Peak of the Storm

09/09/2018 By tripman1
Had my eye on this one since way back when I visited the nearby B-17. Great weather and after I finally found a way to the top had cache in hand. Great view. Thanks.

10/28/2017 By jasonicfederation
Took a while to figure out how to reach it after I saw it. Great view of the Front Range and I-25 corridor. Tftc!

09/19/2017 By K Trackers
I moused over this cache as a potential target last night, and quickly noted the “Ernie 4T” (Ernie 4T = 6T for everyone else). A quick ‘nope,’ and the mouse was moving towards other targets. I came back and decided not to let it off the hook so easily, so I had put the snivels away. I have to admit, the fact that it hasn’t been found for over 3 years was a draw.

I staged at the recommended parking coordinates despite a late start (1:00). Clear skies, so the weather decision was a go. I quickly found the ‘informal motorcycle trail.’ Since everything was informal, I skipped the introductions and dressed casual for the hike. I hiked in a “pine needle rain,” constantly falling of pine needles…I’ve never seen that before. Somewhere between a Ľ - ˝ mile into the hike, I was getting worried. Nice trail, relatively flat ground, just like the cache description said…so crap, the end must be bad.

Nearing Storm Peak, the trail made a hard right to the east. I wasn’t sure if it would box around to an easier approach. I decided to just follow the cache the description and press on straight to the mountain. After a few more minutes I broke thru the tree line and was confronted by the cliff face…crap. I boxed around a bit in the hopes of finding a better way up, but saw nothing. Shrugging, I just did the frontal assault climb. It took some time to find a viable way up. After completing my Ranger “point du hoc” maneuver, I finally managed to come down onto the plateau. Past the second climb, I saw the terrain feature that I assumed held the final. After some more climbing and maneuvering to figure out an approach, I found myself in a small “crack valley” (I’m sure I will get ribbed about that descriptor in the future) with no apparent way to press forward. Eventually, I found a stone “staircase” that let me finally meander my way to the top after minutes of muttering choice words. The ladybugs were out in full force and took many causalities despite my attempts at being careful. Right after taking a cache picture, a large group of the ladybugs suddenly flew up and was swirling all over. It was as if one of them said, “look out, giant lughead…make a break for it!” I have cached in thunderstorms, hailstorms, rain storms, sandstorms, and now pine needle and ladybug storms. The worst part of the trip up here was the very strong gusts of wind, strong enough to make me lose my balance a few times. I had to take my boonie hat off to avoid losing it, and the sun punished me accordingly. Despite being out in the open, the ammo can is in great shape (see picture) and looks almost brand new…no rust or anything. The can had some weird stuff in there: flip flops (had to resist taking my boots off), a clear lunchbox, a snack (I passed on that) and a picture of someone’s girlfriend. I am not sure I would want a bunch of geo-weirdoes gawking at my girlfriend, but there she was.

To head back, I decided to strike out to the east as I wasn’t up for more climbs…up or down. I found some ‘gentler’ terrain to get down. I eventually hooked up with the ‘informal trail’ after its eastern turn by making a wider loop from the east. While it definitely was better coming down that way, I guess it is all a matter of personal choice for the way up. Do the climb and get it over with, or go for the longer, steadier gain from the east. If climbing is not your thing, the east is definitely better albeit longer distance.

It seems like 2 – 3 year gaps is normal for this cache, 7 finders in 8 years. With this find, I now have (counting only 1 year or more lonely) a total of exactly 116 years lonely time on 57 caches from 11 North American States & Provinces. Thanks to the CO for another great Alpine adventure.

07/25/2014 By SnailMan1
I parked at the suggested parking location and headed North in search of this cache. I ran into the motorcycle trail almost immediately which made for an easy walk on relatively flat terrain. The last 2/10 of a mile or so the terrain did change as one had to climb the peak and make their way through large boulder fields. Once I got near the cache I found huge set of boulders between me and GZ. I finally found a crake/hole that I was able to go through if I squatted down low enough. I was only 30 ft away and still could not spot a path to the top. Once again I circled around the boulders and I finally found a path that led me to the top. Success! Once on top I found the ammo can out in the open so I looks like a muggle found it, but didn't take it. I thought I might find an easier way down by heading West. Mistake!!! I kept running into dead ends and I had to do a lot of backtracking. I continued on to Douglas #22 - Rampart Range B-17 which made for a little over an 8 mile hike once I got back to the car. Once back at my car a thought suddenly popped into my head wondering if I had signed the log. I was too tired and the rain was coming down so I chose to not return to verify.

And I forgot to say that there were great views up here since the top of the rocks are above the trees.

This entry was edited by SnailMan1 on Tuesday, 21 July 2015 at 02:31:42 UTC.

10/24/2013 By WingsAndTales
This is an amazing spot and well worth the effort in the last quarter mile. We found a way to the cache but probably not the way the CO went. It was nice to get a look back at Devils Head where we were last week. The fact that a lot of prime hiking territory closer to home is closed due to washed out roads has made us look at other areas that have been on our list for a long time. This proves that there is no shortage of great places to go.

The trees kept us from seeing our goal on the way in but I managed to find a spot to view it on the way out. We also seemed to be walking through the forest of twisted trees. Many of them had an odd twist to their trunks at 4-8 feet off the ground. I'll post a picture of the best one we saw. TFTC