GCW1BB Mount Arthur
Type: Traditional | Size: Small | Difficulty: | Terrain:
By: Phoenix2001 @ | Hide Date: 05/13/2006 | Status: Available
Country: United States | State: Colorado
Coordinates: N38° 48.576 W104° 56.512 | Last updated: 08/30/2019 | Fav points: 3
                     

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This one is on top of Mt. Arthur, which is northeast of Mt. Garfield in the Pike National Forest. According to the topographic map, Mt. Arthur is 10807 ft.

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Warning! If you are the type of geocacher that tries to follow the direct line to the cache, you will make this hike much harder than it needs to be.

Note!
The Bear Creek drainage basin is being closed to off trail travel including the primitive trail from Jones Park up Mt. Arthur and Garfield. So this cache can no longer be accessed via Jones Park. I plan to look for a route from the North off of the "Palmer - Red Rock Loop" Trail. When I find a good route, I will post some waypoints for it. I am leaving the old description below for now.

The “Hub” parking area at the junction of Gold Camp Road, High Drive, and N. Cheyenne Canyon Rd. is a good place to start. From there you have a basic choice of the Buckhorn Trail to Bear Creek or the Seven Bridges Trail. Going up Bear Creek past Jones Park look for a trail spur to the ruins of Loud’s cabin, which was also known as the Chipmunk Lodge and built in 1902 (N38 47.694 W104 56.488).

After the ruins of the last cabin in that canyon, the trail becomes primitive and eventually disappears for good when you get closer to the pass (N38 48.596 W104 56.730) between Mt. Garfield and Mt. Arthur. The primitive trail stays close to the stream and on the right side of it. The stream starts with a spring at N38 48.323 W104 56.550, which you may/should pass near.

If you do the Mt. Garfield cache first, you might return to the pass and then angle up towards N38 48.591 W104 56.606. From here there is a bit of a draw to the ridge at about N38 48.625 W104 56.564 that doesn’t have much in the way of boulders and downed trees to work through. A more direct angle to the top of Mt. Arthur has more boulders and downed trees.

If you want to head for Mt. Arthur first, you might leave the gully you are climbing up around N38 48.530 W104 56.670 and head for N38 48.590 W104 56.606.

There are other ways of doing this peak depending on how hard you want to make it. The hike could be about 9.4 miles with about 3400 ft. of elevation gain or more if you take a longer route.

Since it is a long hike the following hints are intended to really help but aren’t a total giveaway. Many geocachers should find it easily without the hints.

Location (Encryption type 1):
Hs hr udqx bknrd sn sgd qnbj ghfg onhms sgzs gzr z fkzrr izq odzj knf.

Hiding spot (Type 2):
Gr gq slbcp qmkc pmaiq gl zcruccl zmsjbcpq.

Looks like (Type 1):
Hs gzr zm ntsdq rkddud lzcd eqnl bzlntekzfd ctbj szod vhsg zm hmrhcd chzldsdq ne 3.5" zmc 5" cddo.

This cache contains questions 7 and 8 for the Pike's Cave puzzle cache.

Additional Waypoints
P3W1BB - Below Pass
N 38° 48.488 W 104° 56.644
Approaching pass
P4W1BB - Saddle
N 38° 48.596 W 104° 56.730
Pass between Garfield and Arthur
P5W1BB - Approach
N 38° 48.591 W 104° 56.606
Possible point on the way up
P6W1BB - Ridge
N 38° 48.625 W 104° 56.564
Ridge of Mt Arthur

06/23/2018 By YamaGypsy
After exploring Jone park we hiked up to Mt Arthur. We camped at the saddle for the night. Sl, thanks!

04/12/2018 By johnsonny
Took the day off work to do some hiking. Ended up doing a hat trick of peaks: Garfield, Arthur, and Kineo. After enjoying the views on Arthur, I looked around for a bit and found the cache. Despite not having been found in a long while, it's still in good shape. Signed the log and picked up the TB to move along. Thanks for hiding this cache and making the hike that much more enjoyable! :D
Photo

08/29/2015 By hartsdale
Up this way with Rob14erGuy and SnailMan1 for a long day of hiking.

After finding this one we are heading down most of the way back to parking.

This one was only my second find of the day.

Thanks for a fun one!

HD

08/29/2015 By SnailMan1
TB Drop.

08/29/2015 By Rob14erGuy
Tough hike but incredible view of Pikes Peak. Glad Snailman1 spotted this one. Thanks for placing this cache.

08/29/2015 By SnailMan1
I spent the day caching with Rob14erGuy and Hartsdale. We thought that we would hike up to Jones Park and find a few of the caches in the area. There was quite an assent to get this one. Long and in general steep. The trail was sparse in areas, but it was quite well marked with cairns which led the way. Near the top we swung around to the West side and missed the rocks that I see in some of the photos. Once at GZ we found (and signed) the summit log. Figuring that that was not the cache we searched a little longer and found the cache nearby. We collected a puzzle piece and headed back down.

Pikes Peak from Mount Arthur (GCW1BB)

10/17/2014 By colorado gypsies
Come up from Jones Park Overlook. Probably not the preferred route but on par for cachochists like us :-) The Lady stopped where the snow started, just below the saddle. It's amazing that she got that far considering that she forgot her inhaler and was making horrible wheezing sounds the whole way up. She prefers the term determined to all the phrases I was thinking ;-) Me and mugglepaul scampered up to the summit and made the find. All this on an unbelievably gorgeous october day. We even made it back to the van before dark (mostly). SLTNLT TFTC

Our 'Trail' from Jones Park Overlook

08/02/2014 By CO Rockhounds
found this on a beautiful day to hike went bear creek trail tftc great view

06/20/2014 By MountainBear
Found with Java Chip. Signed both the summit log and the cache log. Took one question sheet. Plenty left. Found the summit log quickly, but the cache took a little more searching. TFTC!

05/29/2014 By Phoenix2001
Note that various types of closures have occurred for the Bear Creek basin with trails currently closed to the public. The area is expected to be closed to the public for many years to protect the Greenback Cutthroat Trout.

I plan to scout possible routes up the north side from the Palmer Trail in the future. Expect this cache to be a more difficult challenge with cross-country routes and more difficult terrain and route finding than by the posted route. The posted route is expected to be off limits.