Out In the Middle

06/18/2019 By K Trackers
I’ve managed to get to some pretty remote and difficult to get to caches, but this cache and the string along this road are definitely are somewhere in the top ten, if not top five. Coupled with some traditional “K Factor” Murphy’s Law drama, it was quite a mis-adventure. This was my first time to Eleven Mile State Park. This cluster was supposed to be my first targets, but wound up being my last because it was so difficult to get back here. I eventually stopped trying so I could focus on my hike targets (GC6W8M4 Almost Half Way There, and GC289NW Flyin Raisin), and then resumed until I finished sometime as it was getting dark.

I came to the area traveling directly south from Highway 24, and based south of the lake from the west. I quickly found out I had serious navigation problems, and in retrospect, that is not the optimum direction to come to get to this area. I was relying on an auto GPS (Tom, Tom) and handheld Garmin 64ST. Neither GPS correctly showed the road layout for the plethora of dirt roads in this area. To make matters worse, the Tom Tom constantly tried to pull me off the dirt roads and have me take a highway bypass, requiring a 1 – 2 hour detour. I was slowly moving thorough the area by using dead reckoning and the handheld to plot “dirt road stages” on the Tom Tom. The concentration required for this reminded of trying to drive around Bosinan and Iraqi IED infested roads. The number of roads that ended in dead ends or private property significantly complicated my navigational efforts. The most significant was the rancher who has now closed off Black Mountain Road because he can. I got to within a mile of the nearby GCX22B Eleven Mile Canyon before I had to turn back. I eventually worked my way around to the SE and grabbed GC6W8M4 Almost Half Way There, and GC289NW Flyin Raisin since I was there. Good thing I did. At some point I finally got on the road for these caches from the western approach. The road on this side has degraded at some points, while a tractor or something has dung some explainable “dips.” These dips and slippery mud from the intermittent rain and hail along some of the narrower road portions ensured some “white knuckle” driving experience to keep things interesting. If all of this drama wasn’t bad enough, twice I was held hostage by cow herds. Despite the ranchers here so jealously guarding their private property, they have no qualms about letting their cows graze on the public land and blocking public roads. I don’t normally mind that expect for the fact that each herd seems to have at least one cow that decides it doesn’t feel like moving. This is a pretty frustrating situation when the only reason you are here in the first place is because you are trying to find a bypass from rancher closed off roads. Like any good military unit, the cows planted their ambushes at chokepoints so that I could not turn around and had to wait until they m oved. I’m not sure of the total “cow downtime” I had since I fell asleep at one of the incidents, but the cows had me blocked in for somewhere between 30 – 60 minutes. All told, I probably spent about 3 – 5 hours trying to get to this area.

At the cache area, I was dodging cow herds both mounted and dismounted. Fortunately, the herds here cooperated and left me to do my business. After six years, I had strong doubts about this one. Like other cachers said, I think the coordinates were off as well. I replaced the log for any others that make their way back here and talked to the CO. To add final insult to injury, a final hailstorm worse than the three others I hiked thorough today drove me off the GZ. The proper visual was me running back down the hill to my geo-terra yelling “ow, ow.” I’m not sure all of this was worth a 2/2 cache, but I was grateful to get at least one smiley back here and come to see this area, as it is gorgeous alpine backcountry. Thanks to the CO for placing this cache for everyone to find.

11/03/2013 By colorado gypsies
Log was damp :-( Took us a few minutes to find. Coords seemed a bit off but caching sense helped :-) SL TFTC

11/29/2012 By 9-rushman&farmgirl79
YES!! FTF at 9:00 am. Sneeky hide but we got this one and we're off to get the last one. SL TFTC

11/28/2012 By HighCountryAdmin
Published