GC2QKYF Traditional Cache Miss Katie's Cache
Type: Traditional | Size: Regular Regular | Difficulty: 1.5 out of 5 | Terrain: 2.5 out of 5
By: Denali41 @ | Hide Date: 03/20/2011 | Status: Available
Country: United States | State: Colorado
Coordinates: N40° 41.721 W105° 18.881 | Last updated: 08/30/2019 | Fav points: 0
Dogs  Recommended for kids  Dangerous Animals  Parking available  Public restrooms nearby  Bicycles  No Motorcycles  No Quads  Thorns  Medium hike (1km-10km) 

This cache is placed in memory of Katie Driscoll, a fallen Colorado cacher. Miss Katie has been the beautiful half of the poudrecacher geocaching team, gracing our hobby with her electrifying, delightful smile and her quiet enthusiasm. For those of you who have enjoyed the outstanding "Nature Bats Last" series of caches, Miss Katie was delighted with the comments of excitement about the hides that you made in your "Found" logs!



Miss Katie And Sturgie At A Favorite Cache

In recent years Miss Katie's passions have included a host of special pursuits, some extending from life-long interests. Primary among them have been her life partner Stevie; her remarkable dog Sturgie; her family; her devotion to the University of Iowa Hawkeyes; her excitement about many rock-n-roll artists and their marvelous music; her enthusiasm for the Boston Red Sox; her enjoyment in riding her motorcycle and being a "regular" at the annual Sturgis Rally; her love of frogs; her appreciation of reading, relaxing, and being with Stevie and friends on their deck overhanging the waters of the Cache la Poudre River in Poudre Park; etc.

Over the past few years Miss Katie's life has been further enriched through her enjoyment of the magic of geocaching–to the extent that 2 years ago she decided to forgo attending one of those other jewels of her life, the Sturgis Rally. Instead, she purchased a high-end GPSr with the money that would have been used at Sturgis! And then last year Miss Katie sold her motorcycle so she could devote additional time with Stevie to this new treasure in her life.

This cache is for Miss Katie, and it's also for you. The container is a large-sized ammo can, and it's filled (thanks, the other half of poudrecacher, Stevie, for stocking the swag and for the wonderful photo!) with items consistent with certain of Miss Katie's passions. It also has a laminated photo of Miss Katie and Sturgie at a cache site that was particularly special to her. Make certain that you leave this photo in the cache, so others can appreciate it. The cache is located along the Hewlett Gulch Trail close to her home. When you park at the trailhead you will be ½ mile from Miss Katie's Cache, but the trail and off-trail portions will require a round trip hike of about 1.65 miles. Most of it is on the well-maintained and heavily-used Hewlett Gulch Trail. Hike it, and enjoy. This trail attracts many hikers, so you won't be alone! I needed to hide the cache a fair distance from the trail, so the oversized ammo box would not be discovered by muggles. But you should have little difficulty in getting to the cache site and finding it.

After leaving the maintained trail, hike up an easy, grassy slope dotted with scattered Ponderosa Pines--head for the twin junipers where you'll find the cache. Prickly pear cacti are abundant in this grass, so carefully avoid them. Dogs are allowed in Hewlett Gulch, and some days the people-to-dog ratio is close to 1:1. But it's probably unwise to take dogs through the cactus on this slope unless they have previously learned to walk and run through prickly pears! Some dogs, including my puppy Teewinot, do this very well.

The cache box is filled with theme items, as indicated above. Please come prepared to trade pieces aligned with Miss Katie's passions. Sign the log in the cache. Think about Miss Katie. Enjoy your outing. That's what geocaching should be about.

When you've found the cache and signed its log book, you've completed the easy part. Now it's time to log your "find". If you follow the intent of this cache, logging your find can be especially fun for you [although I do understand that imposing Additional Logging Requirements (ALRs) is no longer allowed]. You don't need to do so, but please consider including one or more of the following in your "Found" note:

1) Miss Katie loved rock and roll music and certain of the remarkable RNR bands. One was Aerosmith. At her memorial service, "Sweet Emotion" was played. Before writing your log, listen to and witness it here, on You Tube Aerosmith Sweet emotion. Keep Miss Katie "Rockin"! She'll forever appreciate it. Write in your cache log if you have watched this.

