Park at the Darby Bend Lakes at Prairie Oaks Metro Park, and then hop on the Darby Creek Greenway Trail to find this cache. This is a dog friendly trail, so feel free to bring your dog along on your cache adventure. You may also want to check out the designated dog swimming area and let your best furry friend cool off in the lake. For those of you without a dog, enjoy some fantastic fishing or bring your kayak, canoe or stand up paddle board and take a spin around the lakes. Bring your own pen.
If you see a swan on the lake, take a closer look. If the bird’s bill is orange, it is a Mute Swan, which is an invasive species in Ohio. They are known to be aggressive towards people during the nesting season and disrupt our aquatic ecosystems. If the bill is black, or black with a small amount of yellow, it is one of our two native species of swan: the Trumpeter Swan or the Tundra Swan. Tundra Swans only migrate through this area, but Trumpeter Swans nest here, and have been successfully reintroduced by the Ohio Division of Wildlife after disappearing in the 1700’s.
Be sure to check out the 20 other caches that are a part of this year’s Metro Parks GeoTrail! To participate in the Metro Parks GeoTrail go to Metro Parks to find complete instructions. Find, log and record the code word from at least 15 caches to be eligible for one of 100 limited edition GeoCoins. Find all 20 caches to unlock the coordinates to the Bonus Puzzle Cache.