GL#5 - Intrusions Traditional Cache

You can take the coordinate route to this cache, but why not make it more challenging for yourself and find a cool rock along the way? If you follow Mill trail until you are just 50’ or so away from the cache, you will find the rock pictured here along the trail. If you follow the direction of the rock’s markings away from the pond, you’ll find the cache!  Read on for what this geologic feature comes from!

See the “scratches” in this rock? What you’re actually seeing are thin sheets of the mineral quartz pressed inside, called instrusions. Most of the time the cracks in a rock like this occurred from an event long ago such as folding during mountain-building or shattering during tectonic movement. Liquid rock and mineral solutions moving around under the earth during these events filled the cracks, leaving behind mineral deposits as they cooled. Sometimes a rock like this may contain larger crystals inside, depending on the cooling speed of the solution. The more slowly the mineral solution cools, the larger the crystals – even in nature, good things come to those who wait!

This cache has been placed as part of the New York State Saratoga/Capital District Regional Geocache Challenge.  There are 76 geocaches hidden within 18 state parks and historic sites in this park region, and geocachers finding 40 or more will be eligible to receive a 2017 Schoharie Crossing Historic Site commemorative and trackable geocoin.  If you are interested in taking the challenge, you can pick up a geocache passport at any of the participating parks and sites or download it at www.nysparks.com