Leon

09/30/2018 By kekj
Fresh in from California with a whole passel of new Trackables (21) that we found in a TB hotel out there. ALL had been cooped up for a minimum of 62 days, some for 83, and a half dozen for more than 110 days! We promised the cache CO and the TB owners that we would travel them around a bit before dropping them in local caches - showing them the sites in the surrounding area of the Rocky Mountains and also to give them a taste of the history/geology and local geocaching. This is one of those Historical caches that we are way-pointing them too.

08/13/2016 By A & J - Adrift
A great day for a check on the cache.

08/10/2015 By no1cabo
Hiked up from w/j it took almost three hours there and two hours back. Great views from here. Tftc tnln sl

07/23/2015 By g-ofamily
Would be nice to be a goat on this hike! Choose your boulder wisely... Not my favorite kind of hiking but still a great day adventure! Can you imagine back in 1912 what it might have felt like when your boss tells you that you have "lookout" duty for a week or month, on one of the highest peaks on the mountain, in a shelter that was covered with metal? Hahahahaha!!!

Oh and just an FYI there is a $3.00 "day use" charge at the Wier Johnson parking area. It is self pay near the entrance to the campground.

Very enjoyable hike - BEAUTIFUL wild flowers this year!

This entry was edited by g-ofamily on Friday, 24 July 2015 at 00:25:09 UTC.

This entry was edited by g-ofamily on Friday, 24 July 2015 at 01:36:16 UTC.

09/06/2014 By kekj
THIS IS OUR 700th Cache and 200th consecutive day of geocaching! THANKS TO ALL YOU CACHE-SETTERS for making it possible to get this far in just 10 months!

Had to juggle schedules & logs to make this our 700th! Did a lot of research on the route, and the cache itself as did not want to make the trip for a DNF! Coords are DEAD ON with cache and log in good shape. Took cat headed key fob, left carabiner. Also found the "stick" referred to in hint but it was weathered off flush with rocks it was stuck in. Relocated the stick by a couple of feet and now sticks out about 12" & constructed a small cairn that is only discernible to the determined eye. ANYONE who makes THIS TREK deserves to find the cache!

Have done several very difficult caches and have to say this is BY FAR the most difficult terrain we have ever done. 3.5 is generous! (p.s. Going for a 5x5 on Mt. Sneffels in a couple of weeks with sjclimber) Round trip from WJ Lake with 20 minutes on top took total of 4:45 but OH did we hurt by the time we got down! My biggest regret is that rain storm was brewing so got a photo of the Ms. at the lookout, found the cache fairly quickly, the Ms. took off down the mountain while I took some photos of the cache, and I headed off down behind without having looked at either the lookout or the sides of the mountain to North or West.

We followed the "marked trail" until it petered out and stayed to the North of ALL of the smaller "Rocky Points" (going West) while hugging their bases then crossed the "gully" going almost due North and straight up the side of Leon. WOW! RUGGED! We did not like the unstable footing while traversing down the north side of the 1st point so decided to follow the advice of some of the climbing web sites and went pretty much straight over the tops of the first 3 points (now going East) and stayed way South of the finial "point" BIG MISTAKE! It took longer to get down with much worse footing then when we went up! We had difficulty picking our legs up by they time we got out of the VW SIZE (Boulders is not the right word) & both took more than one tumble due to stumbling caused by not picking our feet up enough! Had planned to go 4 wheeling in the area and pick up some more caches but were so tired that drove to vicinity of first cache and did not have the energy to unload ATV so turned around and headed home! We could hardly move the following day! OUCH!

Over the course of the following week had opportunity to talk to several people who have snowmobiled to the top of Leon in winter and get impression that although the distance is more, the NW slope is MUCH easier (as described in the FTF) and wished that I had stuck around for 5 more minutes to see for myself. Would seriously advise next climber to take a look at the longer but easier route that appears to be on that side. One of those I spoke with was a subcontractor on my current building project in Delta, Huff Excavating, and he sent me photos of his GREAT grandparents standing on top of the lookout taken in 1929! See gallery.

p.s. We are somewhat tardy in logging this as we have set over 80 caches in the last 60 days, are in the middle of setting several Earthcaches on Grand Mesa for an International Earthcache EVENT there on Oct 12, as well as making this find! Worse, our GPS croaked after the climb due to physical damage, we lost all our data tracks for the last 4-5 days, and just got them (sort-of) reconstructed and a new GPS.

06/26/2014 By itdoesntsck2bme
So we thought we'd give this a try. Headed up from the Big Creek side. Followed the old logging road for about a mile, then left the tail and tried going at it as the crow flies. Turns out that wasn't the best option, since, you know, we weren't flying. Made it another mile, up and down over three steep, rocky ridges, before we saw the station again and realized we were still too far away to make it before dark. Had an 11 year old and 6 year old with us. It was a tough hike, but they managed. We will be going back, leaving earlier, and with a better plan next time!