HIGH MUGGLE AREA!!! USE STEALTH!!!
* * *PLEASE cover up the cache with natural camo before leaving it for the next cacher! * * *
We need more caches in this area, so I am putting this one here to replace my archived cache “Rule of Three” (so named because of the climbing trees in the area. When we climb, we must always have three of your hands/feet on the tree at a time.) No tree climbing required for this cache, though. Cache at chest height in where three large branches meet.
This 35 acre park sports an indoor pool, ball fields, disabled access picnic area & restroom, paved paths (though you have to cross grass to get to the cache), picnic tables, playground, a spray park for the kids, lit tennis courts and volleyball court! Did you know about this gem of a park? You do, now! It was designed in the early 20th century by G.H. Hoch, the head gardener and designer of Washington Park in downtown Portland. This part of the city used to be the city of Albina! I don't know whether this forest has always been here, or whether it was planted by settlers from Europe, but I did find a lot of neat info about The Columbia River, so I'll include it below. There is a possibility that this land was underwater at some point.
The earliest archaeological evidence of human habitation in the Columbia River Basin dates to 10,000 B.P. [Before Present Time] The earliest groups lived by fishing, hunting large mammals, and gathering plant foods. Cultures in the proto-historic and historic periods varied greatly along the river. On the lower Columbia groups lived in large multi-family long houses, while on the middle and upper river sections, people moved seasonally and lived in smaller groups. Native fishers took salmon at Willamette Falls on the Willamette River and at Kettle Falls on the upper Columbia. Celilo Falls on the middle river was the most important native fishery. Thousands gathered there during the spring and summer fish runs to harvest chinook salmon and trade. In the early 19th century, Pacific Fur Company trader Alexander Ross called Celilo "the great emporium or mart of the Columbia."
The Columbia River first appeared on European maps in the early 17th century as "River of the West," when a Spanish maritime explorer Martin de Auguilar located a major river near the 42nd parallel. Cartographers often labeled the "River of the West" as an estuary to the mythical Straits of Anian, or the Northwest Passage and located it anywhere from the 42nd to the 50th parallel. In 1765, British Major Robert Rogers called the river "Ouragon" -- later spelled "Oregon" by Jonathan Carver in 1778 -- as a derivative name referring to the "ouisconsink" river in present-day Wisconsin. The first confirmation of its location came in 1775 when Bruno de Hezeta described a river estuary at the Columbia's correct latitude. In May 1792, American trader Captain Robert Gray sailed across the bar in the first documented Euroamerican visit to the river. British explorer George Vancouver sent Lt. William Broughton up the river more than 100 miles in October 1792, and Broughton produced the first detailed map of the lower river. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark explored the river in 1805-1806 for the United States. Northwest Company fur trader David Thompson made the first map of the full river in 1811-1812. After the War of 1812, England and the United States jointly occupied the Columbia River Basin territory.
The Columbia River drains a 259,000-square-mile basin that includes territory in seven states (Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Wyoming, and Utah) and one Canadian province. The river is arguably the most significant environmental force in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It flows for more than 1,200 miles, from the base of the Canadian Rockies in southeastern British Columbia to the Pacific Ocean at Astoria, Oregon, and Ilwaco, Washington. Although humans have lived along the river for more than 10,000 years, modern engineering in the 19th and 20th centuries has dramatically altered the Columbia. Some scientists believe that today the river is environmentally threatened and that drastic action should be taken to reverse the changes made to the Columbia during the last 150 years.
The Columbia originates in two lakes that lie between the Continental Divide and Selkirk mountain ranges in British Columbia. The river's course is convoluted. It flows north for its first 200 or more miles, then it turns south and runs to the international border. Within the United States, the river courses southwest and skirts one of the Columbia Plateau's massive lava flows, then it turns to the southeast, cutting a dramatic gorge in the volcanic shield to its junction with the westward flowing Snake River. From its confluence with the Snake, the Columbia runs nearly due west to the Pacific Ocean. Fifteen percent of the basin -- 39,000 square miles -- lies in Canada and the largest of the river's major tributaries is the Snake River, itself more than 1,100 miles long. The Columbia River Basin includes a diverse ecology that ranges from temperate rain forests to semi-arid plateaus, with precipitation levels from 110 inches to 6 inches per year.
Most important, perhaps, the Columbia is a snow-charged river that seasonally fluctuates in volume. Its annual average discharge is 160 million acre-feet of water, with the highest volumes between April and September, the lowest from December to February. From its source at 2,650 feet above sea level, the river drops an average of more than 2 feet per mile, but in some sections it falls nearly 5 feet per mile.
The Columbia has ten major tributaries: the Kootenay, Okanagan, Wenatchee, Spokane, Yakima, Snake, Deschutes, Willamette, Cowlitz, and Lewis rivers. Its most important tributary, the Snake, flows across a semi-arid plain and runs through the deepest gorge in North America, Hell's Canyon -- 7,900 feet deep. The Deschutes and Willamette rivers drain basins south of the Columbia, while the Yakima, Lewis, and Cowlitz rivers drain areas on the north side of the river.
An especially dramatically scenic portion of the river cuts through the Cascade Mountain Range, creating the 100-mile-long and 3,000-foot-deep Columbia River Gorge. Before massive dam building in the 20th century, the river plunged over basalt cliffs and rapids in the Gorge, but today the engineered Columbia provides a nearly sea-level pathway through the mountain range to eastern regions of Oregon and Washington. The reach of the tide extends to the western end of the Gorge, a little more than 100 miles from the ocean. This lower river section is flat, falling less than one half-foot per mile. It includes Sauvie Island--one of the largest river islands in North America.
This cache complies with the geocaching policies for Portland Parks & Recreation (PP&R) properties. Please respect park hours when caching.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Congratulations to Nikkitty123 for the FTF! ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~