Ambrose Homestead Traditional Cache
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(small)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
Fort St. John Historic Site.
The cache is hidden at the site of the old Ambrose Homestead -but don't get too excited, as the homestead has seen much, much better days.
Cache contains some small trinkets and a logbook.
The cache is located in the Fort St. John Community Forest, behind Northern Lights College, at the north end of town. Parking is available at either the Community Forest parking lot, or at Northern Lights College. If you park at Northern Lights, then the cache is a short 5 minute walk down part of the interpretive trail to what amounts to a slash pile (most of the material is probably from land clearing, and not pieces of the actual homestead, but feel free to use your imagination and pretend that it is cabin ruins). There is a blue sign nearby that indicates this was once the location of the Ambrose homestead (with pictures of the first and second homestead).
Be on the lookout moose, as there always seems to be some hanging out in the aspens.
Once you have found the cache, be sure to walk down the bank, through the Spruce forest to Fish Creek.
Once you have ventured down to the creek, take a moment to look at the vegetation on the bank opposite. Is this different than the forest you have just walked through? Ask yourself, why is a spruce forest found on this side of the creek, whereas an aspen forest occurs on the slopes across the creek?
Notice that the white spruce are much larger than the aspen and less numerous, it can be inferred from this that the spruce forest is older than the aspen forest. Perhaps age of each type of forest explains why they are different. But why would the two forests be different in age? There isn’t that much distance between the two. The answer lies in the fact that a major disturbance has affected one side of the creek more recently than the other.
Fire explains why the aspen forest is younger, as it has been burned more recently than the white spruce forest has. The aspen forest is in a state of disclimax, while the spruce forest is a climatic climax community. The difference in fire frequency between the two forests can be explained by examining the topographic conditions of each forest.
The aspen forest has a southwesterly aspect, which means this side is warmer and drier –it gets more direct sunlight. Water evaporates readily here and snow sublimes early in the spring due to desiccating chinook winds. Consequently there is a greater fire frequency. Which is responsible for maintaining the aspen stand by eliminating white spruce and stimulating aspen suckering.
Fire is less frequent on the spruce side for several reasons. First it is on the leeward side. So it does not have frontal exposure to chinook winds. Secondly the north-northwesterly aspect signifies that less insolation is received to evaporate water and sublime snow. Furthermore the thick evergreen canopy increases humidity and shades the ground. Accordingly the spruce forest is wetter and snow lingers later into spring. Hence, there is lower fire susceptibility and longer fire return interval which allows succession to progress from aspen to white spruce uninterrupted; and once white spruce is established it will be some time before the successional clock is reset by a severe fire again.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Jngpu sbe gur jver, arne gur vafhyngbe.