What is an Earthcache ?
An Earthcache is a special place that people can visit to
learn about a unique geoscience feature or aspect of our Earth.
Earthcaches include a set of educational notes and the details
about where to find the location (latitude and longitude). Visitors
to Earthcaches can see how our planet has been shaped by geological
processes, how we manage the resources and how scientists gather
evidence to learn about the Earth.
Taken from the Earthcache
Website
Your visit will start here on the webpage, make sure you take
the time to read the entire page and record all the information you
will need to obtain to make sure your log is validated. There are a
series of questions you will need to answer and information you
will need to provide. All Earthcaches offer you a chance to learn
about the Earth but this process requires you to participate by
recording information about the site.
This Earthcache is at the heart of a series called A Day in
the Hills. This series takes most of a day and involves a fair
amount of hiking. If you complete the entire series you will walk
on every major trail out of the Spruce Coulee Reservoir Campground
which is a tent only campground, full facility camping is available
in Elkwater. Bring your own firewood to this campground, none is
supplied and using wood found nearby is against park rules. No
bushwhacking is required. The caches in this series include the
Streamside geocache, the Cypress Hills Massif Earthcache, the
Spruce Coulee geocache, the
Wild Raspberry geocache and
Treeduck.
Your Earthcache Begins Here :
Your specific tasks are listed here. One task is to obtain a
photograph of the signpost which marks the midway point of the
Spruce Coulee and Streamside Trails, the symbolic divide. You need
to post this photograph with your online log. YOU WILL NEED A
CAMERA TO RECORD A PHOTOGRAPH OF THE SIGNPOST, YOU WILL NEED THE
PHOTOGRAPH TO LOG THE CACHE, IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A CAMERA THEN THIS
REQUIREMENT IS OPTIONAL.
Here is another task, when you first see the Cypress Hills
Massif record your coordinates and your elevation. Make sure you
keep all these numbers as they will be used in your log.YOU
MUST HAVE THESE NUMBERS, YOU WILL NEED THEM TO LOG THE CACHE.
An additional task will involve some calculations. When you
reach the listed coordinates you will need record your elevation
and calculate the difference between this reading and the elevation
taken at the first sighting of the Massif.YOU MUST HAVE THIS
NUMBER, YOU WILL NEED IT TO LOG THE CACHE.
You will be required to read the description and do some
research to answer this question. You need to compare the age of
the oldest layer of the Cypress Hills to the age of final formative
periods for the nearby Rocky Mountains in SW Alberta, which is the
older event and how much older is it? YOU MUST HAVE THIS ANSWER
AND BE WITHIN TEN MILLION YEARS OR SO, YOU WILL NEED IT TO LOG THE
CACHE.
You are going to have to do a little research and come up
with the possible age for the final layer of glacial loess that
covers the Cypress Hills Massif? YOU MUST HAVE THIS ANSWER AND
BE WITHIN A FEW THOUSAND YEARS OR SO, YOU WILL NEED IT TO LOG THE
CACHE.
RECORD ALL THESE REQUIREMENTS PRIOR TO SEARCHING FOR THIS
CACHE, READ THIS CACHE DESCRIPTION CAREFULLY. CHECK BELOW TO SE A
SAMPLE OF THE VALIDATION EMAIL.
The listed co-ordinates will take you to the Spruce Coulee
Reservoir Campground. This Earthcache is actually found on a hike
into the heartland of the West Block of the Cypress Hills using the
TransCanada Trail. Logging this cache involves some research and
you need to obtain some coordinates but it is an actual hike to a
physical signpost that acts as a symbolic divide. This fun hike
will be an opportunity to see some of the features of the Cypress
Hills Massif.
The Massif in SE Alberta and SW Saskatchewan is arguably the
most unique land feature on the North American plains. Rising from
the surrounding prairie the massif is home to a unique ecosystem
and the result of unique geologic processes.
You will need to complete several tasks to complete the logging of
this cache
Your first task involves recording some numbers during
your journey to the cache. No matter which direction you approach
the Cypress Hills from you are going to see the Massif from a long
way off. The fact that the Massif stands head and shoulders over
the surrounding country side is one of the unique features that
separates and defines this ecosystem from the surrounding
prairies.
