Thunderbird Track #7 Wetland Traditional Cache
Ice and Wind: The cache owner has not responded to issues with this listing, so I must regretfully archive it. If the issues with this cache are resolved in the very near future (less than 3 months) the cache owner can email me and assuming the cache still meets the guidelines I can unarchive it.
Ice and Wind
Geocaching.com Volunteer Reviewer
Thunderbird Track #7 Wetland
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(micro)
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Thunderbirds – legend? Myth? Reality? Native tribes revered these giant birds and believed that they cause thunder by flapping their wings, while lightening flashes from their eyes. Legends have them both helping and attacking people. In 1992-3, Kitsap County placed 10 bronze tracks in strategic spots to tell the story of the water cycle. We have located 9 or the 10 tracks and have placed caches at all 10 sites. We hope that you will enjoy them as much as we do.
Wetlands are marshes, swamps, or bogs that are saturated with water some of the growing season. They act like sponges that collect, hold and release water. They maintain water quality by removing sediments from the water passing through them, and are buffers in times of flood.
There is a beautiful legend/ story with this track, and when you find the track, you will know what to look for!
"….Rushing southward, the wind’s cool moist breath falls onto the low, warm eastern shore. Droplets catch in the uppermost branches of the tall fir and hemlock, and bounce down to the waiting alder trees, ever greedy for water. Moisture clings to towering males, their velvety branches fringed with ferns. A hundred tiny spider webs shimmer in the moist wind.
Still more drops careen down to huckleberry bushes and prickly vine maples and onto thirsty seedlings. Water seeps without a sound through the hulking stumps of dead forest giants, down into last year’s leaves and needles on the forest floor.
Collecting in pools and puddles and squishy bogs where reeds grow, the water nourishes many animals who call the forest home.
Across the bridge to this forest the track of the Thunderbird will reveal the passage of some of those creatures who depend on the beckoning, wet forest. Can you pick out the deer’s two sharp hoof prints” Or the raccoon’s hand-like prints? What about the dog-like fox-paws, or the prints left by an ambling deer?
Although the pools may vanish in the summer, the water remains in the forest. It is stored in a million green leaves and needles, within the bird’s song, and within the springy, rich earth beneath your feet. It is within every breath you take. You too are free to leave your own footprints in this damp, living forest. Come in, and explore.
Now that I have ‘wet’ your appetite for a wetland forest stroll, encountering skunk cabbage, blackberries and drowned roots, let me tell you that you are only in for a one-minute stroll across a small footbridge. The cache is at the bridge; but stop- take a minute and study that track across the trail. Email me and tell me how many animals’ tracks are in there. Are yours? No, I will not delete your log if you don’t count animal tracks.
We tried eight or nine 'fixes' to get a good coordinate on this; too much tree cover. This is a good average, I think, but if you find a better one, please share it with me!
NO NEED TO VENTURE OFF OF THE DECK! Happy Hunting. Cache is a tiny bison tube.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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