Youth-on-Age Interpretive Trail Traditional Cache
grossi: Thanks to the 292 cachers who found this hide over the past nine years.
Youth-on-Age Interpretive Trail
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Size: 
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The Youth-on-Age Interpretive Trail can be found 18.7 miles east of Granite Falls on the south side of the Mountain Loop Highway. There is a large sign marking the entrance to the parking area, where a Northwest Forest Service pass is required. This interpretive trail provides a short (.4-mile), mostly-paved, level loop through old growth forest. A brochure that describes the trail's plants should be available at the trailhead.
Once you park, turn left and stroll across the footbridge. You'll immediately see a large old stump with youthful trees growing out of the top (yet another form of "youth-on-age"). Hunting for this cache along an interpretive nature trail should not cause any damage to the environment. So, take a look underneath that classic Northwest hiding location for cammoed Lock-n-Lock.
If you continue along the short trail after finding the cache, you'll walk beneath plentiful vine maples with several nearby large Sitka spruce trees. You'll also walk through salmonberry, see another spruce with a huge base, and pass through a patch of red alder trees with more vine maple. Near the river, you'll spot a giant Douglas fir tree with deeply furrowed bark. This tree and others nearby are more than 500 years old and over 200 feet tall. There are many gorgeous, moss-draped trees along the trail: please consider posting your nature photos along with your log entry.
The bank of the South Fork of the Stillaguamish River seems to move each year, and the relentless power of erosion is clearly evident where the paved trail vanishes; however, a short dirt path quickly rejoins the other end of the paved trail. The river channel migrated during flooding in 1980, and the riverbank underneath the pavement was undermined.
The trail's name comes from the abundance of an unusual plant called "youth-on-age," also known as the piggyback plant. During late summer and fall, young leaves grow from the base of the older leaves. As the older leaves wither and fall to the ground, the new leaves send roots into the soil and a new plant takes hold. The plant's scientific name, Tolmiea menziesii, honors two early Northwest explorers: Dr. William Tolmie, who was a physician and early naturalist for the Hudson's Bay Co. at Fort Vancouver in the 1830s, and Archibald Menzies, who was the first European naturalist to explore the Pacific Northwest coast during the 1790-95 Vancouver Expedition.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
haqre sebag bs ynetr fghzc erzanag; pnzzbrq Ybpx-a-Ybpx
Treasures
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