Cold Creek Conservation Area Spruce Bog
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The posted coordinates to this earth cache are in the middle of the boardwalk which winds it’s way through the Cold Creek bog. Below are coordinates posted for the North and South entrances to the boardwalk. By no means is this an easy earth cache. Parking is available at the gates which closed. There is a significant hike from parking to the posted coordinates. Adequate time and hiking gear are required to be able to see this location. Please plan well and always be safe. Be sure to read the logging requirements as you will need to have water testing equipment.
This earth cache will take you to the Cold Creek Conservation Area which is located in King Township of York County. It is 190 hectares / 470 acres in size and was opened in June of 1962 by the Toronto and Region Conversation Authority. The Conservation Area is significant due to its unique natural features. Existing mixed conifer swamp forest contains black spruce which is rare in Southern Ontario and is home to a wide array of plant and animal species. It has over 6.5km marked interpretive trail which includes walking through meadows, conifer / hardwood forest, wetlands and a unique conifer swamp which has a beautiful boardwalk (and recently updated in 2007 as a result of the Ontario Trillium Grant Award) through the bog. You will also find bird and waterfowl nesting boxes throughout the area. Historically, the property was used for outdoor education and recreation programs and included many facilities dedicated to the outdoor sports enthusiast. There are four management zones for the Cold Creek Conservation Area. The zones are broken down into: Nature Reserve, Natural Environment, Restoration, and Public Use. On any given day you may see hikers, youth day camps, and even the local police use the conservation area for search and rescue training.
What are bogs?
A bog is an area of moist, soggy ground, usually with peat formed by the decay and carbonization of mosses and other vegetation in the bog. The process of bog formation is continuous, with new crops vegetation and mosses growing over the debris of earlier generations. Thus the surface of a bog is gradually elevated and if the bog becomes oversaturated with water, it may burst, deluging nearby fields with mud.
Bogs have been developed by glacial ice blocks which have melted over thousands of years. Stunted evergreens, shrubs and other plants have grown in bogs due to the extremely acidic soils. The floor of bogs is normally covered with a thick carpet of sphagnum moss.
Bogs are also formed when a pond or lake begins to dwindle due to the growth of nearby forests and other wetland plants such as the sphagnum moss and peat (the decayed remains of sphagnum moss and other decomposition of plant material). The plants creep further toward the center forming a mat over the remaining water and eventually the pond becomes a small hole of open water at the bog's center and that small hole of water will also disappear.
This kettle bog is part of the Southern Slope of the Oak Ridge Moraine. This bog is a boreal peat bog.
Cold Creek is one of the provincially-significant ecological areas on the Oak Ridge Moraine. It is one of twenty-eight Areas of Natural and Scientific Interest (ANSI-LS). ANSI-LS (Life Science) is a designation given by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources as an area having provincially or regionally significant representative ecological features. The terrain is composed of a calcareous stony clay till but of note is the valley basin which has a marl-bed that is overlain by a yard-thick peat layer on which exists what has been called the “best example of a mature Black spruce forest in the site district” according to Ian A. MacDonald surveyed the bog as part of an International Biological Programme in 1972 (in cooperation with Professors J. B. Falls and G. A. Hills of the University of Toronto Departments of Zoology and Forestry respectively). The thick peat or organic layer indicates centuries of uninterrupted accumulation. As you walk the boardwalk take time to notice the plants, the organisms that live there, and even the water. You may see the water having a brown color to it. That is because of oxidized iron in the water as well as organic (humic acid) material.
Today the BOG still supports remnants of Black Spruce which is rare to this area of Ontario, but shade tolerant balsam fir and white cedar are generally replacing Black spruce. Typical boreal closed ground cover were found such as twin flower, yellow thread, naked miterwort, creeping wintergreen, one-flowered wintergreen, early coralroot, moccasin flowered orchids, yellow lady-slipper, sundew, bog Solomon’s Seal and woods horsetail.
Indicative of the extremely cool, wet climate here, there are many species of lichens, mosses and liverworts that hang down from the trees and cover 70% of the ground's surface area. Typical of this bog type, the stream flows in much dissected brooklets beneath the tangle of roots and winthrows at a rate of two linear feet per second and leaves the valley through a road culvert on the southern edge of the property.
Flowing through the bog is Cold Creek. During the summer of 2007a temperature study was conducted. Temperature data loggers were installed at several points along Cold Creek. The cold ground water discharge that forms Cold Creek together with the shade from the dense conifer tree cover lowers the air temperature about 10 degrees in summer creating a “micro climate” in the bog.
The main feature of this area is the 350 meter long Elevated Boardwalk that zig-zags over the Cold Creek Spruce Bog, hence the name, Cold Creek Bog Trail.
Boardwalk North End: N43 54.650 W79 42.060
Boardwalk South End: N43 54.517 W79 42.126
To Log this Earth Cache:
1) Please post a photo with you and/or your team with faces clearly showing at the posted coordinates or elsewhere along the boardwalk.
2) As you walk along the boardwalk you will need to be taking some notes. Describe the soil under the boardwalk. Describe the vegetation, mosses, trees, and vegetation growth in the bog and how does it differ from the plants and growth surrounding the bog elsewhere in the Conservation Area. At the time of your visit – what is the water level? Is the bog saturated?
3) Use a water testing strip and test the pH level of the water in the bog. (These can be purchased in a pet supply store or a box mart in the pet section). Describe the water as you walk along the boardwalk. Is it clear, dirty, cloudy, color, etc.
4) Using my profile – please email the answers to #2 and #3. Do not post them with your log! Your photo must be posted at the time of your log. You must complete these requirements within 48 hours of logging the cache.
Each Cacher that logs a find is required to submit answers to the questions above (failure to comply will result in a deletion of your log). The only exception are young kids that are caching with their parents (who have their own account, but not computer privileges). Per Earthcache guidelines, each cacher is to learn from their visit/experience. That means each cacher must perform the necessary task(s) or requirements to log the cache and earn your smiley.
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