GC8Y48B Moraine Pass
Type: Traditional | Size: Large | Difficulty: | Terrain:
By: ernie66 @ | Hide Date: 08/09/2020 | Status: Available
Country: United States | State: Colorado
Coordinates: N38° 48.770 W104° 59.035 | Last updated: 06/19/2022 | Fav points: 0
               

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Pikes Peak's "Missing Link" Lake Moraine Trail opened about 2 years ago. Multiple agencies and volunteers worked together to make it happen. So, now you can hike or ride your bike up Barr Trail starting in Manitou Springs through Jones Park to Cap'n Jack's Trail in the Gold Camp Road area. Or in reverse.

If you can arrange a car shuttle, your hike or bike ride will be about 20 miles, starting either at the base of the Barr Trail or at the 7 Bridges Trail parking lot. Bikes can't navigate 7 Bridges Trail (622) itself but can use the Buckhorn Trail (776) to ascend to or descend from Cap'n Jack's Trail (667). The cache is near the midpoint of this trip. Hikers get a bonus 2-mile reduction in the distance on the Jones Park side if they take the 7 Bridges Trail shortcut between the parking lot and Trail 667. If you are hiking out-and-back, you are best off starting at the 7 Bridges parking lot, but it will still be a significant day of about 16 miles.

The Lake Moraine Trail begins at a junction with the Mountain View Trail, itself intersecting the Barr Trail at about Mile 5. Once you reach the Lake Moraine Trail, you have about 4 more miles to go, but the trail affords numerous views of Pikes Peak, winds through aspen groves, numerous boulder fields, and crosses the Pikes Peak Cog Rail route below the Mountain View station. I met only one other party of 2 cyclists on Lake Moraine and a few more on Trail 667.

The cache is near the high point of the Lake Moraine Trail, near the 4-mile signpost. The trail tops out at about 10,240 feet. This is where you leave the trail to find the cache. The Lake Moraine Trail ends at Mile 4.1 with a substantial metal gate intended to keep motorized vehicles out. If you do take a motorcycle from the Jones Park side, you will have to leave it here and walk the remaining half-mile.

Although you leave the trail while it is in Colorado Springs Utilities jurisdiction, the cache itself is on National Forest land. You might see the solid fence intended to keep motorized vehicles out of CSU property as you make your way to the cache, but it extends only to the top of the ridge you are walking on. Staying north of the top, you will see only a collapsed barbed-wire fence marking the boundary.

Congratulations gampa&gamma -- First To Find!

Additional Waypoints

018Y48B - 7-Bridges Parking
N 38° 47.438 W 104° 54.240

028Y48B - 667 / 622 Junction
N 38° 47.400 W 104° 56.280

038Y48B - Start of Moraine Lake Trail
N 38° 50.448 W 105° 00.112

048Y48B - Barr Trail Parking
N 38° 51.360 W 104° 56.033

R08Y48B - Leave Trail
N 38° 48.744 W 104° 59.191
Leave trail here and keep to the north side of the rocky ridge

08/15/2020 By gampa&gamma

{*FTF*} at 9:09 AM.

We saw this cache post the other day and read the description. Wow, 16 miles is a pretty long hike to find just one cache. But when we saw this morning that it still hadn't been found and that there was a good challenge cache close to it, we decided to give it a try. We filled up our caching backpack with several bottles of water and a few granola bars and we were at the Seven Bridges Trail parking lot at 6:05 AM. As advertised, it was an 8 mile hike up to the cache, but after the initial climb, the trail was pretty tame. We made the find and enjoyed the view (and a granola bar) at GZ. We traded trackables (we dropped a Lonely Traveler trackable, which seemed fitting for this cache) and then retraced our steps back to the parking lot, making a quick stop to look for the challenge cache. It was a fun, exhausting day. Thanks for bringing us up to a trail we've never hiked before.

08/09/2020 By ernie66
Leaving a genuine geocoin! Not a copy or facsimile. Don’t see many of these any more.

08/09/2020 By IgnotusPeverell
Published