GC5HR41 Sheep Series: What Does The Sheep Say?
Type: Traditional | Size: Regular | Difficulty: | Terrain:
By: Colorado Gypsies @ | Hide Date: 12/13/2014 | Status: Available
Country: United States | State: Colorado
Coordinates: N38° 50.438 W104° 57.936 | Last updated: 06/19/2022 | Fav points: 0
       

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A cache on one of many Sheep Mountains (this one is also called Palsgrove Mountain on some maps) and the first cache posted in our Sheep Series.

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A series celebrating the proliferation of Sheep Mountains and other Sheeps of prominence in the Pikes Peak Region.

Make sure to copy the puzzle piece taped to the bottom of the container and save it for the Sheep Series: Final.
Either:
Bring a pen and paper and draw the blocks and letters or
Take a picture or
Write down the link URL or
Scan the QR code with your smart phone.

There are several ways to get to the cache that I know of. All of them require steep hiking on or off of unmaintained trails. This cache is not for the casual hiker.
The D/T rating is based on the route we took which is possible if you have permission to cross the Cog Railway line at the end of Ruxton Ave in Manitou Springs. We included a waypoint for the very small free parking lot where we parked at the end of the Paul Intemann trail. You need to be early these days to get a spot. There's also a waypoint for the hard-to-spot start of the Gog and Magog trail from the Cog Railway tracks. From there we went up past Magog and Gog and then left the trail at the waypoint provided and bushwacked straight up until we hit the trail running across the north face Cameron Cone (another waypoint). I think this cuts off time and distance and though it's steep, I found it easy to steer clear of underbrush and deadfall. Next we continued west on that trail which leads to a saddle. From there (waypoint) I descended into the steep valley separating me from Sheep Mountain. This final half mile requires some moderate bushwacking through some fairly immoderate terrain. The SE nob of Sheep Mountain (The Lady Gypsy dubbed it Sheep Shoulder) has better views but I decided to place the cache on the actual summit.
A shorter route is possible if you have access to Crystal Park.
Or you could take Barr Trail to 706. See the now-archived original Cameron's Challenge.

The route we took is probably around 7.5-8 miles and 4000ft of often steep uphill with a lot of off trail terrain. Make sure you plan plenty of time and enjoy :-).

If you're feeling like a real Cachochist you can also find our cache: Cameron's Cone which we placed on the same day.

Congratulations to bzgcfj and Java Chip who braved the snow after almost 4 months to be FTF!

The other Sheep Series caches are Here.

Additional Waypoints

BT5HR41 - Back on the Cameron Cone trail here
N 38° 50.144 W 104° 57.038

BW5HR41 - Start bushwacking toward the final
N 38° 50.186 W 104° 57.501

LT5HR41 - Leave the trail here and head up the ridge
N 38° 50.439 W 104° 56.975

PK5HR41 - GC5HR41 Parking
N 38° 51.389 W 104° 55.629

TH5HR41 - Start of the trail to Gog and Magog
N 38° 51.109 W 104° 56.271

04/09/2016 By -E T-
Sheep Series: What Does The Sheep Say? was transferred from colorado gypsies to user -E T-

09/25/2015 By OR85OR450
I remember watching how long this sat before an ftf occurred .... my chance came today on a real hike-a-fest... also Incline- Barr...but I went up high enough to attack High Atop Grandview from above. Then down to the cog rr and requisite Aspen grove walk. Once I got to ~.3 miles though, I thought the straight up approach would be survivable. It was... I ended up leaving via the Cameron saddle method; but you really need to stay down below the summit here on the East side! Wrangling the boulder/ bushwhack on the west side heading south was too tough & I eventually re-crossed this mountain south of the cache while trying to exit! I dropped a replacement-project Red Jeep & really enjoyed my stay here. Great mountain to cache
The
routing to get from here to Sauce Pomme was the icing on the rough -hike-cake today!!

06/06/2015 By estes01
It’s amazing to me what ernie66 thinks is a good day. I’ve learned that the more miserable the hike, the better the day is. All was ok until after we passed through the Aspen meadow and started to climb through the bushes, deadfall and loose rocks. I believe the Gypsies suggested route is the best way to go. Hey, the trip back was fun! Actually, I’m enjoying the sheep series. Thanks for putting out these challenging caches.

06/06/2015 By ernie66
Estes01 and I started about 8:30 and found parking near the bottom of the Incline. After reaching the top of the ultra-familiar and ultra-crowded Incline, the crowds thinned and the going got easier. We took Barr Trail to 706, crossed the tracks and followed the stream through the same aspen meadow bzgcfj and Javachip did. Once we left Barr Trail, we didn't see another soul except cog rail workers and passengers waving from passing trains.

I hadn't hiked 706 before, and it's always a treat to see a new area. From the aspen meadow, we went up the south side of Sheep Mountain. Not liking that terrain much, we headed down the east side toward the saddle with Camerons Cone, hoping for easier going, but finding the conditions equally scratchy and unstable. The saddle route is a little longer, but less of the distance is that challenging terrain.

It was a good day - thanks for the reason to make this hike!

04/12/2015 By MountainBear
FTF at 1:22 with Java Chip.

We thought this might be quite a challenge, but it turned out to be a very easy hike for us. Java Chip (who doesn't read maps) wanted to take a more direct route, which would have been really hard. Thankfully, BZGCFJ studied a topo map and found an easy path. We took Barr Trail to 706 and followed that until it ended. We continued along a creek through an Aspen meadow. When we saw a small waterfall, we turned left and headed up to the saddle between Cameron's Cone and Sheep. At the saddle we turned left toward the cache and stayed to the east as we ascended. The views from the top were amazing! Thanks for bringing us here. The trip from the start of Barr Trail to the top was about 6 miles.

This entry was edited by bzgcfj on Monday, 13 April 2015 at 04:18:49 UTC.