Brought to you by Waterbaron,
The
Commissar, and Swamp
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This portion of the multi-cache (Carolina Gold) will take you
through the Outer Coastal Plain/Coastal
Zone landform regions and four drainage
basins. This cache, in combination with
its sister caches (Upstate
Ramble and Sandhills
Slog), will highlight the state's water resources from the
mountains to the ocean.
Please note
the difficulty rating for this cache. You will
be required to travel an area that spans South Carolina from the
borders of Georgia to North Carolina.
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| SC Landform Regions |
SC Drainage
Basins |
As you work through this cache, there is a stop in each of the
drainage basins. Each stop supplies you with the coordinates
for the next, with a typical cache container at the final
stop. Also included in that final cache, there
is 1/4 of the information required to find The Mother of All Caches
- The
Big Kahuna cache hidden near the center of the
state. The other 3/4 of The
Big Kahuna cache information can be found in the sister caches
(Upstate
Ramble, Sandhills
Slog) and in the clue section of The
Big Kahuna cache page.
URGENT: You should
anticipate that many of the cache stops (intermediate and final)
for this state-wide multi-cache will be located in areas that will
only be accessible during daylight hours.
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Each intermediate cache will contain information
regarding the next stop's operating hours, fees, and special
closings. Please make a note before you travel the
considerable distance to the next stop. For
this cache, the first stop is accessible 24/7 and all
intermediate caches exist as shown in the image.
Please ensure that caches are hidden from sight when you
depart. |
You can receive cache credit for locating any of the
three (Upstate
Ramble, Sandhills
Slog, Carolina Gold) caches. However, you
will need to find all three caches (Ramble, Slog and Gold) to
obtain the required information to locate and receive credit for
The
Big Kahuna cache. Obviously, this is a
long-term project and not a drive-by cache!
Remember to "Cache in, trash out!" and to be sensitive to the
environment as you cache. All containers for this cache are
easily accessible to a cacher remaining ON the trail. You
will NEED the following
information to find the final cache at stop #4, since it will
not be provided with the coordinates in the cache at stop
#3:
**The final cache is located 65 meters at
70o magnetic from the highest point at or
near the coordinates you will receive at stop
#3.**
Background Information
The Outer Coastal Plain is relatively flat though the ocean's
rise and fall patterns have left remnants of shoreline features
across the region. Additionally, the enigmatic
Carolina Bays can be found in the Coastal Plain. The
Coastal Zone forms the area 10 miles inland from the ocean
to the Outer Coastal Plain. This
landform region is characterized by the beach/dune communities,
saltwater marshes and the multitude of rivers flowing from the
Coastal Plain. Additionally, along the southern
coast exists the Sea Island
complex. These islands form a buffer between
the ocean and the mainland coastline.
Kovacik, Charles F., and Winberry, John J. South Carolina:
The Making of a Landscape. Columbia : University of South
Carolina Press, 1989.
A drainage basin is simply an area of land in which all the
water flows, through increasingly larger systems, to a common
point. Water that falls in South Carolina
generally flows southeast toward the Atlantic Ocean via the rivers
within the state's five drainage basins (see image).
All the lakes you see on a map of South
Carolina were formed by damming the various river
systems.
Carolina Gold refers to the type of rice
cultivated in the Lowcountry for over 200 years beginning in the
late 1600s. Though it was a labor-intensive crop, slave labor
allowed rice planters to become some of the richest people in
Colonial America. However, GOLD in the name refers
to the color of the crop in the field and not its money-making
potential. The end of slavery, poor agricultural practices,
natural disasters, inferior seed, out-of-state competition and
difficult field conditions brought an end to Carolina Gold
cultivation in the Lowcountry by 1920. Currently, there is a
movement to preserve this heirloom crop and Carolina Gold is now
available for purchase in small quantities.
More information can be found at http://www.carolinagoldricefoundation.org/.
The Post and Courier has also printed
several articles at http://www.charleston.net/stories/111203/foo_12rice.shtml
and http://www.charleston.net/stories/111203/foo_12ricehis.shtml.