Sleepy_hollow found Brass Cap Cache- Smith-Dorrien Rd (Virtual Cache)

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Sleepy_hollow found Brass Cap Cache- Smith-Dorrien Rd (Locked)

Monday, August 25, 2014Alberta, Canada

N 50° 34.533 W 115° 14.351

BCP663 - Northover Ridge

I got a later than expected start from the trail head to check out this outstanding cap location. The trail was in reasonable shape with one wash out on the Upper Lakes Trail and one newly constructed bridge over another creek. Route finding to Hidden Lake is a challenge with a huge amount of debris at the north end of the lake. The Fossil Falls section of the trail was in good shape with only a few muddy spots from the recent rains. From Fossil Falls to Aster Lake there are a few detours due to the June 2013 rain which make the going a little tricky as the trail isn’t well marked. From Aster Lake to the within 700 metres of the cap site you simply head around Aster Lake in a clockwise direction and pick up the dry creek bed to the Northover Ridge Trail or by fording Aster Creek and following the west shoreline of the lake.

Well after a few hours and kilometres on my day trip to the cap site I arrived at the base of a rather challenging little peak which had the cap at the summit. I picked my route up an endless series of ramps which took me past a number of challenging rock bands on the way up. Once you get past the rock bands it’s an almost flat to slightly uphill 200 metre walk to the cap marked by the typical GP.

The views from the cap are amazing – what else would you expect when you’re in the vicinity of Northover Ridge. The cap site had the typical white plastic cover ground cover surrounding the GP which is fairly common with Kananaskis area cap summits. As would be expected the cap is in pristine condition and only required the removal of a few small pieces of scree to reveal the target.

I decided to return the way I came today due to my late arrival at the cap site (4:00 pm) and a slightly shorter distance back to parking. Overall it was a fourteen hour round trip with plenty of elevation and distance. Simply a well-chosen cap site and one that is probably best done as a three day trip to complete Northover Ridge Loop. Thanks OFTH for setting up the cap and I’ll post a few pictures of the incredible scenery along the way!

Next Image

Kananaskis Trail Map

Additional Images

Kananaskis Trail Map	Lake view this morning	Fishermen along the trail	Drift wood collected at the north end of the lake
View to the South	View from the end of Hidden Lake	After the ascent from Hidden Lake	First view of Fossil Falls
View back from above Fossil Falls	A small stream crossing	Towards Northover from Aster Lake	Name that Peak(s) 1
Name that Peak 2	The cap is in sight	A very cool peak along the cap ridge	Peaks from the cap site 1
Peaks from the cap site 2	Peaks from the cap site 3	Peaks from the cap site 4	Peaks from the cap site 5
Peaks from the cap site 6	Peaks from the cap site 7	View of Aster Lake from the cap site	Late afternoon look at Fossil Falls
Evening view of Hidden Lake	The Cap Site and Cairn

A virtual cache is a cache that exists in a form of a location. Depending on the cache "hider," a virtual cache could be to answer a question about a location, an interesting spot, a task, etc. The reward for these caches is the location itself and sharing information about your visit.

Because of the nature of these geocaches, you must actually visit the location and acquire the coordinates there before you can post. In addition, although many locations are interesting, a virtual cache should be out of the ordinary enough to warrant logging a visit.

Virtuals are now considered waymarks on Waymarking.com.

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