1937 marks the beginning of the Roosevelt Recession, a step backwards from the USA’s recovery from the Great Depression. This coin design has been acclaimed for many years for its unique American motif and artistry. The sculptor of this coin design had various models: from the Cheyenne, the Sioux, and also possibly the Iroquois and the Blackfoot Indian tribes. The buffalo model was “Black Diamond,” a resident in the New York Zoological Gardens. FTF goes to mouseydew: ...WE SALUUUTE YOU (per AC/DC)!

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Onpx va Onpx (naq orybj gb gur evtug)

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)