Ben's Hill Traditional Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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I went to hide a nice easy cache on Saturday afternoon, along the Elbow Valley hiking trail between Canyon Creek and Elbow Falls. I found a nice area by a rocky outcrop just above the trail and began searching for the perfect hiding spot. After an hour of wandering I found myself in a lovely meadow on top of the hill immediately east of Prairie Mtn about 2.2 kms from the rocky outcrop. Hey, I am sorry but when hilltops beckon I have to respond, I just can’t stop myself from going up!
Anyways, the entire round trip distance ended up being about 6 kms with an elevation gain of 400 meters. Now, and this is no lie, I found the elevation gain along my route to be hardly noticeable except for a few stretches near the start. I was just slowly ambling along through beautiful snow free open forest, what little blow down I encountered was easily turned. About ¾ of the way up I passed below (west of) the Shell gas well that can be seen from the Sulphur Springs Trail across Canyon Creek Valley. You can hear the well site compressor for several hundred meters before you get there so it is easy to avoid. The route does not trespass or impinge on any of their mineral surface lease or on their access road right of way. The forest in the vicinity of the well becomes a little less open (shades of a lodge pole pine stick forest) but still does not present any serious obstacles to travel and it soon opens up again. As the top is approached you will break out into a large meadow with terrific views of Prairie Mountain as well as everyone’s favourite trio of area mountains: Glasgow, Cornwall and Banded Peak. The cache is hidden at the base of a tree close to the absolute top of the hill on an imaginary line that demarks the change from dry south facing slopes of open meadow and lodge pole pine to a damper north facing slope of larger well spaced fir trees with a lovely mossy under-story. I found this quiet shaded forest to be an extremely peaceful place and a short rest in it provided me with a body and soul refreshing experience. How could you not want to be here?
After I had hidden the cache I found a very interesting artifact that I assume is some sort of a memorial. It is a perfect circle of rocks about 25-30 feet in diameter, with larger upright stones marking the primary points of the compass, the circle contains a perfectly round fire pit in its’ middle and a 1.5 x 2.5 ft tomb located halfway between the fire pit and the northern edge of the rock circle. Again, I assume that the tomb contains the ashes of someone or someone’s pet. Below the southwest quadrant the name “BEN” is spelled out with rocks. Since Ben obviously occupies this hilltop it is only fitting that it should be named Ben's Hill. I had already put a different name in the cache log (Child of Prairie Mountain) so, I would appreciate it if the FTF would cross out that name and replace it with “Ben's Hill”.
Waypoint 001 is the suggested parking spot just off the Elbow Valley Highway (Hwy 66). Waypoint 002 is near a small rocky outcrop just above the Elbow Valley hiking trail. On the way to waypoint 002 you will pass close to the “Not Quite Brass” cache by XRN95 (GCW3FF) so you better see if you can find that tricky micro, if you haven’t already done so.
The cache is a 850 ml L&L container with some pretty decent swag as well as a FTF reward consisting of a FTF pin and a toonie. Have fun and try to save a few minutes for quite contemplation in the peaceful solitude of Ben's hilltop forest.
Additional Hints
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