After the Fire #2 Traditional Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
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In September 2011 there was a large grass and forest fire that
consumed more than 1500 acres of George Bush Park. The fire spread
from the south-western part of the park to the north, leaving a
wide swath of charred earth in the process.
Many geocachers familiar with the park will undoubtedly tell
tales of deer, pigs, snakes, and mostly - thorns! After the recent
fire FamilieRyan went out hiking in the affected area to perform
cache maintenance and snapped a few picture along the way. The
changes in the terrain due to the drought and recent fire are
amazing. In particular, you can see the scorch and fire marks on
most of the trees which indicates how hot the fire got in cetain
places. Of 16 caches we checked on, 10 were completely consumed in
the fire, 3 were unharmed, and 3 were in varying degrees of a
melted state.
The following couple of picture provide an idea of how empty the
woods are of underbrush after the fire:
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As you can see, the park has sustained significant fire damage,
but hopefully this will also be the beginning of the natural
regrowth of the woods and we will see animals returning quickly in
the future.
We placed a couple of caches in concert with replacing our "Over
the River" series so folks could get an idea of how this area of
the park has changed in the past couple of weeks. Please be careful
out here as although there is much less underbrush, there are
certainly still muddy conditions, falling tree limbs, animals, etc.
that you must be aware of in the park. Please feel free to take and
post pictures from your caching journey!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Fbqn ghor grgurerq gb n ivar