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A small state forest in western Chautauqua County with an established hiking trail system running through it.
Chautauqua County, the westernmost county in New York, sits atop the northern border of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau. The upland portion of the county consists of low, rounded mountains and broad, shallow valleys with scattered deeply-cut ravines, typical of areas that were once covered by the continental ice sheet. ( Chautauqua
County was covered by glacial ice as recently as 12,500 years ago.) The lowlands occupy a narrow band along the shoreline of Lake Erie, ranging from 4 to 10 miles wide. The dividing line between these two regions of the county is generally well defined by a ridge, sometimes called the Portage Scarp,which parallels the shoreline. The scarp rises roughly 1,000 feet from Lake Erie and hides the higher part of the county from view. Chautauqua Lake sits in the middle of the county. The elevation difference between the two lakes is 737 feet. (refs B & E)
The Portage Scarp marks the northern edge of the Allegheny Plateau as well as the nominal dividing line between two major North American surface water drainage basins, the Great Lakes (or Saint Lawrence) Drainage Basin and the
Mississippi Drainage Basin. The streams and rivers in Chautauqua county naturally follow the terrain and
topographic trends. To the north of the drainage divide they will flow into Lake Erie, then Lake Ontario, then the St. Lawrence River and finally into the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the cold North Atlantic. To the south of the dividing line, the streams will feed into Chautauqua Lake, then the Chadakoin River, to Cassadaga Creek and the Conewango River and the Allegheny River at Warren, PA, then to Pittsburgh where it joins the Monongahela to become the Ohio River, then to Cairo, IL where it joins the Mississippi and eventually to the Gulf of Mexico. This total journey is roughly 2,190 miles. (A description of a journey along this entire stretch of waterway can be found at
www.riverwaterworks.org) (ref D)
Water drainage within Chautauqua County is divided into 13 sub-watersheds. Mount Pleasant State Forest sits on
the dividing line between two of these, the Chautauqua Creek Sub-watershed and the Chautauqua Lake
Sub-watershed.(ref C) Hence it also straddles the dividing line between the Great Lakes Drainage Basin and the Mississippi Drainage Basin.(ref D) Within this small forest, one small stream begins its journey to the North Atlantic while a nearby stream begins its short run to the Gulf of Mexico. (ref A)
At the site of this earthcache, you can walk a short distance and find a stream which flows to the west and north, or you can walk the opposite direction and find a stream that flows east and south, a situation which constitutes a reversal of fortunes for the rain water that falls in these woods; that which falls closer to Lake Erie ends up in the Gulf of Mexico and that which falls farther away from Lake Erie ends up in the North Atlantic.
The requirements to log this cache are as follows:
1. From the first parking spot "Park Here" enter the trail and hike to the foot bridge over the creek. Determine the direction of flow of the creek, e.g. WSW. Using your GPS, measure the distance from the footbridge to the following point on the Lake Erie shoreline: (coords N42 18.873 W79 38.870) and record these data.
2. From the second parking spot "Start" enter the trail and hike to the first foot bridge over the creek;
determine the direction of flow of this creek as in #1. Continue along the trail to the second foot bridge;
determine the direction of flow of the creek here. Measure the distance from the second bridge to the same point on the Lake Erie shoreline and record these data.
3. Email the information (flow direction and distance) from #1 and #2 above and state which stream ends up in the Gulf of Mexico. Tell me also what occurs near coords N42 11.995 W79 33.059.
4. Take a picture of you (or your group) with your GPS at the first foot bridge in #2 and post this picture with
your log.
"Park Here": N42 11.737 W79 33.321
"Start": N42 11.729 W79 32.976
References:
A) Chautauqua County Map, Mapworks, Rochester, NY 2001
B) Roadside Geology of New York, Bradford B. Van Diver, Mountain Press, Missoula, MT 1985
C) CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY WATER QUALITY TASK FORCE Principal SubWatersheds in Chautauqua County map
D) Ohio Coastal Atlas - Map Library 10/2007
E) The Physical Geography of New York State, Google Books, Ralph Stockman Tarr & Ebenezer Tousey Turner
Additional Hints
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Pbbeqf bs #1 oevqtr: A42 11.591 J79 33.319; pbbeqf bs #2 frpbaq oevqtr: A42 12.018 J79 32.988.