GCJ67X Conejossam's 2nd Puzzle Cache
Type: Mystery | Size: Regular | Difficulty: | Terrain:
By: Conejossam @ | Hide Date: 04/11/2004 | Status: Available
Country: United States | State: Colorado
Coordinates: N37° 03.000 W106° 10.000 | Last updated: 08/30/2019 | Fav points: 1
                   

---

The coordinates are only approx. You will have to solve the puzzle to get the exact coordinates. Sharpen your math pencil.

---

This puzzle cache is intended to take you on a tour of the towns of Antonito & Conejos Colorado, in addition to getting you to hike to a very steep location.
The county of Conejos is one of the poorest in the state so you won't see a lot of castle's here but there are a few interesting places to visit. You will start at the south end of Antonito. Antonito is the East end of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Narrow Gauge Railroad. It runs between Antonito,CO & Chama,NM. It operates in the summer between May and October depending on the weather.
1. Goto N37 04.167 W106 00.824. There is a plaque on the side of the Conejos County Museum. Count the letters in the 2 words that describe where the funds came from to build the Museum. This is = Y
2. Goto N37 04.257 W106 00.679. Take note of the Engine Number. This is =X
3. Goto N37 04.741 W106 00.517. Count the number of people painted around the top of the towers. This is = Z
4. Goto N37 04.882 W106 00.356. Count the number of hubcaps in the triangular pattern at the front of this unusual house. This is = W
5. Count the number of towers on the house. This is = A
6. Goto N37 05.300 W106 01.203. This is the site of Colorado's oldest church. Note the date that this church was dedicated. Mo + Day+Year. Add the numbers together, This is = B
7. As you face the front of the church how many bell towers are there? This is = C
8. Go into the church and count the numbers of chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. This is = D
9.Goto N37 04.582 W106 00.611. Facing the front of Antonito's largest home, How many large chimney's can you see? This is = E
10. Goto N37 04.515 W106 00.533. This is the location of a well known Local Bar & Restaurant. There is a license above the bar with ICE MAN on it. Subtrack the smaller of the 2 dates from the larger. This will = F
11. This bar is the home of what group? Count the letters in the group. This is = G
12. Take Hwy 17 southwest toward Chama and just before mile marker 29 there is a road to the left across the Conejos river. The road sign has a letter and a number. The number is H
Park at N37 03.451 W106 11.429. This is a good picnic spot and great fishing area. Since I don't recommend that small children take this hike this is a spot that they can enjoy while you hike to the cache. You should take water with you.

To determine the exact coordinates: N37 03.J W106 10.L
J=B-(X+Z+E)divided by (H+C) + (G+2Y-10)
L= (F+X)-(W+D+2A)

Note: You might want to email me your coordinates before you attempt the hike.

The cache is a black 3" plastic pipe 11" long. It contained when I placed it:
Logbook,Pens & Stashnote
Deck of Cards
Magnetic Clip Holder
Flashlight
Insect Relief Stick
The cache can't hold large items so keep them small.
To start the hike, go across the road to the west until you come to a cut in the side of the mountain. Go up the cut made made by a bulldozer.

Additional Waypoints

04/08/2012 By tbabco
cache is nice and dry does have a mildew smell when you open it tyfc

10/27/2009 By rockhoundew
Two geocachers 70+ can do it . You young fellers give it a try. Wear good hiking boots because there are lots of rocks, A walking stick is good. Beautiful veiw. Well worth the hiie.

[This entry was edited by rockhoundew on Saturday, October 31, 2009 at 10:34:06 AM.]

