Subject: Re: NANFA-L-- Upcoming outing
From: Crail, Todd (farmertodd at buckeye-express.com)
Date: Thu Oct 07 2004 - 08:51:04 CDT
Oh crud. I musta not moved your email into the "Deer Creek" folder and you
didn't get the details. I am _so_ sorry! I might as well post all the info
here then in case I forgot someone else. It wouldn't be the first time, I
hope you don't take this personally. I am a chronic air head :)
And for the others on the list... There will be a lot more that you may be
interested in _after_ the directions. So you may want to skim on through
that. Or you may have been teetering on wether to come along or not. Read
on, you may have your mind swiftly changed ;)
Subject: Deer Creek This Weekend...
Sent: Monday, October 04, 2004 5:18 PM
Okay Gang, I think this is everyone who expressed an interest. What a great
group! What's better, is there's a lot of people coming with some of you
folks, so this will be a pretty nice mini-event. Looks like we'll have
AWESOME weather too with a potential frost tonight to get those leaves in
the right mood! :)
Here's what I have planned. I think the easiest way to do this for Saturday
is to have two meeting places.
Meeting place #1 For those staying at Deer Creek State Park on Friday
night, let me know who you are and I'll coordinate with you. We'll be going
down Friday as well. The park will be very out of the way for anyone else
driving in on Saturday morning, so we'll just meet at the Darby.
Meeting place #2 To get to the Darby...
I think the majority of people who are going to need directions there are
coming from the North.
* Get on the I-270 Beltway around Columbus
* Take US 23 (southern most point on the loop) south.
* You can cross over the Scioto (heading west) on either SR 762 or SR 316
to get to SR 104 to come from the north to the site.
SR 104 runs over Big Darby Creek. The parking is on the south east side of
SR 104. It's pretty much a large gravel area where truckers can warm up
their trucks and fish heads can park. If you get there early, please park
as tight as possible as we may have a lot of cars to deal with.
If you're coming from the south
* Cross over from US 23 at US 22 in Circleville
* Take the SR 56 jog to the northwest to SR 104 and head north on SR104
* US 22 also intersects SR 104.
We will meet there at 11:00 am. It's not mandatory to be there at 11:00
because I'm sure we'll spend at least an two hours in Trautman's riffle.
There's a lot of nice rocky stuff to stand on right there too as it's one
the best places on Planet Earth to get up close with some really imperilled
biodiversity without even getting wet, if you don't want to.
I would like to make a foray around the bend downstream, this may be a more
limited group. We can divide up at that point with people's interests in
mind (like if the ladies are bored and wanna go hike at Deer Creek Or you
wanna look at small stream stuff back at the park) I will have printed maps
of how to get to the park from the SR 104 site. It's not too bad, I just
don't want to fill this email with too much info.
The Deer Creek park info, again is:
http://www.ohiodnr.com/parks/parks/deercrk.htm
If some of you could, who will be staying over and going on Sunday's
outing... Could I have a couple cell phone numbers to distribute to people
who are joining us on Sunday? Matt, I'll definately need yours.
Getting to Paint Creek is a little more involved, again, I will print
maps... So it'd be cool if we could just communicate over the phone when
we're coming and going. I had planned to go to the SR 772 bridge in
Chillicothe, and park at an overflow parking lot for the paper mill that's
kinda hard to describe. The location may even change, as Dr. Cavender may
have a better location in mind. [AND IT HAS... SEE BELOW! ]
Okay... Anything else? Let me know and I'll distribute! :)
Subject: Re: Deer Creek This Weekend...
Sent: Wednesday, October 06, 2004 12:29 PM
A little Natural History to prepare... This is working out better than I had
planned, and I thought I'd share my excitement with the rest of the gang.
Maybe I'll send this out to the department so they'll ask first if we "have
plans" on breaks in the future ;)
The Darby will be great for looking at fish, especially if you're brining
along folks who just like to relax stream side and learn... But the real
natural history treasure this weekend is Paint Creek.
The site we'll visit Sunday sounds like "someplace else", rather than Ohio.
I had planned steering toward sampling in Chillicothe (mainly because I
caught a spotted darter there last fall, didn't voucher it, and it was
<ahem> kinda important ;) But after hearing back from Dr. Cavender
yesterday concerning Paint Creek, then reading all this... We'll see if we
"have time" after going to these sites!
First of all... When I saw the word "hellbender" in Dr. Cavender's email, I
about had an aneurysm. I don't know the frequency, or when the last one was
seen... But if you have a wet suit, mask and snorkel... You might have one
heck of an opportunity there. We'll see if we can't find one. If you're
not familiar with hellbenders... They're one of the worlds largest
salamanders. They top out at 29 inches... Anything over a foot would make
me loose it (that's still a huge salamander). They are listed as State
Endangered in Ohio and we'll not harrass one long, should we find one... But
a quick picture would be awesome.
