-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(small)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
This is the 41st in a series of caches honoring the 57 different types of soils found within the State of Rhode Island. Soils were a major factor in the settling and early farming of RI, and soils continue to influence our industry, recreation, wildlife, and homes. As you complete this series, please take note of how the soil is determined in-part by the landscape position (summit, sideslope, drainageway), which in turn affects the vegetation.
This cache is located within an area of Swansea (formerly mapped as Adrian) soil. Swansea soils is one of the two freshwater organic soils mapped in RI. You may be more familiar with the term MUCK! Swansea soils are very poorly drained soils formed in highly decomposed organic material (from plants)overlying sandy outwash materials.
Approximately 15,000 years ago, the Laurentide ice sheet was retreating from its maximum advance a few miles south of Block Island and was sitting across southern RI. This period of stagnation deposited the sandy soils that make up the Charlestown Moraine, a large, broad hill extending from Narragansett to Westerly and beyond.
Eventually, the ice began retreating north again before again stagnating at what became the Wolf Rock moraine in Exeter. Dammed by the newly formed Charlestown Moraine, the massive outflows of meltwater from the melting glacier created an enormous glacial lake, known as Glacial Lake Worden. Over thousands of years, much of the glacial lake filled with sediment, forming Great Swamp. Worden Pond is all that remains of the glacial lake.
Swansea soils are similar to the nearby Freetown soils. Both soils have 40cm or more of organic material at the soil surface. Swansea soils, however, have between 40 and 130cm of total organic soil depth. Sandy glacial outwash materials are found beneath the organic soil layers. Freetown soils have greater than 130cm of organic soil layers. To put it another way, Swansea are the shallow organic soils, Freetown are the deep organic soils.
Most areas of Swansea soil are forested with native vegetation. Native vegetation includes red maple (the "beating heart of RI swamps"), American elm, green ash, hemlock, Atlantic white cedar, buttonbush, winterberry, and leatherleaf. Many areas are bogs that have a carpet of Sphagnum moss. Some areas are cleared and used for cranberry farming.
Please see the attached waypoints for directions to get to the main north-south path that brings you to the three soil caches placed near here. I'll be up front... you NEED to bushwhack for this. There is no path directly to the cache. I've provided a reference point to show you where I entered the woods. The brush is thick, there is standing water, and there is briar. It's amazing the things we do to place/find caches! The CC is a small tupperware with a logbook, official series description, and some small swag. Please go slow, be careful, and wear you're orange blaze per DEM requirements during hunting season!
And the swamp award goes to BBWolf+3Pigs and amazingted for Co-FTF!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Ba n zbhaq, pbirerq jvgu angheny gerr qroevf