McKinley Peak

This is McKinley Peak, less challenging and not to be confused with Mt. McKinley located several thousand miles to the north. McKinley Peak is located between Knights Peak and San Luis Peak off Old Stage Road east of Penrose-Rosemont Resevoir.

One way to get there is to park at 38 43.828 104 56.312 along Old Stage Road. Hike up the eroded area to a faint trail that turns uphill at 38 43.784 104 56.544. It forks after about 20 yards or so – take the right fork which heads straight uphill to a saddle at 38 43.585 104 56.589. There is no trail from this point on but you can follow the ridge up towards the peak.

It’s really not much of a peak once you get there, but it does rise slightly higher than the surrounding terrain.

If you are continuing on from here to San Luis Peak cache, continue following the ridgeline to the east. To avoid rock-climbing, I suggest that once you start approaching the large rocks, swing more towards the south around the rocks to roughly 38 43.497 104 55.988 and then up a little tree-lined ravine to 38 43.544 104 55.965 and on up to the top of San Luis Peak.

This cache is also one of a series of five caches (GC1FWA2, GC1FWAH, GC1FWAZ, GC1FWBB, GC1FWC9) all in the same area that contains a necessary clue-sheet to solve Crypto Cache # 10 – ENIGMA (GC1G01E). The following information relates only to Crypto Cache # 10 –ENIGMA and is not necessary or related to finding this cache.

KEYCODES

A codebook provided the operator of Enigma with a daily keycode. The keycode listed which three of the five available scramblers were to be used that day, and the order in which the scramblers were to be placed in Enigma, e.g. 1, 4, 2 (but only three scramblers are available for this geocache Enigma). It also listed the starting key, that is the initial alphabet letter position for each scrambler in its respective order, and also conveyed the points at which the scramblers would rotate.

To somewhat simplify the operation of your Enigma machine for this cache, two components of the real scramblers (the core and the alphabet ring that rotated in relationship to the core) have been combined and can be thought of as one fixed unit. For purposes of this geocache, the starting key for the scramblers in the prescribed order will be described, for example, as S F T.

The letter at which the first scrambler will cause the second scrambler to rotate will be given. For example, let’s assume the first scrambler is in the H position and the letter at which the first scrambler will cause the second to rotate is K. Therefore, as letters are entered only the first scrambler will rotate from H to I, then from I to J, then from J to K. After the next letter is entered the first scrambler will rotate from K to L along with the second scrambler rotating one position.

Similarly the letter at which the second scrambler will cause the third scrambler to rotate will also be given.

Finally the Enigma codebook listed the plugboard swaps for the day which is detailed on another geocache face sheet.