Ben Dreams of Kona Mystery Cache
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(regular)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
It's an IronMan trip into the Goat Rocks Wilderness
when Ben was a lad of fourteen years
he dreamed of being a great mountaineer
but when he went climbing with dad and his mates
he realized old age was his fate
it was then a thought came into his head
his new dream is to win Kona instead
Winning Kona of course is a reference to the IronMan Triathlon World Championship held each year on the full moon weekend of October in Kailua Kona, Big Island Hawaii. For the cache location to be revealed, Ben deems it necessary for you to have a basic knowledge of past champions of this race.
How many wins in Kona do these Icons of the IronMan have?
The Queen of Kona, Paula Newby Fraser: ___ = A
The Man, Dave Scott: ___ = B
The Grip, Mark Allen: ___ = C
(B+C)X 2 = D
Cache Location = N 46° 2A.A99 x W 121° D.055 (Drop me an e-mail to verify before you head into the wilderness with incorrect info)
This Cache is located on a high barren ridge in the Goat Rocks Wilderness (really having nothing to do with the IronMan, but it makes a good intro). The geographic location given as the Cache Page Reference N46° 30.475 x W121° 16.849 is the trailhead at Conrad Meadows. Conrad Meadows has the distinction of being the largest Sub-alpine meadow in the Washington Cascades. The hike to the cache from this start is around 8 ½ miles one-way. The first 6 miles is all on trail the last 2 ½ off trail in the Goat Rocks alpine and requires some very basic mountaineering skills. Early season will involve snow travel. Later season will be barren rocky scree. This will certainly be the easier of the two routes described here. When the cache was placed, the road was closed due to extreme fire hazard and so the alternate approach was used. The alternate approach is through the equally grand meadows of Snowgrass Flats and Cispus Basin. Parking for this route is at N46° 27.849 x W121° 31.142. This route is around 9 mile one-way. The first 6 ½ miles to Cispus Pass is all on trail the last 2 ½ and off trail following game trails and one very steep gully into the Goat Rocks alpine. Again requiring some basic mountaineering skills. Early season will involve snow travel, some very steep. Later season will be barren rocky scree. This is the way we did it and found it to be a very long (15 hours) and very tough day.
For either route consult Becky’s guide or one of the guidebooks for Washington scrambles for more detailed information. As long as you made it to the cache, take another hour of moderate scrambling to the summit if Curtis-Gilbert. Remember Your 10 Essentials, Take Care, Have Fun, and remember, It’s All Good.
Igor-Buzz
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Ybbx va gur ebpx cvyr
Treasures
You'll collect a digital Treasure from one of these collections when you find and log this geocache:
Loading Treasures