7.5-Minute USGS Quadrangle Completion--East Portal

A muggle friend and I hiked to the summit of Mount Epworth today with my puppies Orizaba and Chimborazo, and his puppy Brisco. It was a pleasant day, and views of Rollins Pass and the peaks along the nearby Continental Divide were stunning. Smoke from forest fires gave the views in certain directions a slight brownish-orange tinge.

This peak represented the last of the ranked peaks on the East Portal 7.5-minute USGS Quadrangle map for us to summit. The Quad has five ranked peaks within its mapped area: Jasper, Peak 12,660, “Skyscraper Peak”, “Heartbeat Peak”, and this one, Mount Epworth. In Colorado, the number of ranked peaks on Quadrangle maps ranges from zero (on many, many map sheets) to a high of 35 on the Storm King Mountain Quad; the quadrangle having the second-highest number of ranked peaks is Maroon Bells (with 29), while the Poudre Park map, with 25 peaks, ranks third in Colorado. It’s always fun to finish a Quad sheet, so we held a special little celebration at the top of Mount Epworth to commemorate another “finish”.

I decided the completion could be further recognized by hiding a nice cache in the summit vicinity. Hence, this cache placement. The entire summit area is covered with fairly look-alike rocks, so a cache hidden up here could be very, very difficult to find if placed in these almost identical appearing rocks. But I found one that’s really distinctive in coloration features and hid the cache within 12-15 inches of this rock, toward the SE. I’m including a spoiler photo of this rock. Find it in the GZ area, and the cache find should then be a slam dunk.

Park at the Corona Lake Trailhead and descend about 250 feet of elevation to Pumphouse Lake. Then hike up the moderately steep mountain over talus and stretches of alpine tundra to the summit (elevation 11,853 feet). Remember that on your return to parking, you will need to regain the elevation you initially lost. Count on a round-trip hike of about 2.5 miles with a cumulative elevation gain of about 750-800 feet. Enjoy!! Perhaps finding this cache will stimulate you to eventually climb the other four ranked peaks on the East Portal Quadrangle!