GC692QQ Barngineer's Barn's Near
Type: Traditional | Size: Regular | Difficulty: | Terrain:
By: Barngineer @ | Hide Date: 01/02/2016 | Status: Available
Country: United States | State: Colorado
Coordinates: N40° 17.168 W105° 19.180 | Last updated: 08/30/2019 | Fav points: 0
     

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An ammo can packed full of stuff I scrounged from my barn, located just off a beautiful trail, about a one-hour hike from my house (and my barn).

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I especially like to find geocaches in the woods, and I like the idea of a decent-sized container full of heavy items, located deep in the forest and up on a ridge, so that's what this is.  Actually, its location is really more of a saddle than a ridge.  Once you get there, you'll find a 30 caliber ammo can tucked into a space that's protected by a boulder.  

Your best bet for finding it is to take the trail from Kiowa Road in Pinewood Springs and grab several caches along the way as you hike.  After you make your way from "Pinewood Payload" to "Worth the Walk," you'll need to walk some more.  Follow the dirt road to the northeast a short distance and look for a forest land trail marker on your right.  Follow the trail East and up to the top.  Side note:  The dirt road near "Worth the Walk" is on National Forest land, but is privately maintained.  If you go too far on that road in either direction, you'll reach a gate that's marked "no trespassing" I've heard rumors about dogs and people with guns protecting the land around there, so don't even think about ducking around those gates.

An alternate route would be to approach the cache from the opposite direction, which is how I got there to place it.  It's a beautiful and peaceful hike and I have never seen another person on the trail, though I've seen boot prints and lots of critter tracks.  The problem with this route is that the trailhead is off of Spring Gulch Drive and the people of Spring Gulch are very protective of their private roads.  The gate is very clearly marked "PRIVATE GATE," (even though it's really a public gate) and there are a couple "No Parking" signs near it.  I suspect that there's no legal way that your car would be towed if you parked there, since it's national forest land, but I would not be at all surprised if one of the locals would move or damage your car.  So, the only safe way that I can suggest, if you want to try this route, is to park at my place and make the 20 minute hike up the private road to the trailhead.  Just send me a message and I'll give you directions on how to get to my place and where you can park.  I'll even show you my barn.

If you "view larger map" in this cache description and switch the map type to "Thunderforest OpenCycleMap," you'll see two dead-end trails coming off of Spring Gulch Drive to the East of the Cache.  These trails are not really dead ends, as they connect to each other and then connect to the trail that goes past the cache.  You really can walk (or mountain bike or ride a horse) on a trail all the way from Spring Gulch to Pinewood Springs.  I've done it myself. 

Either way you choose, I'm pretty sure you'll like your trek on this nice little un-named trail.

Ok, two more pieces of trivia about this trail: 

1) During the flood of September 2013, one of the only places to get cell phone reception for the residents of Spring Gulch was just inside the "Private Gate."  This was important because we were without power and our land lines didn't work for 5 or 6 days.  We were unable to get out of the area because highway 36 was washed out and Apple Valley Road was under water.  Word of the cellular hot spot was shared among the locals, and it was informally labeled "Telegraph Hill" during that time.

2) Also during the flood, the people of Pinewood Springs were isolated in their community.  One of those hearty souls, in a long oilskin coat and cowboy hat, saddled up his horse and ponied another pack horse along the trail into Spring Gulch and then through the quarry on the other side of Beech Hill, and down into Lyons.  Several other Pinewood residents used the same route in the following days and weeks, as their isolation lasted longer than that of the Spring Gulch people.

10/15/2017 By JoeRandonneur
Thank you for bringing this beautiful area to my attention! A great hike to this and your two other Barngineer's Barn caches. Traded an emergency whistle for a butter knife.

01/28/2017 By Denali41
Well, even though I'm still in a "recovery" mode from some ailments, it was impossible to turn down the day of caching suggested by icezebra11--to take the great hike in for Barngineer's new caches north of Lyons; to check out the functionings of our smart phones on a multi-cache that includes a MOB stage; and to get after some caches with nice D/T combinations in the Longmont area. So my puppy Orizaba leaped into the car and we headed south to the customary park-n-ride to meet up with Brad--and then drove to Lyons.

It was a pleasant day, one that actually warmed up into the 40s--a relief after the frigid weather we've recently experienced. Neither of us had seen or cached with Barngineer for many months, so it was super to connect up with him and begin our time together with a tour of the wonderful barn he engineered and constructed. Phil's geocaching name now makes great sense to me! He accompanied us on the 6-mile hike as Brad and Zaba and I sought out the three great caches in this series. The loop we hiked traverses an area just east of my "Worth the Walk" cache, but one I had never been in before. Each of the caches is nicely placed in locations providing wonderful views. And each cache is well stocked with SWAG! Thanks for these great caches, Phil, and thanks so much for taking the hike with us! Your participation made our day all the more special.

I dropped a trackable in the cache. It awaits the next finder!

After returning to Phil's home, Brad, Orizaba, and I drove into Longmont to find some other special caches. It was a fun day of cache-finding and companionship.

01/28/2017 By icezebra11
The other day I asked Denali41 if he was interested in heading south to hike in for the three "Barn" caches and he said let's do it. So we contacted Barngineer letting him know we were planning to hike for the caches Saturday and asked if he'd like to make the hike with us. He said if it wasn't before 10 am he would be able to join us. So Denali41 and I set our meet-up time to get us to Barngineer's house about 10 am. When we pulled into the yard, he was there to meet us.
First things first, we got a tour of his fabulous barn. What a great job he did designing and constructing it! I was really impressed with how it was purposely designed to look like it had been there for decades but yet with the quality you'd expect with a new structure. Great job Phil!!!
After the tour the four of us (of course Orizaba wouldn't miss out on an opportunity to do some caching) set off for our cache. We ambled up the road until we came to the gate to enter USFS land and then we headed up the trail. We were able to find all three caches on our hike, and no, Barngineer didn't assist us in finding them. With a regular and two larges, plus coordinates that were spot on, we made quick finds of the containers. Let's just say the two larges must have been quite the haul to get in there.
Thanks Phil for placing these caches and making the hike with us today. It was a very enjoyable stroll in a beautiful area!!!

01/28/2016 By waawhoo
Waawhoo FTF on this beautiful day! I needed a mental break for lunch today. It's been a rough month. It was so good to get out in the woods and find this cache. Wow that was heavy. I was in and out in one hour. Thanks Barngineer's for this great hide!

01/28/2016 By waawhoo
Found