Willow Notches - Long Legs Pickled Traditional Cache
Willow Notches - Long Legs Pickled
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Beautiful and wild area, just outside of the wilderness but about as remote as you can get here. The cache is set in a niche of a rock fin at 9,250 ft el, not too far from Little Willow cabin and spring.
There are two notches in the rocky ridge separating Left and Right forks of upper Little Willows canyon. They offer unusual and truly breathtaking views in three directions.
The cache was meant to be a rest stop for the Stilt Man Cachunut #21. This fellow logged 20,000 vertical ft with me by this point, but I finally found a big enough container for him. It is a gallon-size deli pickle jar. Also inside were:
- AA batteries
- a bungee
- a doggie bone treat
- a permanent marker
- a sea shell
- and maybe some other things useful for a hiker.
Finding a good route into the area may be a challenge, although the trail system in the Willows improved quite a bit in the recent years. The best-maintained one is the Cherry-Willows trail, off Bonneville Shoreline, which crosses the creek close to the cache. A spur off Draper Ridge trail feeds into it on a hill overlooking Cherry Canyon at 8,300 ft. And Flight of Eagles trail joins Cherry-Willows on the ridge South of Little Willows canyon, at 8,800 ft, although its upper section is really faint. All three of these official trails share the same ugly character. You got to climb at least 3000 ft on steep, open, dry, sun-baked slopes at low elevations before getting to a nicer terrain.
The Big Willow trail ('East meets West', 'Morning Shade' caches) is quite a bit nicer, but connecting to Cherry-Willows from this trail is more complicated. Take a side trail on the ridge separating Big and Little Willows. After it crosses Little Willow stream at 7,750 ft, you can either take a track parallel to the stream (SE), or traverse the wooded slopes up the right, to a grassy saddle (SW). Either way you hit Cherry-Willows trail near the ridge. It's 1,300 ft up the 'straight' way, or 800 ft up the 'traverse' way.
While in the area, look for the cabin, or continue up the creek to a saddle with a fantastic view of Lone Peak from the cirque edge. It's only 700 ft up to the peak from there.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
svsgrra sg hc na rnfl puvzarl sebz gur fnqqyr, ba lbh evtug
Treasures
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