B10: Wilkes Creek Kittycache Traditional Cache
B10: Wilkes Creek Kittycache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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This cache is on a trail that we walk often, which follows
Wilkes Creek. There is no need to trample any vegetation when
searching for this cache. Stand or kneel on the rock, and LOOK for
it. It is in plain view. Please remember to place cache back
exactly as found.Bring your own pen.
Wilkes Creek is a sad little creek, usually littered with
garbage, but the walk down to the cache, or up to the cache,
depending on where you start from, is very nice.
A pretty walk to the cache
The "deer trail" to the cache site has become quite
overgrown if approaching from the high side. It is a short walk
down from the main trailhead off Parkside Drive. You will need to
watch the trail at your feet on the "deer Trail" for the first bit,
to make sure you actually stay on it, as the ferns are very large,
and at places it is hard to see where the trail goes. There is a
prickly holly bush on the way down as well. Better not to wear
shorts on this trail, although I was in shorts when I placed it,
just to see how bad it was. (I have a few scratches and itchy
spots)
Here is a picture looking down the main trail head from
Parkside Drive.
Alternatively, it is a very pleasant (but quite steep) and
longer hike up from the top of Jacobs Rd., off Ioco Rd.
If approaching from the low side, take the main trail at
the top of Jacobs Rd., and then take the first right branch and
follow it up.
If approaching from the high side, start on the main trail
off Parkside Drive, (the one on the West side of the creek - don't
take the East side), and take the first "deer trail" to your left,
which is at the first bend, across from property marker number
113.
property marker 113
Wilkes Creek is the thirteenth largest watershed in Port
Moody. It originates as sidehill runoff near the Port Moody /
Anmore boundary, and flows south-southwest for 1.75 km to the Port
Moody Arm of Burrard Inlet.
An itty bitty waterfall on Wilkes Creek
The upper section of the creek is low gradient and runs
through poorly defined channels which flood during rainfall events,
allowing for groundwater storage. The lower section has a steeper
gradient characterized by stable streambeds with boulder and cobble
substrate, and at one time, the first 300 meters of the creek mouth
where gradients are low and stream profiles favorable was important
fish habitat.
When I was growing up, the creek above the traintracks at
Alderside Rd., until almost to Ioco Rd was in my back and front
yards. We even had a bridge in our driveway over the creek, to
allow access to our front door. We had a playhouse down by the
creek, and spent many hours playing "Barbies and horses" and "Gi
Joe" in the creek and on its banks. This section is now almost
completely culverted from Ioco Road until it 'daylights' below
Alderside Road, 10 meters above the creek mouth. In the 1990's, the
"treetops" development and other neighbourhoods in that area needed
somewhere for their stormwater runoff to go. It was decided that
there would be no storm drains, but that the extra runoff should be
directed into a creek. The Fisheries department picked "our" creek.
Since the extra runoff would have turned the creek into a river
that would have washed away parts of our driveway, and made our
backyard dangerous for growing children, it was decided that the
creek should be diverted to under Alderside Rd. That left our
beautiful backyard creek and ravine as a big dry ditch, devoid of
any trees or any of the watershed flora and fauna. The ditch was
eventually filled in to allow the property to be subdivided, 3
years after the construction, as my parents got tired at looking at
dirt. None of these culverts on Wilkes Creek are passable by
salmonids. Now only the lowest 10 meters of Wilkes Creek (from
culvert to mouth) is seasonally inhabited by juvenile salmonids
likely originating from Noons and/or Mossom Creek.
The Wilkes Creek watershed is home to or visited by coyote,
black bear, cougar, bobcat, mule deer, Douglas squirrel, red-back
vole, deer mouse, Northwestern salamander and Pacific tree frog.
Many birds make their home here, or pass through, including several
species of woodpeckers and raptors, the American dipper,
chickadees, robins, swallows, sparrows, the red winged blackbird,
the towhie, various other songbirds and, near the mouth of Wilkes
Creek, shorebirds, waterfowl, and blue heron.
A view of the Wilkes Creek watershed flora and fauna from
the cache site
This area was logged between 1920-1940, following
completion of the Climax high-grade locomotive and railway. The
Wilkes Creek watershed is presently a secondary growth forest
ranging in age from 60-80 years. There are a mix of western
hemlock, Douglas fir, western red cedar , red alder, broad-leaf
maple, and vine maple. The understory is mostly salmonberry, sword
fern, various ivy's, and huckleberry.Of special concern are the
plant communities of the Western hemlock-flat moss and the Douglas
fir / Western hemlock-salal , which are provincially blue listed,
and the the Douglas fir / sword fern community, which is
provincially red listed (endangered).
Please tread softly where you go, and remember you don't
need to leave the trail to find the cache, except to climb on the
lower rock! Please let me know if you get slightly different
coordinates than me, the best reading I could get was +/- 18ft. Oh
- and please also remember to have fun!
LM
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Ng gur ybbxbhg ebpx, xarry ba gur fznyyre bar, snpvat njnl sebz gur genvy naq ernyyl YBBX. Vg'f evtug gurer.