This series of caches is dedicated to the Periodic Table of Elements and the amazing things they do for us. It’s something we all had to learn in school at one time or the other. Within each cache page, I will attempt to give you three or four facts you might not have known about each one of the elements. The series consists of 100 total caches set along the perimeter of Houston’s Bear Creek Park and the Addicks Reservoir. There are so many different environments available inside the park. From pine trees to towering oaks, dry ditches to flooded lakes, open fields to thorn choked bushes, it has it all.
I believe that Bear Creek and nearby George Bush Park are Houston’s preeminent Geocaching destinations for getting that, "I'm out in the woods, but not too far from home" feeling. Many of the caches that exist inside the parks have wildly varying difficulties of terrain, wildlife, and lets not forget those water features. I have set this series up to be more of a walking / endurance type of challenge rather than hacking and slashing through bush country. So if you enjoyed the "Texas", or could not get enough of the "Big Smilie", then this series is for you. As far as the overall challenge rating, I would say its between the Big Smilie and the Texas, but larger than both combined!
The total cache to cache distance is approximately 13 miles in straight lines....your mileage may vary. It begins here with Hydrogen near Greenhouse and Park Row. It then winds around BCP across Highway 6 and then wrapping up at the northeast end of the park just off Tanner Road.
Ninety-nine of the caches are traditional type caches (camouflaged soda tubes), and should be less than 200 feet or so off of the main levee walking path or dirt road. Some are a bit further off the levee. On the eastern end of the trail it will go off the levee and follow a power line right of way that has a dirt road on it. The one hundredth cache (GC2XAXR) is a puzzle type cache that can only be solved after you have visited all the other caches. In each series of ten (1-10, 11-20, etc.), one of the ten caches will contain a clue on the inside cap of the soda tube. You will need to write down and save these clues in the order in which you find them. These clues will later be used to solve the location of the one hundredth puzzle cache which will complete your series. The puzzle cache can be solved in the field with the info from all the caches loaded into your GPSr. And now onward with your journey!
Hydrogen is the lightest of all elements and is the chemical element with atomic number 1. It is represented by the symbol H.
Things you might not know about Hydrogen:
- Hydrogen is actually the oldest element in the universe, being formed between 3 and 20 minutes after the Big Bang.
- Hydrogen is the most abundant chemical element in the universe, consisting of about 75% the universe's elemental mass.
- Hydrogen has three naturally occurring isotopes; all three of them named, and is the only element to have different names in use today. One called tritium, is radioactive, and is used in pistol night sights.
Update 12-2011: Now that the area is finally getting some water, some of these caches may require a bit more wading than they used to during the drought. Please keep that in mind when preparing your run.
Update: 01-2012 - If you enjoyed any of these caches enough to award them a favorite point, please award it to this first cache in the series, so that others who sort on total favorite points can see the series. Thanks!
Update: 02-2012 - This series won the 2011 Houston Geocaching Society Best Themed Series award!
