Soils of RI #42: Scarboro
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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This is the 42nd 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 Scarboro soil. Scarboro soils are very poorly drained soils formed in sandy glacial outwash materials. Scarboro soils have what is known as a histic epipedon, meaning that the top 20 - 40 cm of the soil contain at least 20% organic matter.
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 and dead plant matter, forming Great Swamp. Worden Pond is all that remains of the glacial lake.
Most areas of Scarboro soil are shrub, brush, or woodland. Native vegetation includes speckled alder, smooth alder, steeplebush, leatherleaf, labrador-tea, winterberry, highbush blueberry, large cranberry, black huckleberry, poison sumac (yikes!), and sheep laurel. Common trees are red maple, slippery elm, Atlantic white cedar, larch, eastern white pine, willow, and gray birch.
This cache is located at the edge of one of the most amazing natural areas in RI... the Great Swamp Fens. Fens are a type of wetland that receive mineral-rich surface and groundwater. Whereas bogs are acidic and are dominated by Sphagnum moss, fens are circumneutral and contain many different types of marsh plants and animals. Be on the lookout for crawfish here!
There are several fens in this part of Great Swamp, easily identifiable on aerial photographs. They represent historic channels of the Chipuxet River, which lies several hundred yeards to the east. This is one of my all-time favorite places to explore.
Please heed the terrain rating. Finding this cache will require you to jump from vegetation mound to mound and often times wade through standing water (18" or so deep) You may get lucky and find this dry on occasion during summer droughts. Please use extreme caution. Hip boots are advised, although I hid the cache without (I did get wet up to a little past my knees, however). Use the included waypoints to bring yourself to a spooky Atlantic White Cedar swamp that opens into the fen. You will have to carefully walk on mounds of vegetation to get to the CC, which should be an easy find. If you're adventurous, you can contine southeast through the fen and pick up an inconspicuous trail that will lead you to several of the other fens. Cache contains a log, official series description, and some small swag. Again, please be careful and wear your orange during hunting season!
And the swamp award goes to BBWolf+3Pigs and amazingted for Co-FTF!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Unatvat sebz n prqne