What will be even more immediately interesting, is the glacially derived
habitat that these animals are using. I took all these quotes from here:
http://www.heritagepursuit.com/Ross/RossChapIX.htm If you want to read the
whole spiel about the county, that's where to go, but this summary should
get you stoked enough. At first it's kinda dry, but then you'll see what
the foundation lays, and my selections are concerning the areas we will
travel. If something else jumps out at you, let me know (reading the whole
history)... I have a DeLorme map that shows all these things in detail :)
--------------------------------------------
"The oldest, rock in the county, exposed to view, is along Paint creek in
the western part of Paint township. Here is found the Niagara limestone, of
the Devonian age of geology. Overlaying this is the Helderberg limestone,
found along Paint creek in Buckskin township mainly. This rock was laid down
in an ocean of considerable depth. "
"The main surface feature affecting the soil is that the boundary of the
glacial deposits in Ohio, known commonly as the drift, passes through the
county diagonally from the northeastern to the southwestern corner. Hence,
in the northwest half of the county the drift covers the natural rock almost
entirely, while in the southeast half it is found only in the clays of some
of the lowlands. "
"In Twin township, where Paint creek flows, are other large kames {100-150
ft} running north and south on Cattail run, and in the northeast corner of
the same township is the place where Paint creek was forced by the ice to
cut itself a new channel. This drift deposit was made when Ohio was dry
land. The rocks of Ross county were built many ages before that, in the
bottom of the sea, or along a primeval coast."
"Above this rock was deposited the Huron shale, which is mainly covered by
the drift, but is found out-cropping in the rest of the course of Paint
creek, except where that stream was turned out of its old course by the
glaciers, west of Chillicothe. "
"Paint creek has cut a deep valley entirely through the Helderberg series of
rocks, deep into the Niagara, furnishing some of the most picturesque
scenery in Ohio. "
"The lowest courses exposed in the bed of Paint creek, two miles below the
railroad crossing at Greenfield, are identified as of the Niagara group by
the fossils, which are numerous, sometimes making up the entire substance of
the rock." {We can make a run up to this location if we don't see many in
the stream alluvium downstream- tc }
"As the Helderberg limestone is followed to the southward and eastward on
Paint creek, it thins out rapidly. On the hanks of Buckskin creek, two miles
north of Bainbridge, on the Greenfield road, may be seen the Niagara
limestone containing the fossil megalomus, the Helderberg water lime stone,
and the Huron shale, all in a section of fifteen feet." {State Route 41}
"At the falls of Paint are found rocks of the Niagara almost entirely made
up of the remains or casts of a creek, furnishes a good general section of
the rocks of the western beautiful lily-like sea animal, the pentamerus."
{Falls Road?}
"The exposures of slate along the course of Paint creek are unsurpassed--the
whole series, except fifty or sixty feet of the lowermost beds, being shown
iii nearly vertical sections at Copperas mountain three miles east of
Bainbridge, and Alum cliffs, five miles due west of Chillicothe. Copperas
mountain rises to a height. of 550 feet, and affords a vertical wall of
slate about 150 feet high; and Alum cliffs, formed when Paint creek cut its
new course, exposes both the Huron and Waverly shales and slates." {Copperas
Mountain is our Canoe/Fishing/Hellbender site - tc}
"These lower layers of the Waverly are marked with the prints of sea weeds,
sun cracks on ancient beaches, and ripple marks, and Ross county is that
near being a sea side resort today. On Stony creek, in Franklin township,
are some of the best preserved ripple marks to be found anywhere." {This is
a site where I know there are abundant southern red bellied dace - TC}
--------------------------------------------------
So Let's see...
Beautiful Geologic Scenery + Beautiful Biodiversity + Beautiful Fall Weather
and Color = "Oh my gosh, this is gonna RULE!" :)
Todd
It's never too late to have a happy childhood.
http://www.farmertodd.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ray Ake" <lagrangepastor at juno.com>
To: <nanfa-l at nanfa.org>
Sent: Thursday, October 07, 2004 9:21 AM
Subject: NANFA-L-- Upcoming outing
>
> Hi Tod and all -
>
> I find I don't know details for the outing this weekend, other than the
words 'southern Ohio' and 'Darby'. Did I miss an e-mail about when and
where we are gathering and heading?
> Thanks, Ray Ake
> /-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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: Fri Dec 31 2004 - 11:27:40 CST