GCF9F9 Lonesome Pine
Type: Multi | Size: Regular | Difficulty: | Terrain:
By: Colorado Papa adopted by 3 Williams Kidz @ | Hide Date: 04/17/2003 | Status: Available
Country: United States | State: Colorado
Coordinates: N38° 50.719 W104° 49.552 | Last updated: 08/30/2019 | Fav points: 0
       

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Tour downtown and the west side of Colorado Springs. This is a multi-location cache that can challenge even experienced geocachers. The latter portion requires walking up to one mile (round trip) on unimproved trails.

Get Kangaroo Campground and Red Rocks Ramble caches at the same time.

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Driving a minimum of 12 miles required for this five stop cache. Don't let the first stops fool you into thinking this is easy. You will travel from downtown to south of Manitou Springs. It has intentionally been made difficult so that the quality of the cache can be maintained at a high level of value. In most cases, the stops are at popular places where you could spend a little time to learn more about what they have to offer. Therefore, I do not recommend that you try to complete finding the final location in one day.

Since all the coordinates begin with N38 and W104, only the last five digits will be used for the clues to prevent non-geocachers from understanding what is going on. If you find two words such as Abraham Lincoln, the first five letters will be converted according to the table below with the format N38 Ab.rah and W104 Li.nco unless instructed otherwise.

A0 B1 C2 D3 E4 F5 G6 H7 I8 J9 K0 L1 M2
N3 O4 P5 Q6 R7 S8 T9 U0 V1 W2 X3 Y4 Z5

In the above example, the coordinates are N38 01.707, W104 18.324.

Most of the stops are virtual since micro caches seem to disappear.

In order to find the second stop, read the information in the base of this statue. Use the last word in the line above "coloring" and the first word in the same line as "coloring.":
1. Last "---------", add 15401.
2. First "-------", add 48392.

At second stop, observe the name high on the north side of the building in large golden colored letters. First word plus 31919, second word plus 27240.

Third stop, observe Old Colorado City sign. There are two words in the center of the sign, just above the pink line and just under the pink diamond and swirls. First word minus 26494, second word plus 27332.

Fourth stop, a micro cache with info to get to final location. Note that at this location, you will find the two words and the two five digit numbers to allow you to calculate the location of the final.

Final location is near Kangaroo Campground GCB1F2 and Red Rocks Ramble GC247F. Stay on the main trail until you see the water tank. Updated 08/03/11

02/07/2018 By Pohka
With a road trip coming up decided to go out and finish this one so my travelers are centered at home (where’s Pohka going this time, Oregon to Florida, have to wait to find out though ). Had done the base work earlier and decided after work to do the required hike and enjoy myself. Cache is in great shape and with the road trip coming up decided to move the travelers that were in there. As I was putting the cache back a hiker stumbled on me. I told him about Geocaching, we’ll see. Appreciate the cache, have to say a fun little multi, especially given there’s the way to do it and ways to do some of it.

05/17/2017 By DustyKat
We had this cache on our radar for ever and today we made the trek . Cache is in excellent condition. Pick up the TB and dropped of three. TFTC

02/05/2017 By GMSwan
We finally found all 5 locations. This one was very interesting for sure. Lots of fun! The last location was the most challenging. Parking was a real trick and then the main trail gets you just part of the way to the cache, and then there is some serious off trail bushwhacking over very steep terrain involved. Good boots and trekking poles are advised. There is the semblance of a trail near the cache but it does not show up on maps or the GPS so no telling how to get on it from below. All in all a fun cache if you're up for it. We did not find any trackables in the cache but we dropped off one to be moved along on its journey. This multi stage cache gets a favorite vote from us.

12/13/2016 By RPieperCO
Thanks for the fantastic multi cache! I've been working on this one for some time now! Piece by piece. Today I had to report to Jury Duty downtown. After a few hours I was finally dismissed. Leaving me with the rest of the day off what to do? Why caching of course! I decided I would make my way around the area up by the campground and nab a few Jasmer dates that I need. I grabbed this one along the way and found it quickly and in good condition. Signed the log and replaced as found. Another adventure comes to a close with this one. Enjoyed it a lot!

08/18/2016 By zulu113
I started this years ago and never got around to finishing it. Along the way, I lost my notes, so I started over yesterday. All the stops were great except for 3, where I had trouble finding the right sign. I employed some Google Fu and was able to come up with the answer I required though. Really liked stop 4 as well - did not know that particular garden existed.

Today I made the hike up the incline, and as I was driving out of Manitou I thought 'why not' and decided to go for Kangaroo Camp, this cache and then Red Rocks Ramble. Well, as I sat at this cache enjoying the view, my brain said 'it's not that far from here to RRR' and my heart said 'you can do it!' but my legs said 'hell no' and that was that. I'll have to return for that another, Incline-less, day.

Thanks to everyone involved for putting this cache together and keeping it alive over the years! I enjoyed reading the original logbook as I rested from the final scramble. SL - Zulu
Great view!

07/18/2016 By LLYN-lhvwn50
This is what I like about geocaching - it brings me to places I have never been. Of course, the flip side is that it turns out there would have been an easier way to get there! Despite some haze the views were wonderful. Thanks for a great multi (and a little help with stage 4).

07/09/2015 By OR85OR450
I've had fun working through the find process over our last couple visits here ... had a bit of morning sun for a change to run up real quick & grab the final.

In the sun the pine wasn't lonesome enough for the sunbather I walked up on 80' from the final ... fortunately she'd heard me huffing & puffing up the trail in time to cover up! Hoofing it back out I said no one's been there since March- solitude reigns!!
Thanks for the fun tour

03/22/2015 By Moonfox in the snow
We found the first three sites easily but once we got to the 4th location it looks like they have been doing some renovations... we couldn't locate the micro at first... we needed a prying tool, I guess its been a while since this one was found! Anyway found the 5th cache too! What a hike! I loved this multi-cash... it is smart, well maintained and physically challenging on the last leg. Thank you!

This entry was edited by Moonfox in the snow on Monday, 23 March 2015 at 00:43:58 UTC.

08/31/2014 By 3 Williams Kidz
Dropped by today to check on our final that hasn't been found in over a year. This was partially driven by the owner of a TB that has been in the cache for over a year; they asked that we grab it and move it along. So, we ensured the cache is AOK (which it is), traded trackables, left some swag and were on our way. Ready for cachers !

07/26/2013 By JR&B
Came by and traded Geocoins. Did not see Kiawarrior's Tribal Cross Geocoin in there.