Archer's Friend (Fletcher Mountain)

08/05/2017 By WolfgangStiller
Wow! I love the hike up here from Blue Lakes Reservoir. I cant' believe it has been over three years since someone logged this cache. The last signature I saw in the logbook was July of 2014! Thanks for placing this cache on such a wonderful location. The cache was in good shape and the coordinates were pretty close. TN LN TFTC!

09/11/2015 By COpackrat
It's been a long time since I was up here so happy the weather was good and the sky clear. TFTC

07/27/2014 By Denali41
For years I've wanted to make the re-ascent of Fletcher Mountain because of this cache and the nearby Uberquandary ^3 multi. I had climbed Fletcher years and years ago, and had also descended the West Ridge of Quandary way-back-when. When kenyansherpa, icezebra11, and I hiked to the summit of Mt. Elbert for the Flash Mob Event last August we promised one another that in 2014 we'd make the ascents of Fletcher and Quandary for these caches. Today was the chosen one, and we were indeed fortunate with the weather. Last night's thunderstorms that hit our camping spot cleared out before midnight, and we had fine weather as we worked our way up the mountains to find these wonderful caches and then for our descent down Quandary's East Ridge. It was a fun day, punctuated by finds of some great caches that had gone "lonely" for too long. Views in the morning lighting were wonderful, unforgettable. It was great to look out over vast distances to admire so many mountains I've climbed in the past, and to pick out general alpine cache hide locations where I've had fun caching experiences over past years. But what made this trip especially pleasurable was the companionship with two fine friends. Yes, a very memorable, fine day.

Thanks, Uberquandary, for providing the ingredients that brought all of this together for us.

It's always pretty neat to find a lonely cache--this one was last found exactly 2 years ago. I placed a geocoin in the cache and hope it escapes in less than 2 additional years!

07/27/2014 By icezebra11
Denali41 and I drove down from our homes in the greater Fort Collins area to the Hoosier Pass area yesterday for today's hike with Kenyansherpa to Fletcher and Quandary. We parked one vehicle at the east ridge trailhead and then we drove the second vehicle to Blue Lake and began our ascent at 4:30 am. We had difficulty finding the trail through the willows but after a couple wrong turns we finally got on the right trail and headed for the saddle. After finding a reasonable route avoiding the ice (snow) we arrived at the saddle. Had a bite to eat and then headed up to Fletcher. Got to GZ and the final container was found. We each signed the log and then modeled the aviator hat. After taking in the great scenery we headed down to the saddle and then continued up the west ridge to the Quandary summit. Thanks Uberquandary!!!

Denali41 on his way to Fletcher

kenyansherpa models the aviator hat

Denali41 models the aviator hat

Atlantic, Pacific and beyond

Quandary casting a shadow

McCollough basin

07/27/2014 By kenyansherpa
Denali41, Icezebra11 and I had a very enjoyable climb from the Blue Lake dam up to Fletcher. It took us a little searching to find the initial trail and then more searching to find the best route to the saddle as there was still a large amount of unsafe snow, especially for July! Once we gained the ridge the snow on it near the summit was easily avoided. It was awesome to find an ammo can up there and log finds, since this lonely stash had not seen anyone in almost 2 years. Plus, the special hat in the container was quite fun ( I'll include photos later ). Thanks to Uberquandary for placing such an excellent cache!

Heading up Fletcher

Denali41 and Icezebra11 approach the summit

Icezebra11 aka the Red Baron!

07/27/2012 By estes01
I might have put this one on my "later" list if I'd known about the steep and dangerously loose talus on the final pitch. WingsAndTales and I had gone too far to turn around by the time we figured out that there would be absolutely no trail or cairns up to the summit. But what an amazing spot for a cache! We sat and enjoyed the incredible views, free from the hoards of people on top of Quandary. We were about half way down when the storms started thundering around us and quickly picked up our pace – difficult to do on that terrain, but it's amazing how much like a mountain goat one can become under certain situations. Ernie66 put a red jeep in this cache 4 years ago to this day...guess it's time to move it on. Left a coin. Thanks for the experience.
Back shocks look good, how are front ones

Fletcher

Looking back at Quandary

WingsAndTales says I have to go up there

IMG_3121

WingsAndTales

View at the summit

07/27/2012 By WingsAndTales
The find was easy with the spoiler photos but the hike was tough. It was about 6 miles RT and 2300 feet elevation gain. The 13ers.com site has the hike at 4.25 miles RT but there is no way it's that short. Once the trail ended at the bottom of a gully we found some very helpful cairns that got us to the saddle between Fletcher and Quandary. After that there were no cairns or trail. I would recommend that you stay just on the left side of the ridge looking up. On the way down we went more down the face than along the ridge. It looked good from above but the rocks were much more loose. We would have been better off coming down the way we went up.

We could see a lot of people on Quandary but we had Fletcher to ourselves. We got rained on before we got down but fortunately we were below the really rocky sections. TFTC
End of the trail from the top of the first gully

Great hat now I just need an airplane

Trail? What trail? Not even a cairn to help!

08/27/2010 By RDAD
It was a very good day for a very nice climb to the summit of Fletcher Pk. I found the cache after a short search. TNLN and signed the logbook. I stayed on top for quite awhile and enjoyed the beautiful weather on the summit before heading back down a slightly different route. Thanks for the great cache location!

07/27/2008 By ernie66
I stopped here this morning around 8:00 on a little detour heading up the west ridge of Quandary Peak. Unlike Quandary, there was nobody on the summit and I couldn't see any hikers heading there. Now on to finish (Quandary)^3. Left Jeep TB, SL, TFTC!

Pika on the way up to Fletcher

07/13/2008 By A & J - Adrift
Our 33rd Colorado Centennial Peak and our 4th Colorado Centennial Peak Geocache.

We also saw a herd of Mountain Goats on the road to the Blue Lake trailhead. Then, our truck was attacked by a killer marmot. After the 2nd assault, where we had to dislodge him from above our spare tire; we moved the truck to the lower parking lot.

It took us a little longer than expected because we hiked around 2 snowfields. We still had to contend with hiking across the cornice just below the peak.

If you are used to wandering in a big circle looking for a cache, don't try it with this one.
Traffic Jam

Centennial Peak