Big Bend Big East EarthCache
Muskoka Falls Sundogs: Time to refresh other ones
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
This earthcache is locating in Arrowhead Provincial Park.
This cache is available when the park is opened. Please check the website for hours of operation and seasonal openings. This cache is available in the winter by following either a cross country ski trail or a snow shoe trail. For more information on Arrowhead Provincial Park in terms of hours, fees and services please see http://www.ontarioparks.com/english/arro.html
Arrowhead Provincial Park offers excellent campsites, great beaches for swimming, a couple of beautiful lakes and well as some fine hiking and mountain biking trails that double as cross country ski trails in the winter. It is also the home of the Arrowhead Nordic Ski club. One of the club members is Olympian, Dan Roycroft.
The coordinate will take you to a lookout over the Big East River and a very wide valley. Did the river below you carve this valley?...not likely. This valley was carved out from a much bigger river - a river created as a result of a melting glacial ice sheet. This river you see below you is a "misfit" river - a river that occupies a valley it did not create.
What you do see is a lot of sand. This whole valley was filled with sand at one time. During the highest stage of Glacial Lake Algonquin, this area was one huge sand beach. The sand that was laid down by Algonquin Lake is now used all over the world as the sands of this valley have the best consistency for beech volleyball..really..sand from the Huntsville area was even shipped to Australia for the Commonwealth Games.
The river meanders back and forth within this sand valley, changing the landscape slowly with each season. Over the past 10,000 years the channel of this river has change many times leaving isolation oxbow lakes to attest to that. The sweeping curved at Big Bend Lookout will one day also be cut out of the main river.
To log this cache, please email me at my profile answering the following question prior to logging your find. Note the elevation of your GPS at the cache site. If the current level of Lake Huron is 165 m above sea level, what is the difference in elevation between the current lake level and this cache site?
As an added challenge...If you have had the opportunity to tackle a near by earthcache called "Wave Cut Cache GC108X4" you will have determined the elevation of Algonquin Lake. Would you be under water?
You may be surprised on how big that number is...but there is something else to consider....the earths core is a liquid and the crust "floats" on that surface. Think of your living room couch. When you sit on it, it goes down. When you get back up, it returns to it's original form. The weight of a 2km think ice sheet pushed the earths crust down. As the ice sheet melted, the ground "bounced" back. Lake Algonquin was formed while the readjustment was taking place or while the surface was rising when the weight of the ice was removed....consequently, various shorelines of Lake Algonquin occur. What is most notable is how far the earth's surface did bounce back (isostatic readjustment). Note the elevation at the cache site. Geologists estimate the elevation of Lake Algonquin to be about only 20-25 m above the current Lake Huron level.
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)
Treasures
You'll collect a digital Treasure from one of these collections when you find and log this geocache:
Loading Treasures