Be careful of the barbed wire that has been eaten by the tree near this cache's hiding spot! As long as there are a few rocks remaining in the cache (both quartz and plagioclase) you are welcome to take a rock or two 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.
The White Minerals
There are two different white minerals that are most commonly found in rocks. Most people know about quartz. It's the translucent(ish) or opaque white mineral that occasionally forms beautiful crystals and flows through fractures in New England granite creating spiderweb-like quartz veins. It is the most common mineral found in rocks on earth. However, there is a second white mineral that is also common in many rocks: Plagioclase. Plagioclase is a framework silicate and is the second most common mineral found in rocks on earth. It is sometimes difficult to distinguish from quartz, but often has a smoother surface and is marked by parallel straight lines across its surface. See if you can distinguish between the quartz and plagioclase crystals in this cache!
