Come take a hike down the Virginia Creeper Trail and enjoy
possibly the easiest, and very scenic EarthCache adventures you
will ever encounter. This trail, which is actually the "retired"
railway corridor of the Virginia - Carolina Railroad, has become
one of the most popular hiking trail destinations in the eastern
United States.
With its gently descending grade and well-groomed surface, the
Virginia Creeper Trail is an attractive location for EarthCache
sites. The Virginia Creeper Trail travels through the small
picturesque communities of Damascus, Abingdon, Whitetop, Konnarock,
Green Cove, Taylors Valley, and Alvarado. This area was settled
over 200 years ago by the first settlers.
Here in the very small town of Alvarado you will find this old
stone spring house. It was once a source of fresh supply water for
this farm in times of drought. The railroad that once traveled
through here would get water from this spring house for the people
traveling on the train and for other purposes during its stop.
The Alvarado Spring house is a small building once used for
refrigeration and a fresh source of water. These small spring
houses are common throughout this local area. It’s a one room
building constructed over the source of the spring that the water
comes from. The water from the spring maintains a constant cool
temperature inside the spring house throughout the year. In
settings where no natural spring is available, another source of
natural running water, such as a small creek or diverted portion of
a larger creek, may be used. Years ago, the main use of spring
houses was for the long term storage of food that would otherwise
spoil, such as meat, fruit or dairy products. The water that flows
from this spring house comes from an underground spring. A spring
is a point where groundwater flows out of the ground, and is thus
where the aquifer surface meets the ground surface. Water issuing
from an artesian spring rises to a higher elevation than the top of
the confined aquifer from which it issues. When water issues from
the ground it may form into a pool or flow downhill, in surface
streams. Sometimes a spring is termed a seep.
The town of Alvarado is build on top of a karst landscape. Water
emanating from this local karst topography is another type of
spring, often called a resurgence as much of the water may come
from one or more sinkholes at a higher altitude. Karst springs
generally are not subjected to as great a degree of ground
filtering as spring water which may have continuously passed
through soils or a porous aquifer. Dependent upon the constancy of
the water source (rainfall or snowmelt that infiltrates the earth),
a spring may be ephemeral (intermittent) or perennial
(continuous).
DO NOT ENTER THE SPRING HOUSE. The Alvarado Spring House
EarthCache is on private property but can be viewed from the
Creeper trail at the listed coordinates. There are three dogs that
live here. One is a small Toto looking dog, an greman shepherd, and
a very old golden retriever. They are friendly dogs and will bark
when they see you. They are harmless and will do you no harm. You
can look trough the small window of the spring house to seeing the
running water.
To get credit for the earth cache, post a picture of yourself
(face included) with GPS and the spring house in background, just
like in the picture above and please answer the following
questions.
1. Is this spring perennial?
2. What kind of stone do you think the spring house is
constructed of?
3. Briefly describe the water pumping equipment you see through
the window of the spring house.
DO NOT LOG AS A FIND UNTIL YOU HAVE A PICTURE READY TO POST. To
get credit for this EC, post a photo of you (I do not accept
pictures of just a hand) at the posted coordinates with the
Alvarado Spring House in the background just like in the picture
above.
PLEASE DO NOT POST YOUR ANSWERS IN YOUR LOG! Logs with no photo
of the actual EarthCacher/Geocacher (face must be included) logging
the find or failure to answer questions will result in a log
deletion. Exceptions will be considered if you contact me first (I
realize sometimes we forget our cameras or the batteries die). Logs
with no photos will be deleted without notice. I have used sources
available to me by using google search to get information for this
earth cache. I am by no means a geologist. I use books, internet,
and asking questions about geology just like 99.9 percent of the
geocachers who create these great Earth Caches. I enjoy Earth
Caches and want people to get out and see what I see every time I
go and explore this great place we live in.