Four More Caches

This past weekend, I hid 4 more caches. All of them are along the Platte River and three of them are in Waterton Canyon. These three plus one that I hid a week before make up a series devoted to Waterton Canyon side trails. These side trails are rarely visited by people who go into the canyon and they are really interesting places. One of them in particular is about 500 feet down one of these trails and the side trail ends up in a really neat mini canyon. I think cachers will find all of this series a lot of fun.

However, they all require a bit of a hike since you can't drive into Waterton Canyon at all. You have to hike or bike. The closest one requires a hike of about 1.75 miles one way and the farthest one requires a trek of about 4 miles one way. This would be easiset by bike and that is what I recommend.

The other cache was also hidden along the Platte but over in the Two Forks area. It is another cache in the Fallen Flag railroad series. The trail along the river is on an old railroad grade. The road up into Waterton Canyon is also on the old railroad grade but after a little over 6 miles, it reaches the Strontia Springs Dam. At the far end of the reservoir behind the dam, the old railroad grade continues and comes out where the Platte River branches into "two forks". It is at this location that you can park and walk the half mile or so to this new cache.

The railroad through the canyon was constructed in 1878. It eventually became part of the Colorado & Southern Railroad. The last train went through there in 1937 and the rails were probably taken up not long after that - probably that year.

There are some interesting railroad-related artifacts along the right of way and you can see them every 100 feet or so on the hillside along the old grade. There were two methods employed for the telegraph line that followed the railroad and you can see the remains of both along the way if you keep a sharp eye out. The more common method was typical wooden poles. Most of these along this grade were sawed off leaving pole stumps about 3 feet high.

The other method is more interesting and this method is in evidence along this route as well as in Waterton Canyon and just about anywhere else along this old railroad grade. You can see one or two vertical metal poles stuck in rock outcroppings fairly high above the grade. This cache is hidden behind a spot where there is only one of these metal poles.

Getting to this cache requires a bit of climbing but it's not that hard. The cache is hidden about 35 feet above the trail and about 25 feet behind one of these metal poles.

These caches are not likely to be snow friendly and they require some effort to get to. They are all meant to be memorable caches. None of them have been found yet - not even the closest one in Waterton. It will be interesting to see how long it takes. It might even be next spring!

Three New Caches

I hid three new geocaches today. Two of them are part of a series started by a cacher named Grand High Pobah dedicated to fallen flag railroads. Fallen flag railroads no longer exist either through abandonment or corporate takeover. These two new caches are near one of those historical railroads.

The Denver, South Park, and Pacific railroad was a narrow gauge line (3’ between the rails) that started life in Denver in 1874 and was headed to the mining camps in the mountains. The main route of this railroad followed the course of the Platte River through Waterton Canyon and eventually over Kenosha Pass.

There was a branch that split off of the main line just before the line entered Waterton Canyon. By the time the branch line was built, the DSP&P had become part of the Colorado and Southern (C&S) railroad. This branch line was called the Silica Branch and it crossed the river, went back downstream a ways and then headed up into what is now Roxborough. It then ended near the old kiln that was built there about 1904 by the Silicated Brick Company.

Construction of the railroad branch line began in September 1908. It was a narrow gauge line almost 4 miles long terminating at Silica. The brick company lasted less than 10 years but clay and silica was mined in the area until the 1960's. The railroad branch operated intermittently until 1940 when it was abandoned and then dismantled in 1941. All of the remaining brick-related buildings were demolished over time, except for the kiln which you can see even today.

I hid two caches, one at each end of the branch line. They are both camoflaged pastic containers.

1000 Caches

Actually, 1001 as I write this. I discovered a set of micro caches outside of DIA hidden by Mondou2. They are named after the national parks and I think there is one for just about every park that exists. So I went out there and found a bunch of these caches on consecutive weekends. On the first pass through the area, I found 52 caches most of which were part of the national park series. That beats my old record for one day of 22. And these 52 caches were found in about 4 hours.

The next weekend, I made my way up to Greeley to watch the Northern Colorado Bears lose another football game. I left early to find some more of this series of caches and found a total of 37 in about 3 hours. This put me past the 1000 milestone.

The 1000th cache was a micro in Greeley called Beware of the Bear. It is in the parking lot of the football stadium. Later in the day, I hid one of my own in Greeley on campus. It was published later in the day and found at 6:20 the next morning. A total of 2 people have found it so far.

MY next goal is to be among the top 100 cachers in Colorado. This will be difficult and might take some time. Right now, number 100 has found 1149 caches. My current rank is 113. Mondou2 has the most finds in Colorado with over 15,000. He has hidden more than 500 caches!