I Spy With My Little Eye...Something Red! Traditional Cache

This cache has been archived.

CacheShadow: The cache owner should contact me via my profile page if they wish to discuss if this cache page can be Unarchived.
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Hidden : 1/21/2012
Difficulty:
2 out of 5
Terrain:
2 out of 5

Size: Size: regular (regular)

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Geocache Description:

A camoflaged Lock-n-Lock container. Parking nearby at the Trailhead.

Not-Your-Average Toronto Tour – Stop Six – Rouge Park

Rouge Park is situated in eastern Toronto, Pickering and Markham, stretching over 40km2 reaching from just south of the Oak Ridges Moraine (www.moraineforlife.org) to Lake Ontario. Rouge Park is the only place in Toronto that is part of Ontario’s Greenbelt. The Park is a getaway from the busy urban city with many places for visitors to experience. With many sights to visit and see, Rouge Park is the perfect place to experience the highlights of Toronto’s natural landscape.

Before Rouge Park was established in 1994 and became a protected area of conservation, the area’s pre-history dates back to around 10 000 BCE known as the Palaeo-Indian period. At this time, nomadic tribes hunted and followed the caribou herds in this area. As years passed, the people eventually began to develop new technologies and tools to use to hunt, such as axes. At this time, they stopped considering caribou as their main source of food. They began to fish and gather plants such as rice to consume. With camps located inland near Lake Iroquois shoreline, the people of this period, known as the Archaic period around 7 000 to1 000 BCE, have used their tools to build canoes. This allowed them to go out onto the water to fish. The last time period before European contact was known as the Initial Woodland. After about 9 000 years since the Palaeo-Indian period, their population grew, as well as their technologies. They have discovered ways to store food and objects by using clay. They have also developed bows and arrows to use to hunt. With all this history, there has to be a reason why this valley was named Rouge Valley. The valley gets its name from the river it surrounds, Rouge River. This river was first named by French explorers, as they saw the river appeared a red colour as it flowed out into the current Lake Ontario. Rouge meaning red in French.

Stretching over 40km2, Rouge Park is thirteen times larger than New York City’s Central Park and 33 times larger than London’s Hyde Park; it is one of the world’s largest ‘urban wilderness’ parks. Rouge Park is the only place where the Greenbelt reaches Lake Ontario in Toronto. With many freshwater rivers and creeks stretching across the larger Rouge River Watershed, Rouge Park also contributes as a source of drinking water for thousands of people in the community. The Park shows visitors the delicate nature of the park and its natural landscape. As well Rouge Park has many faults visible for seismologists to study.

To conclude, Rouge Park allows people to get away from the busy urban city. A very biodiverse park, it also offers visitors many hiking trails, camping locations, a beach by Lake Ontario, and many sights to see including heritage communities, active farmland, meadows, forests, wetlands and marshes. The park is a great place to experience nature close to home, and when you’ve finished experiencing the Park’s native flora and fauna, you can see plants and animals from around the world at the Toronto Zoo, which is also located in Rouge Park (www.torontozoo.com).

Additional information you should note before embarking on this cache find:

1) Rouge Park is a conservation area, and therefore care and respect for sensitive plants and habitat as well as cultural heritage features are vital. To learn more, visit (visit link)

2) Water crossing or off trail walking, bushwhacking or scrambling is NOT permitted in Rouge Park or needed to reach this cache. Please follow Rouge Park’s trails to access the cache.

3) Map requests or downloads of the Rouge Park visitor guide can be found at www.rougepark.com/explore/adventures/hiking.php

The cache is on the Vista Trail. This is the final stop in the The Not-Your-Average Toronto Tour; a result of a 2011 Grade 9 Geography of Canada student project. Students designed their own Geocaching.com pages based on sites important to Toronto’s cultural, physical, ecological, and economic landscape. The top six student projects have been placed and published. This cache was originally filled with items representing all six stops on the tour: The Toronto Reference Library, Casa Loma, The R.O.M., The Scarborough Bluffs, Highland Creek, and The Rouge Valley.

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Parking Map, (click for map)1749 Meadowvale Road
Driving north on Meadowvale: head north past Sheppard, and take the ramp leading to Toronto Zoo. As the ramp approaches traffic lights, the road divides. Take the right divide, and drive into the open parking area.
Driving south on Meadowvale: follow signs for Toronto Zoo main parking, taking a ramp leading to an overpass. Turn left to take the overpass, past the traffic lights and into the open parking area.
Parking is free. PLEASE: use the roadway parking, and not the small lot set aside for the Rouge Valley Conservation Centre staff and volunteers.
TTC: Bus 85 or 86 via Toronto Zoo. Please check TTC seasonal schedules for these routes to help plan your journey, as branches and days of service change. Once you are heading up Meadowvale on your bus, get off at the stop up the ramp off Meadowvale before the traffic lights (i.e. before the bus turns to go to the Zoo itself). Walk east about 1 minute to see the Rouge Valley Conservation Centre/Pearse House.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

N ybiryl ivrj vf irel pybfr ol.

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)


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