GC1PFYM The Tahosa Caches Challenge
Type: Mystery | Size: Regular | Difficulty: | Terrain:
By: Denali41 @ | Hide Date: 04/02/2009 | Status: Available
Country: United States | State: Colorado
Coordinates: N40° 29.188 W105° 15.778 | Last updated: 08/30/2019 | Fav points: 0
                   

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This is a CHALLENGE CACHE that represents the serious side of geocaching. I hope that many of you will become excited about the adventure you face, and that your enthusiasm carries you through to a successful completion of this difficult challenge!

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Over his years of designing and hiding instructional caches, Tahosa has established 106 caches within Colorado (42 Traditionals; 25 Multis; 21 Virtuals; 4 Mystery/Unknowns; 13 Event Caches; and a single CITO Event Cache).

Many of Tahosa’s caches are highly educational in their content and the procedures they require. I encourage you to review GC1D17V, The Celtic Cross–A Tribute to Tahosa on Crosier, for a summary of his contributions to the Colorado geocaching community. Understanding the requirements of and completing The Celtic Cross will assist in your pursuit of The Tahosa Caches Challenge.

Of Tahosa’s 106 Colorado caches, 54 remain active, and are listed in tabular format below. This challenge cache requires that you officially log completions on each of these 54 caches. When you have found and logged all of the caches, go to the location listed in the coordinates for this challenge, find the container, sign the log, and then write your "found it" note. Have fun and learn or brush up on some geocaching and orienteering procedures as you complete the challenge!

Tahosa's Infamous Caches

GC3X1ZD

#	Cache Name	GC #	Type	Difficulty	Terrain	Mean
1	Bishop's Staff	GCGE9T	Single	2.00	4.50	3.25
2	Drakes Dilemma	GCGF69	Multi	4.00	3.50	3.75
3	Lil Tahosa's Mountain Cache	GCK4E1	Single	3.00	4.00	3.50
4	Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme (Adopted)	GC17BB	Single	2.00	3.50	2.75
5	Cailey's Cache	GC1BYQ	Single	1.50	3.00	2.25
6	TMCS (SS) #1 Son	GCKWP1	Multi	4.00	4.00	4.00
7	Tahosa Has Finally Lost His Marbles	GCY61W	Multi	3.00	3.50	3.25
8	Danny Boy	GC1BADZ	Multi	5.00	4.50	4.75
9	Mac's Mountain Delight	GC13648	Multi	5.00	4.50	4.75
10	Anne's Overlook	GC13649	Multi	5.00	4.50	4.75
11	Brookes Heart Rock Cache	GC1BYEJ	Single	1.50	3.50	2.50
12	Gray Diamond Ghost Trail	GC28FE	Multi	5.00	4.00	4.50
13	X9416	GC1F08	Single	3.00	5.00	4.00
14	Cameron's Rocky Mountain High (Adopted)	GC1162	Single	2.50	2.50	2.50
15	~Carolyn's~ Cache	GCHAAF	Multi	5.00	5.00	5.00
16	#25 Trails End	GCA66E	Multi	2.50	3.00	2.75
17	The "Chef's" Special	GCNJ2E	Multi	4.50	3.50	4.00
18	The ”Dessert”	GCNJ2G	Multi	5.00	5.00	5.00
19	Disaster and Survival in the Rockies	GCQ9MB	Multi	3.00	4.00	3.50
20	Tahosa's Road Cache	GCM2V	Single	2.00	5.00	3.50
21	The Old Ranch	GCQJA9	Multi	4.50	5.00	4.75
22	The Burl	GCQTZD	Multi	3.00	5.00	4.00
23	The Vista	CQX9X	Single	2.00	5.00	3.50
24	Images I	GCRB5X	Puzzle	4.00	3.00	3.50
25	n0wae's Lure	GCX4P4	Multi	3.00	5.00	4.00
26	Roamin in the Gloamin	GCYTHT	Multi	3.00	3.00	3.00
27	Sharpshooters Lair	GCZ8HF	Multi	3.00	3.00	3.00
28	The Real Price of Freedom	GC28FE	Virtual	1.00	1.00	1.00
29	Corey's Safai II	GCFOEA	Virtual	1.00	1.00	1.00
30	Lest We Forget	GCABC8	Virtual	1.00	2.00	3.00
31	The Original Cache	GCAPC3	Virtual	1.00	1.00	1.00
32	Hank and Friends	GCA59D	Virtual	3.00	1.00	2.00
33	Too Tough to Quit	GCA58B	Virtual	1.00	1.00	1.00
34	The Old Vacquero	GC9987	Virtual	3.00	2.00	2.50
35	Old Dynamo	GC9985	Virtual	1.00	1.00	1.00
36	Homestead Meadows - North	GC64BC	Virtual	2.00	4.00	3.00
37	Corey's Safari I - North American	GC3F69	Virtual	3.00	2.00	2.50
38	Downtown / Main St. USA	GC3AFI	Virtual	3.00	1.00	2.00
39	The Homestead - Part II	GC3AEF	Virtual	3.00	1.00	2.00
40	The Homestead - Part I	GC3A77	Virtual	3.00	1.00	2.00
41	UTM - Up the Mountain	GC35F4	Virtual	2.00	3.50	2.75
42	Out of the Blue	GC3337	Virtual	2.00	1.00	1.50
43	The "Scion"	GC2B50	Virtual	1.00	2.00	1.50
44	Clogh Feish	GC2ZE5	Virtual	1.00	1.00	1.00
45	El Diablo - The Spine out West	GC2799	Virtual	1.00	3.00	2.00
46	The Sage Points the Way	GC2267	Virtual	5.00	2.50	3.75
47	The Real Cache	GC3A7A	Puzzle	1.00	1.00	1.00
48	Geo-Teering	GC516B	Unique	3.00	4.00	3.50
49	GeoTouring	GC6956	Unique	1.00	4.00	2.50
50	Lord Grayson - The Mighty Buck Hunter	GC1NT1V	Single	1.00	3.00	2.00
51	El Hombre, El Mito, La Leyenda # 255	GC1X1XQ	Single	1.50	3.00	2.25
52	CO Spirit Quest #306 Kitty Lyon of Cipango	GC2DF8A	Multi	4.00	5.00	4.50
53	Teewinot's Trek	GC32KH8	Multi	4.00	5.00	4.50
54	Tharis Air A Ghleann	GC3X1ZD	Multi	5.00	5.00	5.00

