This site is nestled between private properties. It doesn't offer park amenities, but it does fulfill its promise of a magnificent view of the lake.
At the posted coordinates, you can see part of one of the five Great Lakes, Ontario, named by the Huron First Nations people as the "Lake of Shining Waters".
The Great Lakes are unique among the world's large lakes because their basins are linked together and form one continuous drainage basin. Together, they constitute the greatest freshwater system on Earth, containing approximately 18% of the world's fresh water. They have also been referred to as North America's fifth coast because the total shoreline of the lakes stretches about 17,000 km (11,000 mi). The awesome sizes of the lakes make them seem to appear and behave like oceans. They have coastal currents, including dangerous rip currents, and occasional large tide-like changes in coastal water levels called seiches (pronounced "say-shez") caused by prolonged strong winds and passing storms. Like oceans, the lakes also moderate the temperature of the air and increase the amount of precipitation that falls on the lands surrounding them.
Starting in Lake Superior, the water flows down the St. Marys River into Lakes Michigan and Huron. From there, the water flows down the St. Clair and Detriot Rivers to Lake Erie. From Lake Erie, it flows down the Niagara River and over Niagara Falls into Lake Ontario. It then flows down the St. Lawrence River, the last link in a long 3,500 kilometre (2,200 mile) waterway that connects the centre of the continent to the Atlantic Ocean.
Most geologists believe that the lake-making process began in earnest about one million years ago, when the continental glaciers began their slow but relentless cycle of advance and retreat. About 13,000 years ago, as the ice age drew to a close, the melt water along the front of the retreating glacier pooled into the depressions that had been formed by the weight of the ice. Enormous bodies of water, much larger than the present Great Lakes, began to form. Wherever it was freed from the weight of the glacier, the land began to rise or rebound, causing dramatic changes in the size, distribution and drainage patterns of the glacial lakes. With each new shift, or uplift, the lakes spilled out in new directions -- to the southwest, to the south, and finally to the east.
Present-day Lake Ontario was born from the giant glacial lake known as Lake Iroquois. The ancient Lake, shaped like Lake Ontario, was larger and deeper (see earthcache GC127DY “Great Lakes - Lake Iroquois”).
Glacial ice retreated first from the western end of the Lake Iroquois basin, sending its outlet flow south toward New York's Hudson River Valley. But when a massive plug of ice finally pulled away from the Thousand Islands where it had been blocking flow in the basin's eastern end, Lake Iroquois surged through the newly-opened channel of the St. Lawrence River. The Lake began to drain east toward the Atlantic, and the eastern end of the Iroquois basin sprang back from the weight of about 2,000 metres (6,500 feet) of ice that had been stacked on it. Water levels in Lake Iroquois began to drop and the Lake's shoreline receded, beginning the long, slow birth of present-day Lake Ontario. But, the process is not yet complete because the land is still rebounding about 20 cm (8 in) per century.
With a surface area of 18,960 square km (7,340 square mi), Lake Ontario is the smallest of the Great Lakes. However, it has the highest ratio of watershed area to lake surface area. Its large watershed gives a clue that its waters run deep. Its maximum depth is 244 m (802 ft) with an average depth of 83 m (283 ft). The lake is 310 km (193 mi) long, 85 km (53 mi) wide, and has 1,168 km (726 mi) of shoreline. It has a flushing time of about six years.
The lake’s bathymetry (the underwater equivalent of topography) reveals the diversity of the lake’s structure. Close scrutiny of the bottom reveals a unique feature –- drumlins, or ridges. These ridges, having a height of 15-25 m (50-80 ft) and a natural spacing of 250-1,000 m (820-3,280 ft), are remarkable in their linear aspect and uniform width. Most have relatively flat tops with steep side slopes. They occur at the deepest part of the lake. The shape of the drumlins indicates they were formed by fast current flow of a great flood rather than ice-sheets.
The lake's volume of water is replenished in various ways:
- precipitation (that is, rain and snow falling on its surface),
- groundwater seepage (that is, water entering below its surface from underground aquifers),
- diversions from other sources of water, both natural (for example, the Niagara River) and man-made (for example, the Welland Canal), and
- runoff from the land, both directly from land adjacent to its shores and indirectly through streams and rivers.
You can log your visit without prior authorization. However, for the log to remain, you must e-mail the answers to these questions:
- In what ways does this site contribute to replenishing the lake's volume? Describe if they are natural or man-made.
- What is the elevation of the land at the posted coordinates, relative to sea level?
Hint: Use the elevation feature of your GPSr.
- What was the elevation of the land 1,000 years ago?
Hint: The necessary information is in the cache description.