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.