Camels Prairie Stash (GC25) birthday 6-17-2017

[+HockeyHiker19]

My husband, Papa EGTH, and I are planning to visit Camels Prairie Stash on its birthday, Saturday, June 17, this year and we were hoping that we could get a group of cachers together to make the journey from nearby civilization to the cache together via convoy or carpool or both. We live in California and plan to be in the vicinity of GC25 the night before, though we haven't reserved a hotel or finalized any travel plans just yet. I hope this post will plant a seed amongst other cachers planning to visit the cache this year. Visiting an old, remote cache in a group would be a lot of fun (and safer) than on our own. Feedback is appreciated!

[+The Jester]

That one has been on my list for years, but timing just hasn't worked. I was hoping to get to it this year and this might be the way/time to do it. We'd be in our trailer. The Inn at Priest Lake (Coolin) has RV sites and looks like the closest RV park to the cache. There are RV parks near Newport, WA or Sandpoint, ID also.

[+crs98]

My husband, Papa EGTH, and I are planning to visit Camels Prairie Stash on its birthday, Saturday, June 17, this year and we were hoping that we could get a group of cachers together to make the journey from nearby civilization to the cache together via convoy or carpool or both. We live in California and plan to be in the vicinity of GC25 the night before, though we haven't reserved a hotel or finalized any travel plans just yet. I hope this post will plant a seed amongst other cachers planning to visit the cache this year. Visiting an old, remote cache in a group would be a lot of fun (and safer) than on our own. Feedback is appreciated!

 

I have been to GC25 and figured I would add a couple of words of advice.

 

(1) As stated in the description, the roads up to the area were pretty good and passable by pretty much any car until the last 1.25 miles which would be iffy in non-4WD transportation. Those roads are off pavement, but were good solid dirt roads when I was there a few years ago and you should be able to drive up that far in pretty much anything that isn't ready to fall to pieces.

 

(2) The snowpack in the Idaho high country often melts out at around that date. I don't know whether or not any of the roads would be under snow in most years (let alone this year in particular), but it is something you should at least check into. I would hate to have you make the trip up from CA only to find that the dirt roads are impassable because of snow. The cache elevation is over 5000 feet high if I remember correctly. Check with the CO to get his opinion on whether or not the cache will be something you can drive up to in mid-June.

 

(3) There will be limited (at best) and likely no cell phone reception in this area. If you are a phone cacher or use your phone for routing to caches, you need to download maps, etc. before you head up to the cache.

 

--Cliff (crs98)

[+GeoTrekker26]

You remember correctly, Google Earth shows the elevation to be 5840' at GZ.

[+crs98]

Also, you mentioned safety as a concern. Other than the roads being snowy, the only other real concern I can think of would be for wildlife. This is bear country - we saw very fresh bear scat while walking up the last little bit of the road to the cache site. If I had to guess, I'd say we probably scared the bear off with our approach. Honestly, you are extremely unlikely to see bears or cougars while in the area - they tend to shy away from human contact at all costs. The one caveat would be that you really don't want to get in between a mother bear and her cubs. Cubs may not have enough training or instinct to stay away from humans.

 

As long as the roads are in good shape, I wouldn't worry about a pair of people going up to this area even if you don't manage to wrangle up anyone else into accompanying you. Having said that, it's always more fun to cache with other people, so I do hope you get some takers on the dates you are looking at.

[+HockeyHiker19]

Thanks for the feedback! We just added a 3rd cacher to our party and we're planning to rent a 4wd vehicle for the trip. We understand that this winter may have more snow than usual in mid-June, if the weather up there is anything like what our local Sierra has received so far. I may still have a bear (dinner) bell from when I visited Glacier NP years ago and I can wear that on my pack if necessary. I'm usually more concerned about crossing paths with or being stalked by cougars, but hopefully a group of 3 would make that less likely. We are also planning to go after GC26 and GC27 on this trip and since GC27 is deep in the forest, we'll have to be mindful of weather and forest creatures there as well.

 

We're not strangers to old cache hunts failing due to weather. The 3 of us had taken a 10-day trip to the Great Lakes last summer with one of our targets being Power Island (GC35) near Traverse City, MI. We had a boat rental all lined up, but 90 minutes before we were to pick up the boat, our reservation was cancelled due to very high winds on the bay. The winds were in effect the next day, also, and we had to leave without getting to the island to keep to our itinerary. Papa EGTH and I did return later that summer and were able to get the cache after all.

 

As we get closer to the trip date, I will post a note on GC25's page to see if others will try to join us for the final journey to GZ. Safety (and fun) in numbers!

 

We use Garmin Oregons for caching, rarely phones, so reception for caching won't be an issue. I also have a SPOT Messenger for emergencies that I would bring along in case we get into trouble.

[+HockeyHiker19]

I think this thread fell off the map since there haven't been any comments since January and the cache's birthday is fast approaching. We are still coming to the area as planned and hope that other cachers will join us.

[+lilgeoderik]

This one's been on my list for a while. Would like to do it with a group.

[+HockeyHiker19]

Our meet and greet on June 16 has just published for anyone who would like to meet up with us and strategize the trip to GC25 on June 17!

 

https://coord.info/GC74WAE