Easter Morning Hide

As I placed this cache today I was reminded of my Easter in 1964. A close friend and I went in his VW beetle to Florida for a week of bird watching during our spring break from U Wisconsin. Neither of us had birded in Florida before, so the prospect of seeing what then for us were the “exotic” species in the Everglades, the Florida Keys, and the rich marshes in the Cape Canaveral area was extremely exciting. On the first day of the trip we made a long drive to John’s aunt’s home in northern Tennessee, arriving Easter Eve. She was a really spiritual person and we anticipated attending church with her the next day so had packed some special non-birding, church-type clothes (yes, back then we dressed up for church!). We were surprised to learn she would not be attending Easter service! She stated that she attended church 51 Sundays a year but stayed away on Easter to make room for all the folks who attend service only one Sunday a year–on Easter!

So I mentioned to Denali50 that I would take our puppies Orizaba and Chimborazo up Poudre Canyon Sunday morning and we’d hike the Greyrock Meadows Loop--that surely with everyone at church we’d have the trail pretty much to ourselves. The scene near trail head parking highlighted how much has changed over the years! The parking lot and highway margins for as far as I could see were crammed with vehicles! Oh, my... so we went on to Hewlett Gulch as an alternative and luckily arrived just as a car was leaving. There were no other possible parking spots, and the trail was full of hiking enthusiasts with their dogs.

As we proceeded up the trail I reminded myself that I had thought several times about placing a cache well up on the hillside just south of where the Hewlett Gulch loop junction was, but had always been focused on other objectives. This time I had not expected to be in the gulch so had no such competing conflicts! But did I have a cache container? I stopped, took off my pack, and found one, a good-sized pill vial at the bottom of the pack. Ah, an Easter morning cache hide was suddenly the hike’s objective! You can find the cache in a rock outcrop well up on the mountain slope. Make the steep off-trail ascent and look at the high point of the rock formation just NE of a large Rabbit Brush shrub. It’s covered by a few small stones. Replace the container carefully. Then find a soft rock to sit on while you eat a snack or lunch while enjoying the great views–particularly the Aiguille du Greyrock directly to the east, where an interesting cache exists. And remember that this cache placement is solely because Easter mornings are so different today compared to what existed in 1964 when trails were essentially vacated for the morning! If things had gone according to plan, the pups and I would have been hiking the Greyrocks Meadow Loop instead of placing a cache above Hewlett Gulch!

The off-trail portion of the hike is strenuous and steep. The round-trip distance is about 4.5 miles. I really enjoyed the PASQUE flowers that were in full bloom in the cache vicinity. How fitting, for "pasque" is a French word meaning Easter! But these flowers were overwhelmed by the dense gardens of prickly pear cacti on the entire off-trail segment of the adventure. Keep this in mind if you plan to bring a dog that is unfamiliar with navigating prickly pear cactus!