***We had initally
placed this cache on September 23, 2007. While placing it j noticed
another geocacher hanging around. When he got back to Manitoba and
submitted it for publishing quess what? Another cache had been
placed within 60 metres. Who wouda thunk? We were going to remove
the cache, but as this is such an unusual place 2 caches will bring
more people out. We have just moved it to within the
guidelines.This location was then bulldozed before it was found.
Hopefully 3rd time will be lucky****
WELCOME to
SASKATCHEWAN'S CROOKED BUSH, a clump of mutated aspens that grow in
every direction but up. The result is a tangled mess of gnarled
tree trunks and bent branches. No wonder the cattle are not
interested in grazing in this bush. Even the most athletic Holstein
would take one look at what it would take to navigate and wander
off in the other direction.
Some of the tree
trunks here shoot up only half a foot or so, before taking a
right-angle detour. Why grow straight up when you can grow straight
sideways? Locals first noticed the strange trees in the 1940s, and
the aspens have been changing directions ever since. As the years
passed, some trees decided they didn't want to grow sideways
anymore, they would rather twist skyward. Or perhaps downward. So
they do, until they decide otherwise and change direction
again.
Other tree trunks
in this grove take a softer approach to geometry, with squiggles or
gentle arches. One of these arches sweeps so low that only children
can zip along the pathway in the bush without bonking their heads
on the deformed trunk. If one of the Seven Dwarfs got married in
Saskatchewan, the bride and groom would take wedding pictures under
this little arch.
There are
competing theories on why these trees are all knotted up. "Some say
a flying saucer flew over the area and changed the chemistry of
earth beneath the roots," says an information sign posted inside
the bush. "Was it a lightening [sic] strike? Is it radioactive?"
the sign asks.
Aliens make for a
good story, but the scientific set does not buy the argument that
the trees are demented because extraterrestrials used this area as
an intergalactic pit stop.
"The current
hypothesis is that these shoots aren't strong enough to hold
themselves up, so they start to bend over. While these may be
mutated with a weak wood gene, scientists do not know why that
mutation developed in the first place.
Hafford's bizarre
trees, roughly 60 or 70 years old, are now about 15 or 20 feet
tall. Aspens that grow vertically usually hit 20 or 25 feet after
about 15 years. But Hafford's crooked trees are not growing less,
they just do not grow straight.
Cache is a camoed
lock & lock container which iinitially contains FTF
certificate, Log book, pencil, and a few tradeables. Since we
replaced this cache on our vacation FTF Certificate will be
emailed. Cache will be maintained by cacher "seeing eye
dog"