Pike's Cave Mystery Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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This cache is located near a “cave” that Zebulon Pike and a few of his men probably stayed in on a failed attempt to hike to the summit of Pike’s Peak or, as Pike called it, “Grand Peak”. It’s not much of a cave and it's in the Pike National Forest.
In the early 1800’s Zebulon Pike was given the mission to explore the Arkansas and Red Rivers. He made a base camp where Pueblo is today and set out on foot with three others to climb Pikes Peak. They probably made it to the summit of Mt. Rosa before turning back. During this trip they spent a night in a “cave”.
Since this cache is in recognition of Pike’s exploration, it’s only fair that this cache be something of an adventure. Your mission, should you decide to accept it (and it's not impossible), is to gather a set of questions hidden in various caches in this area. When doing one of the other caches, you may be hiking close to the route Pike followed. The rest of the caches introduce you to more of the Pikes Peak region and are intended to be a bit of an adventure but nowhere near as hard as the early explorers had it.
The questions that need to be answered are found in the following caches:
Gray Back Peak contains questions 1 & 2
Mt Esther (Almost) contains question # 3
Howard's Rock contains question # 4
Ormes Peak contains questions 5 & 6
Mt. Arthur contains questions 7 & 8.
If you have common numbers related to Zebulon Pike, you should be able to answer the questions in the Gray Back cache and go on to do this cache since they are in the same general area.
The coordinates listed for this puzzle cache are just for a point on upper Gold Camp Road (also a hint), which is the general area of the cache. These coordinates in the UTM (not Lat./Long.) format should be modified according to the directions below to get the coordinates of the cache.
Add up the answers to questions 1 through 6 and call this the “sum”.
Subtract the answer to question number 7 from the “sum” and subtract this result from the UTM easting coordinate (505262) to give you the actual easting of this cache.
Add up the answers to questions 1 through 6 as above for the “sum”.
Subtract the answer to question number 8 from the “sum” and add this result to the UTM northing coordinate (4287597) to give you the actual northing of this cache.
Some points along a suggested route to or from the cache:
Add up the answers to the odd questions and add that sum to each of the following eastings. Add up the answers to the even questions and add that sum to each of the following northings to get the correct coordinates.
Point 4: 491469 4277148
Point 5: 491048 4277453
Point 6: 490938 4277538
Point 7: 490741 4277333 (To use coordinates see paragraph above)
The route above isn't all that difficult and is the recommended way, the direct route is another matter.
I've done three different "direct" routes to this cache with the GPS receiver in my hand which means I didn't get into class 3 terrain (scrambling) but I don't recommend this steep route. If you can do it, you don't need hints from me and you might get into class 3 terrain (meaning hands are required for climbing).
Gold Camp Road is suitable for cars and side roads can sometimes be driven a short distance; however, side roads are often water cut to the point that a high clearance vehicle or 4wd is required. You can park at point 4 if you have a high clearance vehicle to get there.
This cache is at a high elevation where thunderstorms are frequent. Be aware of the possibility of lightning before setting out on foot. Ground currents can arc in caves so don't hide from lightning in a cave or mine.
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)
Treasures
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