Trail Head to Stone Cabin

A small tin cache that should be fairly simple to find, short hike off public access road.

This is the “drop off the face of the earth” point for shortest route to STONE CABIN cache. Locals have placed numerous stone cairns along worst of the trail for best and safest route down the 2 escarpments w/ 700' elevation change 1.6 mile round trip as goes the trail. Water levels in creek may make for dangerous conditions part of year. Check with locals for water level conditions.

We originally scouted out the best route back in Nov ’14, first looking at the route given in the description of the STONE CABIN. Much has changed since the cache was set including that motorized vehicles of any kind are no longer allowed beyond the parking area described for that cache in the lower area of Roubideau Canyon so you are either on a horse or a shanks mare for the entire distance over rugged terrain. We do not have horses and when asked, our shanks mares declined, primarily due to all the water crossings. The 4wheeler we had with us was of no value.

We talked with some local hunters there and they described this location as the best and quickest way to get there along with very explicit directions of how to get here! THANKS GUYS! We came on out and checked the route from the rim but by that time daylight was too short to make the hike down and back. We did note at the time that a number of cairns had been placed down the side of the escarpment. While on that scouting trip we placed IACG 39, 40 & 41 along both the road into the lower canyon and on the way out here.

At the time of the original scout trip we also noted that the STONE CABIN cache had not be logged in over 4 years! We had no idea of if the cache even still existed but were determined to make the effort and either find it or log it for archive. We get more satisfaction out of finding caches that have not been logged in years than we do with an FTF! As with this one, it usually has to do with the difficulty of getting to it with little guarantee of a find.

We were more than a little disappointed when Rojo464 and Pauleefox successfully made the find before we were able to make it back out but they certainly deserve KUDOS for their effort. Based on their logs we were fairly certain that they used the same route we were planning and that was confirmed by finding their footprints in numerous places along the marked route. Knowing the cache was still viable also helped.

The purpose of this and the two follow on “Encouragement” caches is two fold.
1 .To mark the main way-points of the trail via GPS and on Geocaching maps.com
2. To provide incentive for other geocachers to go visit the historic STONE CABIN./

We suggest you allow a minimum of 3hrs to make the round trip, take plenty of water and dry socks and shoes as you will have to cross the creek one time each way. We checked the creek for a half mile upstream and there are no good “stepping stones” across. The climb is not technically difficult, just arduous with over 100% grades on soft loose soil and rock with a couple of 20” shelves to scramble over in spots. 700' elevation change 1.6 mile round trip as goes the trail. Water levels in the creek may make for dangerous conditions part of the year. Check with locals for water level conditions.

We love caches that teach history and are now very interested in the story behind the STONE CABIN which dates back to 1886. We have worked with several local historians on several other of our caches and will contact them about the history and post it here as the CO of the STONE CABIN cache is MIA and there is no good way to update that cache.

CONGRATS to SoldierGrrrl for FTF on 4-9-15!

Additional Waypoints

PK5QRJ7 - GC5QRJ7 Parking
N 38° 35.787 W 108° 09.900

R15QRJ7 - Waypoint to Guide You
N 38° 38.685 W 108° 08.492
Pass several Yee intersections and stay on this road!
T15QRJ7 - Public Access Gate
N 38° 39.219 W 108° 08.033
Gate at end of maintained road. High clearance only beyond this point. Please close gate!