End Of An Error
Warning: This is a fairly short hike, but it is in an area of steep drop offs and cliffs. It may not be suitable for young children or dogs.
In April of 2011, lesdubois published Puzzle Parade, a fantastic series of paper and wooden puzzles. As I believe many puzzle-solving geocachers along the Wasatch Front will agree, the work of lesdubois is second to none in terms of quality. All aspects of his caches are superb; the puzzles, locations and the caches themselves. As I can personally attest, the accuracy of his puzzle text and data is 100%. When I say 100%, I mean 99.9999%.
In May of 2011, I solved Puzzle Parade, and set out on my bike for what was expected to be a quick and easy grab. Many hours later, I arrived home cacheless, exhausted and dehydrated. If you have a few extra hours, you can read the details of this quest in the log section of Puzzle Parade. As it turned out, the original puzzle could produce two different solutions, one correct and one incorrect. The finders before me had hit the correct solution. By chance, I derived the incorrect one. Note: The problem has since been corrected, and there is now only one solution to Puzzle Parade.
Coincidentally, my incorrect solution pointed to an area I had long been interested in, and had targeted for a possible cache. It is the huge area of orangeish cliffs on the north side of the bottom of Parley's Canyon. It is a very dramatic, and rugged area, and I think of it as "no man's land". My erroneous solution to the puzzle was almost dead-center in this area.
One year later, I decided to commemorate my day of exhausting bike-portaging with this geocache. The cache is located just 145 feet from the incorrect ground zero coordinates. I was able to hike to within 40 feet of those coordinates, but the last section is just beyond the edge of some pretty serious cliffs.
If you are comfortable in steep, rocky terrain and feeling adventurous, I encourage you to devise your own route to the cache. Otherwise, please use my notes below for what I believe is the easiest and safest approach. Expect some exposure on the hike and a few tricky spots. If you are careful, though, this is actually a pretty easy hike and a great way to see this quite incredible area up close as opposed to passing below it on the freeway.
Be careful and enjoy the journey! And if you pursue Puzzle Parade, which I highly recommend, you can expect a much easier hike!
This cache is part of the Cardio Art series. Be sure to take one clue with you before leaving the cache!
Notes on the Best Approach
Hint: View the two included waypoints and final location in Google Earth prior to your hike to get an idea of the route.
Start your hike at the north end of the Parley's Crossing paved trail. The coordinates for this are saved as "Error 1" in the Waypoints section.
Hike to "Error 2", which marks a pretty good trail that can be followed most of the way to the cache. A possible route to "Error 2" from the paved trail is by following the large drainage pipe up the hill. You will see this drainage pipe to your left as you walk the Parley's Crossing trail. It is a bit steep, but only for a short distance. There used to be a micro on this pipe!
From "Error 2", follow the trail around the base of the hill to the south and southeast. Stay high, branching off onto a less-prominent trail. The trail will eventually descend a short distance and then fade out. Rather than descend, stay high, not far below the cliff line. There is a faint trail that you can follow if you look carefully for it. The faint trail leads, more or less, to the cache. Toward the end, you will be dropping down a short distance to a boulder field and crossing that field. Be careful here and take your time. You are almost there!