A Navigational Challenge for KT--#10

DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS CACHE BY TRESPASSING ACROSS PRIVATE LAND FROM THE NORTH OR EAST!! Residents of the Glacier View Meadows subdivision will not hesitate calling the Sheriff’s Dispatcher if they note a vehicle parked along their roadways that does not contain a Resident sticker or a Visitor placard. Your selected route should be entirely on Roosevelt National Forest land.

I have a new email friend whom I call “KT”. That’s not my new email acquaintance’s actual name, but it will do. KT wrote me claiming to be an excellent navigator. Of course effective navigation requires multifaceted skills, including knowing where to find and how to use salient maps and other resources needed to determine possible routes to a destination--and from these options to chose the optimal route plus the tools needed to calculate coordinates and to find your way to the destination of the cache hide. Recent episodes suggest that KT could benefit by refining his/her navigational skills, so I have developed several scenarios that can serve as checkpoints in establishing a reasonable portfolio of expertise. This is the 10th scenario. It is preceded and will be followed by others that employ similar or additional facets of navigational techniques. The cache descriptions are not “instructional”; instead, they provide opportunities for the cache seeker to explore navigational solutions to attain success in calculating and getting to a cache’s coordinates. For those seekers who already possess the basic skills, developing a plan to reach each of the caches should be straight forward.

Unlike many of the caches in this series, this cache does not require making projections or changes in position formats or datums or other settings on your GPSr, etc.. It does require that you do careful map study to determine a logical location to park as well as the careful plotting of a route from parking to the cache location. The most appropriate approach to the cache takes the seeker over challenging terrain, entirely on U.S. National Forest property. It is advisable to have a second person with you. If you do this alone, make certain to inform another individual of your planned route. For much of your journey you will have no cell phone service. The most appropriate route involves many “interesting” stream crossings and some sections of rough terrain. Plan on more than 6 miles (round trip) of back country travel that involves 1,300 or 1,400 feet of cumulative elevation gain. You should be comfortable in off-trail, back country settings.

The cache container is a good-sized pill vial; it’s hidden on the highest rocks in a cluster of small rocks located in a small mountain meadow, just north of an old fence line that is in disrepair. I don’t want anyone who has made the significant effort to reach this location to miss finding it, so I’ve included a spoiler photo of the hide location.

The cache has an unusual Difficulty/Terrain star rating. Because of its isolation and the work involved to reach it, I anticipate that this cache will be attractive to very few geocachers. Are you one of those few? On your adventure to find the cache you will undoubtedly curse me. Keep in mind that it was hidden by an 80-year old, so it can certainly be done by cachers who have the desire to get after it!