A rough idea of the visibility of the Hills will be approximated
from all log entries and a plot image will be maintained.
Your next task is closely related to the first, the Cypress
Hills Massif has risen above the surrounding countryside for a long
time. To log this Earthcache you are going to have to determine
some numbers based on geological events. The geological clock ticks
at an amazingly slow rate. The Cypress Hills are the result of
erosion and uplift and the mountains to the west have played a
large part in sculpting the Massif out of a once much larger
plateau. The oldest rocks in the lower levels of the Massif are
part the Bearspaw formation and they are associated with the inland
sea that once covered most of this area. The Rocky Mountains are
the backbone of the North American continent and the mountains in
SW Alberta were actually formed during the later periods of the
Laramide Orogeny. The Cypress Hills Massif was once part of a much
larger plateau but erosion has largely removed all evidence of that
feature leaving just these Hills. Once you arrive at the initial
coords use either the Streamside or Spruce Coulee Trails head
towards the Reesor Lake viewpoint, you do not have to reach the
viewpoint to log this cache. During your hike you will pass the
signpost that marks the place where the Streamside and Spruce
Coulee Trails meet. If you continue to hike to the Reesor Lake
Viewpoint you will traverse the divide that helped to shape the
continent. The Spruce Coulee reservoir drains into the watershed
for the South Saskatchewan, you can walk the Streamside Trail and
see some of the effects of the small stream. At N49 40.911 W110
10.664 there is a spot where you can look north and see close
view of the glacial loess that covers everything in the
massif. This final layer of gravel and material was deposited at
the end of the last glaciation.
Continuing to walk south and east will bring you to the top of
the ridge and you will be looking south and east from the viewpoint
into the Battle Creek drainage, the northernmost point of the
Mississippi watershed. Water you see at the start of the hike and
water you see at the end of the hike are going to different parts
of the world. The water from Battle Creek will end up in the Gulf
of Mexico and water from the Spruce Coulee Reservoir will end up in
the Atlantic Ocean.
During the last ice age the Cypress Hills rose a hundred meters
above the ice and offered a refuge for all life, a nunatak. The
massif is the highest point of land in Canada between the Rocky
Mountains and Labrador. The trails in here are incredible and offer
a good look at the landscape and the features that have resulted
from the unique geology of this landform. The trails may become
difficult on certain pitches due to erosion and groundwater
percolation may cause trail shifts. You will see the action of
groundwater and erosion throughout these walks.
Water is always a part of the story here, look at N49 40.947
W110 10.482 and you can see a groundwater source in action,
slowly dissolving the Streamside Trail. Similar groundwater sources
supply both Spruce Coulee Reservoir and Elkwater Lake. Because
water is abundant here the Cypress Hills have provided protection
to men and animals for many thousands of years. During sustained
droughts that lasted hundred of years, the springs in the Cypress
Hills never failed so the hills have a rich record of early
aboriginal peoples and the technologies they employed. Visit the
archeological digs in nearby Elkwater to learn more about this
aspect of history in the Cypress Hills.
*****IMPORTANT INFORMATION******
When you log this cache you must send an email to validate your
online log. Your email must provide the answers to all the
questions but your online log only needs to contain a photograph of
the sign post that marks the symbolic divide, do not put any
answers in your online log. Here is a sample email, this is the
information you need to collect, remember the descriptions and
information you need might be right here in the cache description;
First Sighting of Hills : N50 00.000 W110 00.000 Elev. 000m
Calculated Elevation Difference : 000m
Oldest event is ______________.
It is 00 million years older.
Last layer placed 000 yrs ago
I really hope you enjoy your walk on the Cypress Hills Massif. The
total return length of this hike when using both the Spruce Coulee
and Streamside trails will be 5 kms. Bring plenty of water.
During the summer all facilities are available, but only at the
Spruce Coulee Reservoir Campground and nearby Elkwater.
