Goat Mountain Cache

10/19/2014 By CrazySanMan
Wow, what a hike. I was totally unprepared for the distance and difficulty of this one. I was expecting a 5-6 mile round trip, it was 10. I ran out of water and got some serious muscle cramps from the dehydration. Every time I though I reached the summit, I'd get to the top only to find it was a false summit and another, higher, steeper summit loomed ahead. IDK how many false summits there were, but it was disheartening after a while. Still I pressed on and from a distance I could see one of the summits that had a large stick with something on it, and I knew I had found the true summit at last. It took me 5 hours to get up and 3.5 hours to come back down. What an epic adventure!
A view from Goat Mountain

06/03/2014 By 58hiker
Great hike! Some friends and I are training for a multiple day backpack and felt this little "jaunt" up the mtn would be a great start. That is a tough trail in spots and a beautiful hike all the way. Small spring flowers were in bloom and everything was so green!! The cache is in good shape and right where my GPS led me! SL and TNLN

05/24/2014 By Denali41
This cache is one that's been on my list of "musts" for several years. I've just not taken the time for the drive down to Waterton Canyon and for the hike. Icezebra11 and I had planned to crawl around in some storm sewers today (Wyrmholes) but with the forecast for rain we decided to postpone that effort. Now what would be a good substitute? Well (FINALLY!) Goat Mountain Cache! So we made an early morning drive down from the far north so we'd be finished by afternoon thunderstorms and made the marvelous hike up to Goat Mountain's summit. What a lovely morning; what a fine hike; what a fine cache. Thanks, fensalir, for placing it and keeping it active through more than 12 years. And thanks, cameltreker, for your timely replacement of the original cache container. It's wonderful to see geocachers offering such assistance on backcountry caches so they remain available to future seekers.

This was a really fine caching experience for us. I'm so pleased we came and found!

05/24/2014 By icezebra11
Denali41 and I came down south from Wellington and Loveland this morning to climb Goat Mountain. We got an early start, arriving at the parking area about 7:30 am. We hit the road and after reaching the aquaducts we headed up hill. It was a nice cool morning but it definitely was humid due to all the recent rains. We had no trouble following the trail all the way to the peak. About two-thirds of the way up we were passed by two other hikers. When we eventually made it to the peak they were still on top. One asked if we were geocaching and said he had found the cache about 10 years ago. So there we were, three of the few that have ventured away from the road to this superb mountaintop cache. So close to thousands of cachers but so few visits. That's too bad as this is a great one. The views of Denver are fantastic. Thanks fenslir for this great oldie!
Denali41 signing summit register

Denver

We came from down there

04/19/2014 By kaydenmacg
My 1st cache ever :)

04/19/2014 By Overtweak
Number 1400. Found today after 4.25 hours of false summits we got this one!!!!! Found with Kaydenmacg (his first cache) and my best friend (a muggle) David. Be careful cause we found and signed a log near the pole. But went looking at the other location and found the real log!! There is no other reason for me to be up here so thanks for placing this one!!!

Sunday - Now that I'm a little more coherent I have some more to add. I am 50 years old weigh 280 and am in so-so shape. That being said, about half way back down I wanted to just go home, I didn't want to do this anymore!! :) It was 4 1/2 hours up for us and was 5 1/2 hours back down. Not something I'll ever do again but other than some sore muscles today I'm fine. We did run into a kid, late teens early 20s that passed us as we were coming down. He hit the summit and passed us again on the way down, THAT was when I felt really old!!! LOL

All in all it was a great time! We were all glad we did it, but you couldn't pay us to do it again!!!! :)

This entry was edited by Overtweak on Sunday, 20 April 2014 at 16:56:01 UTC.

Goat Mountain

04/17/2014 By rockenit
Found on a nice sunny day. Cool spot.

08/07/2012 By animjason
Muggle friend: "Hey, let's go hike Pikes Peak on Tuesday."
Me: "Oh no, I don't have the energy for a 14er right now, especially that one..."
I decided we should do Goat Mountain instead and remove it from my bucket list: 7 hours later...
Me: "Maybe we should have hiked Pikes Peak instead... it would have been easier."

The heat of today was our biggest crutch and we almost turned back, but I knew if I didn't push to the top, odds are, I would not have returned, so we did it! I went through just over 3 liters of water and still ran out shortly after leaving the peak. Safeway was happy for my business of buying tons of water and Gatorade after :)

We didn't fall for any false summits since we studied its profile before heading up so that helped. We were getting pretty confident all the way up to the 2nd to last peak. Then we almost went back. The sun had a hayday with my neck, which is bright red now. We pushed on and I'm so glad we did. Found the cache right away and was so happy to add our names. I don't think she'll log this online, but she did awesome.

The way back we were able to follow the trail much easier but we still ran into a few cliffs and had to backtrack. One cliff we were so tired we just climbed down it instead of back tracking. I'm glad to finally have this cache done. I think I may have to do "Hard as Hell" over a few days if this was a 4 and that is a 5!

TFTC! Fave!
At parking lot

On the way: Needs Cache!

Goat Mountain profile

12/19/2010 By COpackrat
Wow, the crow flies distance from the parking lot is certainly misleading on this one - You're thinking, Hey, no problem, then get onto this route that takes no prisoners! :-) Came up route 2 as the other looked like it was being restored, and was very happy to find such a good trail for almost the entire way. Of course it got sketchier the further along you went, but what's new? Some snow on top, but was able to find the cache easily and head back down as I had a late start and wanted to get back out before dark. Saw 14 bighorn on the ridge on my way down - they were probably surprised to see someone that far from the road, but were quite calm about it... Walked part of the road along the river with a full moon and, in spite of all the wildlife in the canyon, did NOT see any werewolves - Whew! Thanks for an interesting excursion and cache!

05/06/2010 By LiefDawg
I've had my eye on this cache for a while now, but I never seem to have enough free time during daylight hours to make the trek. I finally decided to suck it up and make a run at it this evening. When I didn't head out from the parking lot until 6PM, I knew I'd be cutting it close. With a generous 30 minutes after sunset, I figured I had until 8:30 to get up and down the hill. Nothing like a race against daylight and the parking lot gate to make things exciting.

I read the hint and attempted to take route #2. Even with the obvious landmark for the first turn, I missed the trail and didn't rejoin until cresting the first hill. The rest was straight up the ridge, exactly as advertised. At the steepest knoll (well...they're all steep), I almost turned back. I had only .6 miles to go, but things were getting dim and a discouraging sleet was pinging off of the rocks. After a few minutes of indecision, I finally found my resolve and pushed on to the top. No problems finding the cache once I hit the summit. Phew.

After signing the log and scampering back down the trail, I jogged into the parking lot at 8:15. Victory! By far the hardest I've worked to find a cache. Thanks for this oldie but goodie.

-Peace