GSS # 9 - Last Chance Gas Traditional Cache

Parking coordinates for the caches in this series is: N 41°43.648 W 086°48.951

The Shirley Heinze Land Trust's Ambler Flatwoods Nature Preserve is a new hiking area in the LaPorte County area. It is located off of Meer Road in Michigan City, Indiana.
A vast array of mosses — including many club mosses — covers the forest floor, and a diversity of mushrooms and other fungi thrive. The red fruits of partridgeberry and wintergreen are abundant; many will linger to provide winter fodder for wildlife. The trees are alive with the sound of birdsong, and bird populations swell as migrating species stop temporarily to feed and roost. Numerous birds, seen in our area only during migratory flight, take brief refuge in the flatwoods after their long journey down the shorelines of Lake Michigan.

It is generally described as a "boreal flatwoods," a poorly drained forest with an extremely rich plant community, including species that are ordinarily found far to the north and others that reach the southern limit of their range in this area. It is the largest such protected landscape in Indiana and one that is very rare in the Chicago region.

Surveys have found about 260 native plant species, including club mosses, paper birch, sedges, white pine and a variety of wildflowers. There is nearly 20-acres that make up the preserve.

Please follow the trails. The caches are within 50± ft of the trails.

Here you will have an enjoyalbe hike through a heavily wooded area. The trail system is dirt trails. Some small, wooden 'bridges' have been laid out across some of the wet area's but the area can get muddy after a good rain, so wear your boots! We did the complete, round trip hike in about 1 1/2 hours.