<span id="LongDescription"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="font-weight: bold;">When looking for the cache you don't need to go too close to the cliff so stay back and be careful with the kids.</span><br><br>Sounds to me like it might be at the top of cliffs.
<br></font></span><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 8/4/06, <b class="gmail_sendername">Roping The Wind</b> <<a href="mailto:arizcowboy@hotmail.com">arizcowboy@hotmail.com</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<br>Well, this is the cache that I am refering to the climb to...GCXD8W. This<br>cache is on top of Oak Creek Canyon (on the east side, about straight up<br>from West Fork trailhead... which is just up the road from Slide Rock).
<br>There is 1000' feet of elevation gain in less than 1/4 miles (0.23 to be<br>exact, from the closest spot on highway 89A). To get to the cache, you can<br>drive in on 4x4 and quad roads off of I-17. Of course, that requires alot of
<br>miles of driving alot of miles south on 179 and then driving back north on<br>I-17. Plus, I need a good off roadable vehicle to get back there (possibly,<br>so says the cache page). Why spend all that money in $3 a gallon gas and
<br>help support the record profits the oil companies are enjoying (at our<br>expense) when I can drive a short 10 minute drive up the road from my house<br>and park less than 1/4 mile away and hike to this cache? It saves money in
<br>gas, saves wear and tear on the truck and gives me some much needed<br>exercise! :) Anyways, I was planning on going for the first find on this<br>cache a few days ago when it posted. I was going to drive up the road and
<br>scope it out and if it looked doable, make the climb to the cache. Well,<br>that day was the day of the mudslides in Oak Creek Canyon (OCC) and the<br>highway was closed. Well, that day or the next... someone else got the first
<br>find by taking quads into the cache from on top by I-17. :(<br><br>Anyways, I might have answered my question with this cache.... GCXCMM. I<br>just got the first find on it a couple of days ago. It is an 840 foot climb
<br>in 0.30 miles. But really it is about 700 plus feet of climbing in 0.19<br>miles, where the climb really starts. It was steep! I dont think I have<br>climbed a slope that steep, other than actually climbing rocks almost
<br>straight up! The angle of attack on this cache, as per the profile on<br>mapsource software, is pretty consistant with the angle of attack for<br>GCXD8W. Except, there is a couple hundred more feet of elevation for this
<br>cache than there was for GCXCMM.<br><br>The vegetation in OCC is mostly pine trees in the area where I would have to<br>climb it. The lower part of the canyon is not very hiker friendly if you<br>arent on a trail. It is very thick in manzanita bushes and catclaw and
<br>stuff. However, the upper part of the canyon is more navigable off trail. I<br>still hope to try and make the climb up from the bottom for GCXD8W sometime<br>soon. That is, at least go out and take a look at it and see if it is even
<br>doable.<br><br>Scott<br>Team Ropingthewind<br><br><br>____________________________________________________________<br>Az-Geocaching mailing list <a href="mailto:listserv@azgeocaching.com">listserv@azgeocaching.com</a>
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