Yggdrasil Northwest
The cache is not at the posted location. Please solve this EASY puzzle to determine its true coordinates.
This cache is part of a series on the North Oregon Coast. For more information, please visit Seven Sisters of the Sea.
Yggdrasil, the legendary tree of Norse mythology. The Tree of Life. Eternal and vast.
Surprisingly, and little known, there are multiple Yggdrasils spread throughout the world. Perhaps less surprising is the fact that their locations are centers of concentration of cosmic and spiritual energies, somewhat similar to, but not in common with, points of Harmonic Convergence. Very little is known about the locations of Yggdrasils (Yggdrasii) and that information is closely guarded by the few who do know, a group known as the Guardians of Yggdrasii.
In 2009, after countless hours of searching and researching, I located an Yggdrasil tree in the hills above Salt Lake City. The location is now marked by this geocache.
As remarked in the listing for that cache, I subsequently made a positive identification of another specimen in Ft. Stevens State Park, which I assumed was the only one on the West Coast.
Much to my surprise, when scouting locations for this Seven Sisters of the Sea series, a loud alarm sounded from inside my hiking pack. My custom-made Yggdrasil Detector was getting a reading! Sure enough, just 30 feet from a trail in Oswald West State Park, I encountered a second Yggdrasii! This was an astounding discovery.
One might expect it to be one of the towering behemoths of which there are several nearby, but, as in Utah, it is a relatively unremarkable tree. With one exception: As with the Ents of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, the Oswald West Yggdrasil has legs!
Anyone who has done much hiking in the Northwest has likely observed trees with legs. Here are some photos taken in the vicinity of the cache site, and one of the Yggdrasil cache location itself:
Now for the puzzle that will lead you to the Yggdrasil Northwest tree and the cache:
What do you think causes trees to grow legs like the ones shown above? I recently learned the answer from the Man of the Forest himself, Orange Crash.
Listed below are six explanations for the legs-with-trees phenomenon. Pick the correct answer and you will have the cache location!
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1 - The vast amounts of wind so frequently experienced in Northwest forests erode, over many decades, the soil below the roots of trees, leaving them as arches, or legs.
N 45 45.629 W 123 57.590
2 - In the early days of logging, loggers would occasionally cut trees off several feet above ground, and rather than dying, the tree would continue to send out new roots from the top of the stump, leaving the open-air root system you see in the photos above.
N 45 45.467 W 123 57.692
3 - Trees with legs originally started life growing on the tops of fallen "nurse" logs. During growth, the new tree's roots extended down around the nurse log and into the ground. Eventually, the nurse log decayed away entirely, leaving the exposed roots that you see in such trees.
N 45 45.508 W 123 57.547
4 - It's not the wind that carves out the open areas under exposed roots, but water. Lots of water, which is certainly the case around here! Especially as it rushes downhill through tree-covered areas.
N 45 45.546 W 123 57.809
5 - The tree legs are the work of the Northwestern Pica, a medium-sized mammal that lives underground. The Picas especially like to dine on the grubs frequently found near roots, and often dig deep chambers below the roots, leaving them open and exposed and very much like legs.
N 45 45.625 W 123 57.479
6 - The exposed roots are the work of man, but for a good cause. When trees become diseased with root-rot, rangers frequently dig out the dirt around the roots, exposing them to air and terminating the mold-growing processes that cause the rot. Once the tree recovers, the roots are usually reburied.
N 45 45.383 W 123 58.038
Got your favorite theory from the above? Verify it here and you're off on the easy and short walk to the cache.
Please share my greetings with Yggdrasil!