I’m grateful to Tahosa for his having prepared the above table for my inclusion in this cache write-up. Although this cache has a 5-star Difficulty/5-star Terrain rating for obvious reasons, the rating for locating the final Challenge Cache container is 2/4.

To reach the final cache, a hike on the trail system of Bobcat Ridge Natural Area is necessary. Dogs are not allowed in this Natural Area. Limited off-trail work is required near the end of your hike to the cache vicinity. The cache is located on a U.S. Forest Service in-lier surrounded by Natural Area land, so it is a legal cache placement. Trails take you very close to the cache, and directly on to the U.S. Forest Service property. Expect to spend several hours before you return to parking, and enjoy your hike into this neat area of the foothills. Take a day pack with necessities including food, fluids, and clothing suitable for potential weather changes. And congratulations for finishing your adventure by having found Tahosa's 54 active caches in Colorado plus the cache container for this challenge! What's "next" on your personal caching agenda?!

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE CLAN MROCZKO FOR THE FTF!!

Additional Waypoints

10/16/2016 By Denali41
I made a hiking loop today to check on all of my caches on USFS lands on Bobcat Ridge–the maintenance hike entailed 10 miles and 3,000 feet of cumulative elevation ascent; the effort was worth it because of the beautiful autumn day and the fine views. This cache was in excellent condition and awaits the next finder who also satisfies the challenge requirements.

10/24/2014 By Denali41
Based on icezebra11's Found log and an e-mail from him, I hiked up to the cache location with a replacement cache container and log paper. I listed on the replacement log the names of all cachers who have earlier reported their finds on this great challenge. I removed the material that had been chewed on by the rodent and brought the scraps and hard materials down with me. There is no longer any SWAG in the cache. Everything is set to go, and the challenge awaits its next completer.

09/29/2014 By icezebra11
I only was able to log 11 Tahosa caches in 2013 due to all the restrictions. Two of the caches I logged were Geo-Touring and Geoteering. I was fortunate to arrange a trip in July with Denali41 to Copper Mountain Ski Area to log caches on the mountain and complete the requirements for Touring/Teering. It was the beginning of a great friendship and we've enjoyed many caching outings together since.

In January 2014 I had to take a business trip to Phoenix so I arranged to finally meet Tahosa and we (along with Pixelmagic) spent a wonderful day hiking the AZ mountains NE of Phoenix. We had conversed so much by email over various caches that when we met it was almost like we had known each other for some time.