10/27/2009 By gravitygroup
4:00 pm. or thereabouts. Truly a "GEOCACHER'S GEOCACHE". Have been wanting to go for this one for about five years. Finally ran the gamut of the clues and underwent a necessary correction session with conejossam back in the summer but just now able to "go for the gold". With a fellow cacher as my EMS support we made it to the cache. Coords dead on. Didn't pass out, didn't fall (well only once when my partner wasn't looking), but did have to sit down a few times (isn't that what old cachers are supposed to do?). Perfect way to spend a cold windy nearly-winter day. Really enjoyed the entire scenario on this one. TN/LN/SL TFTC

08/02/2009 By elkderm
Thanks for the confirmation. By my gps unit the spot I calculated was exactly there. The animal skeleton at the base was kinda eerie. Watch for Rattle Snakes I am told inhabit this area especially on hot days. The view was absolutely spectacular. My family and I spent the day before yesterday garnering the answers to the clues, and what a great way to spend a couple of hours touring the town. Great drive up burger joint on the curve coming in from the Train station. Not really a sign. Think it's called G9. The bike ride from Horca only takes an hour and a half, however the UPHILL trip back was a killer, especially with the sudden hail storm. Took the rain poncho and was going to leave a dollar, but had left it in the car. TFTC. And the timely confirmation before the hike. Took me an hour and a half from the starting coordinates.

07/20/2009 By weeds19
I arrived in town with a little bit of daylight left so I decided to give this cache a go. After driving all over Antonito I had found most of the clues and then I arrived at one of the last locations only to be distracted by beer and conversation. I chatted for quite a while with the Garcia family about geocaching and the area in general. By the time I made it to the cache parking it was getting dark, so I postponed the hike until the morning.

The cache is in great shape after all of the years and the contents were all dry as could be. I did have a little trouble removing the lid, but I kind of expected that after two years. Great cache and a wonderful way to spend a few hours in town. I loved the hubcap house and the old church.

10/13/2007 By Aardvark
Definitely the most challenging and most fun cache yet. Conejos Sam does a heckuva job designing and placing his caches. I parked on the side of the highway directly south of the coordinates where the distance was only .44 of a mile, but steep almost all the way. If you are going to search for this one, read and follow Conejos Sam's directions carefully. Its a very demanding hike, especially if the coordinates are wrong. T-skeeter stik. L-rain poncho. Thanks.

09/25/2007 By Pinnacle Supreme
Great Puzzle! The Terrain should be a 5 Star, though! I definitely should have had my hiking boots for the 2 mile hike, not to mention taken out a disability or life insurance policy. Conejossam must be 1/2 mountain goat! The other 1/2 is Engineer. One of the clues has a decimal in it which must be used. My husband loved it and says we need more caches like this. After all the work of getting up there he insisted we leave something, so I donated a new pair of barretts and took a chip clip. Thanks. Pinnacle Pair, Glenwood Springs, CO

07/11/2006 By mrael2
Two years and three months after the cache was originally hidden, I can deservedly claim First to Find! What a hike to get there, and what an adventure in getting all the clues right!

My brother, sister-in-law and I actually took a very odd route: after driving to the top of the Mogote Peaks, we made our own trail in a four-wheel-drive vehicle to within 0.25 miles of the cache at an elevation higher than the cache itself. But the walk from there involved a descent over some difficult, rocky terrain. The climb back up to the vehicle was probably just as strenuous as if we had taken Conejossam's recommended route from the bottom. I don't recommend starting your trek from the top unless you like adventure!

I took the California geocoin and left some miscellaneous doodads; we signed the log. I also logged the discovery of the geocoin at its web site.

The scenery from the cache was very nice, and we actually found a date of "1920" carved in some nearby rocks. Small lizards were plentiful in the vicinity.

The formula for J actually requires some extra parentheses:

J=(B-(X+Z+E))divided by (H+C) + (G+2Y-10)

By far, this has been my most challenging geocache find to date.

Cache and two GPS units

The immediate vicinity
The view

07/02/2006 By Conejossam
There seems to be a bit of confusion for the calculation of "J". I removed a set of brackets to help.

10/01/2005 By mrael2
We hiked around the area for about two hours to no avail. I'm going to go over the answers I and my friend came up with; I'll e-mail the coordinates we compute to conejossam before trying this arduous hike again.

[This entry was edited by mrael2 on Thursday, February 23, 2006 at 1:20:53 PM.]