The Elk River is the longest river in West Virginia that starts and ends within the state. A river is a natural waterway that flows towards an ocean or another river. The Elk is 177 miles long from its headwaters. The birth place of a river is referred to as its head waters. The headwaters are the place that rain, snow melt, and springs among other possible sources form streams that end up becoming the source of the river. In the case if the Elk, its headwaters are in the Allegany Mountains of Pocahontas County including the Elk Mountain and Back Mountain. Back Mountain is where Snow Shoe ski resort is. These waters end up forming the two main streams that are considered the Elks source streams which are the Big Spring Fork and the Old Field Fork. At the point that these two streams converge, or join together is when the Elk River starts. The point that this happens is near the community of Slatyfork, approximately 172 miles upstream from the location of this cache. So the Elks waters come out of Pocahontas County and make the Elk then flow through Randolph, Webster, Braxton, Clay, and finally Kanawha County. Its drainage area is 1550 square miles. Along this course the river goes through many changes and obstacles. Early on just a few miles from where it began the river sinks completely underground into a subterranean network of caverns. The river flows underground here for 6 miles. The old above ground river bed can still be seen in that area, it is referred to as the dries. There is an area of the river in Randolph County called Elk Springs that you can see some of the river appear straight out of the ground. Shortly down river from there the river flows over perhaps its most well-known waterfall, known as Whitaker falls. It continues on after that as a rocky trout stream and meets its first town along the way which is Webster Springs. The river continues on rocky with shoals dropping in elevation for several more miles. From its head waters to its mouth the river drops in elevation an average of 19 feet per mile. The Elk meets its next big transition in Braxton County when it pours into Sutton Lake. Sutton Lake is a dammed man made impoundment that is a 1,520 acre flood control reservoir. The concrete dam is 210 feet high and 1,178 feet wide. At Sutton Lake is also where the Elk River merges with its first of two primary tributaries. A tributary is a stream or river of smaller size flowing into or converging with a larger river. The Elk River has many tributaries; its two primary ones are the Holly River and the Birch River. The Elk is a tributary it’s self of the Kanawha River. After the river leaves Sutton it changes into a different phase. Its elevation drop is less so it flows more slowly and meanders on through the rest of Braxton County, Clay County, and Kanawha County until it converges with the Kanawha River at Charleston. Most rivers go through phases where they can be divided into distinct biotic zones. The first zone is the crenon zone which is at the uppermost source of the river; it is further subdivided into two different categories. The first being eucrenon, that is also known as the spring or boil zone. The second subcategory of the crenon zone is the hypocrenon which is also known as the brook or headstream zone. These areas are characterized by slow moving water, low oxygen, and low temperatures. The second zone is the rhithon zone; it is the upstream portion of the river that is fast moving turbulent with high oxygen levels and cool temperatures. The final stage of the river is the patamon zone or the remaining downstream stretch of the river that is characterized by slower flow with lower oxygen content, sandier bottoms, and warmer temperatures. In each one of these distinct zones a river will support different types of aquatic life. The Elk is known to support species of fish and other aquatic life that is only in the elk and not known to exist anywhere else in the world. A river is also constantly eroding its bottom, banks, and floodplain, moving sediment downstream and eventually depositing it somewhere else. For this reason a river is a constantly changing place. The Elk River is considered to have a high water quality level; for this reason West Virginia American Water Company uses the Elk River as its source for serving a large number of citizens with their drinking water. Just a short distance downstream from this cache site the Elk River ends when it converges with the Kanawha River. The Elk is a major tributary of the Kanawha. Once it leaves here the waters of the Elk continue on down the Kanawha into the Ohio River, leaving West Virginia behind. Eventually the Ohio converges into the Mississippi River and many miles after that finally a melted snowflake from the mountains of Pocahontas County reaches the ocean at the Gulf of Mexico.
Take a picture for the cache log while you are here to document the river conditions at the time of your find. This photo request is not required, optional request only.
To get credit for this earth cache send an email answering the following questions and then log the find.
1. Estimate the distance from one riverbank across to the next at this site?
2. Estimate the distance from this site to where the Elk River converges with the Kanawha River?
3. Using the information from above; what biotic zone do you think this part of the river is in?Describe what characteristics are present here that are the same as or define that zone.
CONGRATS TO gw0143O FOR THE FTF!