Rappin with Roger

09/28/2015 By OR85OR450
I dub Thee 'September 28th Cache' . ! Actually this year's visit was dated purely by chance. I managed to mangle the whole day on this one. To commence doing as much wrong as I could, I parked right across the cattle guard inside the Nat'nl Forest fenceline- figuring as long as the suggested trail from parking ran out a about .4 or something from the cache, Why not start from the .4 here !!?? Yeah, NOT! It took quite a bit of weaving to find the way up & across the steep, brushy, loggy, bouldery route the gpsr pointed at... but I kept it slow & enjoyed the developing views. Before long (? huh? ) I was looking up at the site, guided by a few of the log photos I'd printed. I'm just not good enough a climber - nor well enough outfitted with mechanics- to make this one from here. I'm going to have to watch list this, 'cause I know there's folks who can make that approach.
I bagged up everything after an hour or so & found a good seam just off to the right. Scramble here, scramble there; a 45* angle body-jam crack; some shoving of my gear bag, and there I was at the tie-off point. I never could find any trace of the "You Are Here" pvc, but I studied the spot from below and knew where I was. My thought as I pushed off the rappel was that if I did it wrong it would be a while before anyone else knew !!

All went smooth & fast from that point; all was well, signed, photo'd, & on my way!. The second lap to free the ropes; and I decided from the topo lines on the gpsr that some sort of reverse of the description route would be less exhausting than re-tracing my arrival path. I was incredulous at coming across the actual trail that led most of the way up from the road SSE of the cache area.... old news: There's a trail. Of course there's a trail- there's always a trail--- on the way out >:-(
By the time I was driving out the weather had gone all windy, clouded over with broken variable clouds; aspen leaves were swirling back and forth all over the road... extremely fall/ Halloween feeling; I always enjoy the days like that- as for mangling this one : DAY WELL SPENT !!!

09/28/2014 By colorado gypsies
A worthy adventure. I've heard it said that it's not an adventure until something goes wrong and while nothing technically went wrong, it might have been a bad call to hike Gog and Magog in the morning and not leave the springs until, like 2:30 in the afternoon. However for cachochists like us, that's just how we roll. For this trip we recruited muggleisaiah because of his enthusiasm for carrying enormous quantities of extraineous gear and all things awesome. I was starting to doubt the terrain rating until I started trying to find a way for The Lady Gypsy to get up top and help us look for the anchor point. A challenge but we ultimately prevailed. From the top we could see the aspens changing all around us (except for the vast expanse of Haman burn scar)-: Just then, The Lady was startled by a scream from the hillside- elk make some seriously strange noises. It was cool to hear them calling though as the sun started to go down. Wait! We'd better hurry up. We anchored and misread one of the pictures and sent muggleisaiah down the wrong crack. When he got to the bottom he told us where to actually put the rope and we hauled up his harness. Then I went down to the cave and The Lady came after. Together we signed the log- triumph! We finished and while they packed up, I scampered around and dropped the rest of the gear. At that point it was still semi-dusk but we managed to stumble in the increasing darkness back to the trail and van. While I feel bound to recommend starting early, I wouldn't trade for anything the sight of thoe Milky Way or the feel of the summer evening breeze lingering in late September. Thanks for the experience. Favorite point for everything.

09/16/2012 By COpackrat
What a fun trip! I've been looking forward to it since doing your Little Blue Wizard cache, and it was especially nice with the trees changing color. The toughest part for me was getting that @*#@! pack of gear through the tunnel! I was glad for that waypoint, as it made everything pretty straightforward, and after all, you do have to find it twice, the second time to retrieve the rap anchor. Took both TBs as this cache doesn't seem to see much traffic...

Thanks for a thoroughly enjoyable and quality cache!

05/30/2011 By Adrenalin Junkie
Congratulations to Vort, Hartsdale, Superdolph, and Sportslane. Glad you guys all made it safe. Looks like I am going to have to make a harder challenge for you to conquer.

05/22/2011 By hartsdale
CO-FTF - with a great team of Sportslane and son, SuperDolph and Vorticity.
What a day (most of the day anyway) to go for this one.
The weather was cloudy and cool(56 degrees all day) and on top, the wind was stiff from right to left on the cliff face (had to throw the ropes three times to get them in the right spot)
On the second toss we caught the top of a tree and even though it was a big one we had to put it back. (catch and release is the only way to go)
Thanks for a fun cache to find!

H:D

I also lost a few pounds....