Welcome to Sparrow Pond!
In 1996 Arlington County staff were forced to destroy beaver dams in this area that made up what was called "Sparrow's Swamp". Why? Structural engineers were concerned the high water levels might cause the W&OD embankment to weaken and collapse--which would in turn endanger an important fiber optics cable, and in general in America, TV wins out over large rodents. So the beavers had to go.
Hark, the county was beset with guilt, which they assuaged by watching cable TV. Actually, after several years of planning and work by the Arlington community, a solution was reached and the wetlands were restored as "Sparrow Pond" in 2002. Wetlands have the ability to absorb many pollutants and process them into benign by-products. Sparrow Pond treats nonpoint source runoff from about 80 acres of land, most of it in Arlington Forest, but hey you are still reading and didn't skip to the puzzle, good for you, also along Barcroft’s western edge, as well as a stretch of Arlington Boulevard.
Anyhow, on with the puzzle part of this. The actual coordinates for the cache are:
N 38° 51.ABC W 077° 06.DEF
Use the signs on the platform (at posted coordinates) to determine the values. Here are the clues:
| A |
Silt Removal + cattails |
| B |
Non-bird animals + Flood Control |
| C |
Litter Control |
| D |
Clumps of Trees & Shrubs on side of trail away from pond |
| E |
Nutrient Removal x 2 |
| F |
Blue 'digit' in NW pond |
To check your work, add up all of the clue digits (A through F). You should get 37.
Plug them in and off you go! Good luck. Please re-hide container as well as or better than you found it. In the same spot that is!
After 1 year, 55 finds, 0 DNFs.