GC1CCK5 The Spire At X8972
Type: Traditional | Size: Regular | Difficulty: | Terrain:
By: ernie66 @ | Hide Date: 05/18/2008 | Status: Available
Country: United States | State: Colorado
Coordinates: N39° 08.637 W104° 59.088 | Last updated: 08/30/2019 | Fav points: 0
         

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An ammo can hidden near the summit marked X8972 on the USGS topo map.

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From my house, The Spire At X8972 is right on the horizon, beckoning to everyone who can see it. Today I finally got a chance to go there and hide a cache.

The easiest approach is from Rampart Range Road to Rd 324 to Rd 324B. Several other caches lie along this route. Rd 324B is narrow but usually does not require a high-clearance vehicle. Use your own judgement. The suggested route to The Spire At X8972 is about 1.7 miles, including about 1/2 mile of level, very easy off-trail hiking. See the waypoint list for my suggested route. Beyond X8972, you can continue generally northeast on the trail to GCP48Y - Sydney Harrison Memorial.

Note that the cache is not on top of The Spire At X8972. Anyone who can make the trek should be able to retrieve the cache. If you can conquer it, however, the summit affords a spectacular 360-degree view including the plains, Pikes Peak, the Mosquito Range, Devil's Head, and of course, my house. Add a stone to the summit cairn while you're there.

Additional Waypoints

AA1CCK5 - Start of Sydney Harrison Trail
N 39° 07.627 W 104° 59.791
Take Rd 324B to this point, then hike, bike, or ride on the trail toward the northeast.
JJ1CCK5 - Trail Junction
N 39° 08.164 W 104° 59.176
Leave the trail here and head north.

04/15/2018 By YamaGypsy
We didn't climb to the top of the spire today. Once we had signed the cache I attempted to plug my phone into the battery charger and learned it was dead. Lemonhead mafia wasn't carrying his phone and mine was at 36%. We really wanting to make it to the plane wreck we had to hurry on instead of exploring longer here. Cache is in great shape! Thanks!

11/05/2016 By SnailMan1
When I started my journey it started to sprinkle. I was still over a mile away and I decided that I was too close to this cache to give up now so I decide to continue and deal with the rain if it started coming down in earnest. I never did but it did force me to put on my rain coat. Luckily the hide wasn't any higher up! TFTC.

09/17/2016 By Bokmeow
what a great hike and a great day to see some fall color. we parked at the first waypoint and hiked the rest of the way in. lovely. :) thank you for the trail junction waypoint! very helpful. :) all is well and dry with the cache. we took nothing and left nothing but signed the log bokmeow. :) thanks for placing this! it was one of those caches that we have wanted to check off the list for some time. :) now on to see the Sydney Harrison memorial ! :)

06/05/2015 By COpackrat
I really enjoyed the hike to the spire - as advertised, it was a nice trail for about half way, then easy cross country walking. The weather was a bit iffy as I approached the rock and my GPS was jumping all around, and, as a result, I can say that I was able to live through a circumnavigation of the feature in a rain and hail storm. Yippee - that made things a bit more tricky... When I had just about completed my little bonus jaunt, the rain let up and I was able to make the find on some mighty slippery footing. All in the game, right? Needless to say, I wasn't about to try anything higher. Oh, and did you say there was a spoiler? That might have helped, too. Thanks for another fun walk in the woods!

05/06/2014 By estes01
This cache has been on my must-do list for a very long time. It was the perfect time to do it…right after most of the snow has melted off everything below about 10,000 feet, and before it melts below 14,000. Following the excellent route the CO suggested on the cache page, we had no problem getting to the cache. There's a good trail most of the way, and fairly easy bushwhacking the rest of the way. Good thing that WingsAndTales brought a copy of the spoiler as the surrounding boulders were messing with the signal and it would have taken us a lot longer to find. We didn't go to the top because we had other caches to do and we are not monkeys like Ernie. I have no doubt that the view would have been even more spectacular from up there, but we needed him to show us the easy way.