To log this earth cache answer the following questions and then e-mail the answers to the earth-cache owner::
1: At what elevation and coordinates did you start to find the quartz pebbles along the trail to the summit?
2: In a square foot of trail, how many pebbles can you count?
3: What is the largest size and average size pebble that you found?
4: Why do you think the pebbles can not be at lower elevations?
5: Do you think that Slide Mountain was a Nunatak. If so, why? If not, why not?
6: (Optional) post a picuture of your GPS with the pebbles.
The Slide Mountain Pebbles
One of the mountain's more curious features is the white quartz pebbles found on the trail along the summit ridge, which lend it something of a garden-path feel.
These are found nowhere else in the Catskills, and since it is likely that they would not have survived the Wisconsin glaciation, it has been speculated that Slide's summit may have been a nunatak during that time, protruding above the ice which buried all the other peaks. However, one researcher reportedly found striation marks on rocks along the summit ridge, suggesting that glaciers did indeed cover the summit. Those marks have eroded over time, however, becoming more difficult to confirm, and the consensus now is that they may have been left instead by glaciers during the Illinoian Stage prior to the Wisconsin Stage.
While you approach the summit keep a look out for other indications that the summit may not have been glaciated. If the summit was not glaciated you will start noticing geological features that seemed inconsistent with glacial forces. Specifically, look for deeply-weathered rock ledges, oxide stains, and large amounts of decomposed rock, all of which are indicative of non-glaciation as these features are typically scraped away by passing glaciers. Also look for massive rocks that may have been broken apart, sort of like small-scale version of continental drift. This may indicate millenias' worth of frost heave, far more than could have happened in the 12 thousand years since the glaciers passed through.
Nunatak
A nunatak (from Inuit nunataq) is an exposed, often rocky element of a ridge, mountain, or peak not covered with ice or snow within (or at the edge of) an ice field or glacier. The term is typically used in areas where a permanent ice sheet is present. It is believed that their may be evidence that Slid eMountain was a Nunatak during the last glatiation. Nunataks present readily identifiable landmark reference points in glaciers or ice caps and are often named.
Lifeforms on nunataks are frequently isolated by the surrounding ice or glacier creating unique habitats. Nunataks are generally angular and jagged because of freeze-thaw weathering and contrast strongly with the softer contours of the glacially eroded land after a glacier retreats.
Sources http://geology.geoscienceworld.org/content/18/10/962.abstract http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slide_Mountain_(Ulster_County,_New_York) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nunatak