2) Or, Miss Katie loved frogs. Around our world, essentially all species of frogs are in serious population declines. What is your favorite species of frog? Why? Where in the world does it live?

3) Or, research the performance of the University of Iowa in any intercollegiate sport, and mention some fact or statistic about the sport (my specific sport interest for the Hawkeyes is Wrestling–I never lost a wrestling match to a Hawkeye, but that statistic would not have thrilled Miss Katie!). Most of you will probably cite a football stat, but if you review UI's wrestling statistics you will be amazed at their performance at the national level over decades.

4) Or, mention in your log a specific statistic of the Boston Red Sox or one of its past or current players. For example, how many fans can Fenway Park seat? Miss Katie knew!

5) Or, write in your found log about some other subject that supports the interests that Miss Katie enthusiastically subscribed to!

Enjoy this cache. I'm sure that you recall and appreciate all that Miss Katie has done for your geocaching enjoyment through the Nature Bats Last cache series, and through her interactions with some of you. She was so special.

Two weeks after Miss Katie's unexpected death she found her final cache very close to where she had worked for many years. Read what she wrote in her last log on March 1, 2011 in the Cell Tower 10 cache GC2NV7B

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Driving Directions

 Logs

9 Logs: Found it 7  Owner Maintenance 2  

Found it 03/28/2019 By Honeybuzzed
Took the afternoon off to hike up Hewlett gulch with pixel magic. Gorgeous spring day for it. We kind of took the long route but the hiking was great. Thanks for the caches to find.

Owner Maintenance 03/21/2019 By Denali41
I promised my puppies Orizaba and Chimborazo a hike today, so I decided we'd go up Hewlett Gulch and do checks on several of my caches there. We had a marvelous afternoon, and met perhaps 30 other hikers along the trail and perhaps 25 dogs, all off-leash, as mine were. One dog was named "Denali"--my caching name as well as the name of a wonderful female black lab that Denali50 and I had the pleasure of living with so many years ago. Hearing his calling out the name "Denali" led to some interesting conversation. It was a great afternoon, indeed.

This memorial cache to Miss Katie and its log were in the proper location and in excellent condition.

Found it 01/22/2019 By Popo_Mack
Beautiful spot to take in some fresh air!

Found it 09/16/2018 By greyjay
A lovely tribute and great location. TNLN, TFTC

Found it 03/25/2018 By JoeRandonneur
Such a beautiful location overlooking the trail; a great place for a memorial to the friend you lost. Thanks for the cache!

Owner Maintenance 10/15/2017 By Denali41
Today my puppy Orizaba and I took a hike up Hewlett Gulch to do maintenance checks on my two Traditional caches in the gulch plus one stage of a Multi I own that is accessed by this nice trail. Every one of the caches was in the correct location, including this one, and the caches were in great condition. As I always do when I visit Miss Katie's Cache, I took the photos out of the plastic protection and studied each one. What a wonderful person she was. I know that Stevie will always miss her tremendously.

Found it 10/06/2017 By mesa finds
We accidentally took the hard way and ended up climbing up and over the first ravine! Certainly got the heart pumping! Thanks for placing the cache, what a nice idea to remember a friend by.

Found it 04/18/2017 By doglover&pups
I haven't been on this trail in several years. Beautiful day and lots of people and dogs on the trail. Lots of flowering bushes along the trail and a tree in the middle of a field was covered with pink blooms.
I have found several of the original series and always enjoyed the write ups and also the clever placements in great spots. I have also found some of the "new" ones including three of them today. I am not a sports fan nor do I know much about frogs. But from her beautiful picture its looks like we shared the love of dogs! Hubby and I had lunch at the cache site and admired the views. And no camera today Took a TB to help it on its way. TFTC

Found it 08/21/2016 By Barasaur
Decided to take a hike today up Hewlett gulch as I had never hiked this before. So we loaded up a couple kids, a dog and Jackie and headed out. Grabbing a few caches in the area along the hike. We had a great day.

I am not a Red Sox fan so no knowledge other then what I would google. No Facts about said area or frog in my head. I tried to watch Sweet emotion but the link doesn't work anymore so I still took a moment and googled it and watched in her honor.

Thanks for the great tribute.

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