Please do not take the Devil's Toenail from this geocache as there is only one in there for people to discover. However, if there are a few belemnite fossils remaining in the cache you are welcome to take one for your own collection.
During the great quarantine clean of 2020, I discovered my rock collection, assembled over years of studying geology in college and just picking up cool rocks along the way. Having way more rocks than we knew what to do with, we thought it would be fun to share them with fellow geocachers in a new series along the Merrimack River: the rock collection! These 15 caches are hidden in a linear fashion along a portion of the Bay Circuit Trail which can be walked or biked, across AVIS's Deer Jump Reservation (and a couple other reservations as well). The containers vary in size, but each should be an easy find. Each one highlights a different really cool rock. Tradeables may not be left in these caches, though if you collect rocks yourself you can keep a rock from some (but not all) of these caches. Coordinates for a possible trailhead are provided, though there are many places you could begin your hike.
Belemnite and Devil's Toenail
These fossils were collected on Sheep Mountain in Wyoming on a geology field trip. Belemnite is an extinct squid-like animal which lived between roughtly 230 and 70 million years ago. The belemnite fossils in this cache are small, cylindrical rocks, a few of which taper to a point at the end. Devil's Toenail is the common name for an extinct variety of oyster which lived during the same time period. These fossilized shells look like giant toenails or talons. There is only one of these fossils in this cache, so please don't take it! In the picture below, the two fossils on the top are belemnite; the fossil on the bottom is devil's toenail.