Then came the home stretch. In August of this year I was down to only needing the four caches in the Poverty Gulch area off of Old Flowers Rd but the road was (and is) still closed. I couldn't make myself wait to possibly next year so I decided I was going to have to hike in to get the caches. On August 24th I made my first hike into the area. I logged The Old Ranch and The Burl on that trip. The area of the final for The Burl was severely impacted by the fire and I was so happy when I made the find, considering that the significant features were no longer there. That trip was 14.8 mile. On September 13th I made another hike into the area and logged The Vista. That trip was 12 miles. That left only one cache, CO Spirit Quest #306 - Kitty Lyon of Cipango. Twenty-six months after embarking on this adventure, I completed that final cache on Saturday (9/27) which involved a 14 mile hike. The home stretch took 40.8 miles of hiking but it was worth every step!!!

Thank you SO MUCH Joe for all of your wonderful caches!!! So many are such classics that if there ever was a Cache Hall of Fame, many would be there. I learned so much about orienteering, mapping, and GPS options I am forever grateful. And thank you Steve for creating this great challenge cache and maintaining these caches during Joe's long vacation in AZ.

9-30-14
PS - I lost a bunch of my marbles on Crosier when it took three trips to find Stage 4 of "Tahosa Has Finally Lost His Marbles." Tahosa returned some of them to me when we cached together on that AZ trip but I know there are more of them up there on that mountain. So if anyone finds them I'd greatly appreciate getting them back!

This entry was edited by icezebra11 on Tuesday, 30 September 2014 at 23:12:56 UTC.

09/28/2014 By icezebra11
It is truly bittersweet that I log this "Found It" today. Sweet because I completed this epic challenge! Bitter because it is over. I will go through Tahosa caches withdrawal for some time.

I have so many thoughts about this cache and will be adding to this log later. I need to rest now after a 24 mile hiking weekend.

9-29-14
First a little story about the final for the challenge. I finished the last Tahosa cache on Saturday and couldn't wait to visit the final location to sign the log. I headed up to Bobcat Ridge Natural Area yesterday afternoon. I went up the Ginny trail as there were two new caches, including a Wherigo, not far off the trail that weren't there the last time I was at the Bobcat. I completed "Fire" and "& Ice" and then continued on up the trail to eventually reach the DR trail which took me to the area of the container. After a short bushwack I reached GZ. It took some searching before I noticed a bunch of chewed up paper and ended up finding the container with its lid off and contents strewn about. Nearly all of the contents had been chewed up by a rodent, including the log book. There were no pages left in the book with the signatures of the three previous finders. I signed the book and put everything I could gather back into the container and replaced it in the original location. I have a Red Jeep TB that I wanted to place in the cache but I didn't trust that it would be safe very long. I emailed Denali41 more info about it and he will be doing the necessary maintenance.

Now for the adventure of the challenge. Without knowing it, I began this challenge on 7-26-12 when my wife and I took a nice stroll through Benson Sculpture Park in Loveland. I was fairly new to caching and I had not done a virtual cache. So on our walk we visited the sculptures and answered the questions for "The Homestead" - Part 1. I got tripped up on one question because at that time I didn't even know what the "short description" was on a cache page. Tahosa informed me what that was and I immediately knew which sculpture was the right one. That cache was just the 41st "Found It" of my caching career.

I did a number of Tahosa's virtuals over the next couple weeks and then I decided I wanted to really challenge myself and do a 5/5 because I hadn't logged one. I chose Carolyn's Cache as my first attempt at a 5/5. I didn't even know how to do a projection on a GPS when I started it. I researched it on Garmin's website to figure out how to do it. It took a couple tries with different units to finally get close enough to locate the micro. On 8-11-12 I made the trip to Bobcat Ridge and located the final, cache number 70 for me. What a beautiful tribute to Carolyn! That cache transformed my caching interests - from that point on I've been hooked on backcountry caches.

I made my first trip Round Mountain about 6 weeks later, completing 5 Tahosa caches that day. I was so impressed by Images I! It's still one of my favorites. Then in November 2012 I did my first hike on "Tahosa's Mountain", Crosier. Over the next seven weeks I hiked all over that mountain, eventually reeling in all of them plus Denali41's tribute to Tahosa, "The Celtic Cross." I learned so much about my GPS and mapping on that mountain. And the view from Anne's Overlook is just incredible!!!

Logging Tahosa's caches was severely hampered in summer 2012 by the High Park Fire. All of his caches along Old Flowers Rd between Stove Prairie and Pingree Park roads were totally off limits. And then came the September 2013 flood which not only kept the burn area closed, it shut down many trails and roads that are still closed today.

Continued...

This entry was edited by icezebra11 on Tuesday, September 30, 2014 at 12:55:44 AM UTC.

08/05/2012 By Denali41
Made a loop hike today to check on all of my caches above the Bobcat Ridge Natural Area. The Tahosa Caches Challenge container is in perfect condition!