Black Sentinel

08/09/2018 By allenmabry
11:04 AM We are here from Dallas for our typical August vacation in Divide in order to skip the Texas heat for a couple of weeks.

I solved this puzzle at 14:48 on 8/10/2014, watching the rain from the cabin after a hike up to Horsethief Falls. Here we are four years later... I wanted to hike here last August, but all parking north of the Crags Trailhead was closed due to all the trees killed by beetles.

This was the second cache of the day and a much easier trek after the ascent to the ridge line.

I signed the log 13 months after OR85OR450, one of the cachers I really admire - and a part-time DFW resident, and Crumbcrunchers/YamaGypsy whom I met kayak caching in Houston. Thanks, kenyansherpa, for the cache. I hope all is well with you!

Detailed route information:

Thanks to OR85OR450 for his route notes. We took a similar route with a few adjustments.

The northernmost open, legal parking area is Raspberry Mountain Trailhead, N38 52.846 W105 07.523. We parked there and hiked down the road toward the suggested parking area. We stopped a little north of there and cross the creek at the bridge. (Bridge N38 53.113 W105 07.868). We headed west and then southwest angling up the valley until we joined the trail at (Trail N38 53.014 W105 08.052). We headed up the trail until we reached Crags Vista. We followed the ridgeline south to the other three caches, ending with Colorful Colorado - Black Forest. We then descended trying to take the gentlest slope possible. We headed southeast to abouth N38 51.814 W105 07.915 (10,591 ft elev). We encountered what looked like an old abandoned road and followed it east-northeast to N38 51.923 W105 07.735 (10,445 elev). We then turned slightly south of east toward the forest road FS383. We reached the road at N38 51.883 W105 07.427. We appeared to be just north of another parking area, where you could place a second vehicle. We then hiked down the road for 1.2 miles and descended 336 feet back to our parking area.

Overall, it was a 5 mile round trip to hunt 4 caches on this ridge. It took us 2 hrs 52 minutes. I'm sure others can do it faster.

GeoWoodstock XVII
Ft. Worth, TX
May 25, 2019 10:00AM - 5:00PM
https://coord.info/GC7NBWQ

It is on the way to Giga status, so please log a "will attend" if you are coming.

07/16/2017 By OR85OR450
Hiya- I had a good hike today... there's some sort of Forest Service area use restriction in effect and I got a warning for parking at posted coord's. Best to elbow y'self a spot up at Crags lot, or even go all the way to the end of the road and start up via the RTP.
I had followed the easiest contour lines down from the caches up here... an overall N - S route, and conveniently popped out on RTP trail just an easy stroll from end of the road parking.

07/04/2017 By YamaGypsy
2nd cache on today's hike. So much dead fall! Not sure if there is or was a trail to the cache but I just followed the geocaches which meant a lot of navigating the downed trees. Found cache quickly and in good shape. Sl, thanks!

09/03/2016 By billkat
Quite a hike up there. Glad when it leveled off. Followed it with a hike up crags trail. Fun with kb0rpw. TFTC!

09/03/2016 By kb0rpw
Nice hike with BillKat