Find the Bogley Stash

[Mtnseeker1]

Funny how the hard trips are the ones we all hold close and dear around the camp fires.

[BruteForce]

BUMP! Seriously, nobody is going after this? Fun location. I'll be there again mid-January 2013, provided the world doesn't end this month!

[blamkin86]

We are hoping for a trip to the North Wash, from Denver, the weekend before Christmas - likely staying in Green River.

If I can find another interested member of my posse we'll head over and grab and relo the thing down south a bit...

[BruteForce]

Still nobody going after it? Seems I may be heading there again in Feb. Do I need to make this easier for you ladies?

[accadacca]

Still nobody going after it? Seems I may be heading there again in Feb. Do I need to make this easier for you ladies?

Apparently the cold weather has slowed it down BIG TIME.

[blamkin86]

My friends are heading to the area on Feb 16th. I am still on doctors orders not to rap (shoulder nerve damage) so this sounds right up my alley. Feel free to move it before I get there - but please post where you put it so I don't head to the last spot for nutt'n!

Thanks!

[blamkin86]

So, question - the original challenge said to relo the box "anywhere."

Is relocating to somewhere in Colorado bad form? I don't see any time spent in colorado yet.

I have a good place picked out in Utah, so I don't care either way - but I'm from Colorado and could move the thing east a few hours.

Thoughts?

[accadacca]

So, question - the original challenge said to relo the box "anywhere."

Is relocating to somewhere in Colorado bad form? I don't see any time spent in colorado yet.

I have a good place picked out in Utah, so I don't care either way - but I'm from Colorado and could move the thing east a few hours.

Thoughts?

Anywhere dude. Totally up to you.

[blamkin86]

Ok I am in posession of the stash. It was an epic adventure including getting my truck stuck in a three foot snow drift and hiking through calf deep snow sometimes hip deep for about 6 miles. I'll post more when I get home Monday night. I'm thinking I will leave it here in Moab so it gets found soon. Fantastic location thanks to whoever dropped it off before me.

[BruteForce]

Ok I am in posession of the stash. It was an epic adventure including getting my truck stuck in a three foot snow drift and hiking through calf deep snow sometimes hip deep for about 6 miles. I'll post more when I get home Monday night. I'm thinking I will leave it here in Moab so it gets found soon. Fantastic location thanks to whoever dropped it off before me.

I placed it there. You hiked into the Devils Racetrack?

[blamkin86]

Yep. I'll post pix and a TR this week. It was an adventure for sure.

[blamkin86]

Failure With the Bogley Stash, Feb 16th 2013.

Long story short, my shoulder is jacked up, but my Wife and friends are headed to Moab for canyoneering (Granary) Feb 15th, and I’m not sitting at home. What to do, since I’m on Doc’s Orders not to rap? Why, bag the Bogley Stash, what else!?!

The week before, I brought up Google Earth, and took a good look around to see what I was getting into. I had a pretty clear picture in my mind, that I was going to be hiking up a trail, then some searching for the exact spot of The Stash.

Saturday morning the Sleep Inn of Moab alarm goes off at 5:15, and, after delicious hotel oatmeal, my Wife and I head off to the Jug Handle Arch trail head, to meet the posse. Just before 7, TEN of us knuckleheads pile into the cab (and bed) of my 4 by Chevy, and head up some not-so-great looking road to the drop off for Granary.

So, the road has some snow on it, big deal. However, once we drive under a large rock, we encounter an uphill section with about 6 inches of snow, covering a whole lot of ice. About a hundred feet in, the truck starts slipping, and we slide all the way back down to the large rock. No harm no foul - no one ejected - good news. Being the highly-skilled semi-professional “race car” driver, I gather my breath, stand on the turbo diesel duramax ninja kung-fu power, and up we go. We make it this time, but it was actually quite the white knuckle ride. I drop them off at the trail head, and away I go towards The Swell.

Along the way from Moab, I brainlessly drive past Green River without filling up. Believe it or not, this error turned out to be quite fortuitous...

I dive off exit 131 from I70, and head over towards the underpass I’d scoped out on Google Earth. At the first big bend to the south on the gravel road, two Sheriff’s Deputies have the road blocked. As I approach, they split and pull over to one side. I stop and chat with the guys (My sister is a former officer).

After explaining what I’m up to, and what a GeoCache is, one of the nice uniformed officers, in a joking tone says, “It’s February. What the hell are you doing out here?” He explains he’s seen quite a few cars that morning. He says the main roads to the south are covered in 4-6 inches of snow, but there’s nothing really all that bad until you start going West. Which of course I am.

I trickle along, somewhat worried about the snow. I pull out my wife’s GPS and it appears I’ve chosen somewhat wisely and am on the correct route. At this point, I bother to check my fuel gauge, and notice I have about 6 gallons of diesel left, in a truck that gets about 15 off road.



[FONT=Arial]This image is where I was hoping to turn and head under I70. On this turnout, there was well over a foot of snow.It looked like someone had tried to enter here, but gotten stuck, shovelled out, and gave up and walked. Not confidence inspiring - so I decide to try a different way instead. I go down the road a little, and turn into a section of road that hasn’t been travelled. Mistake. About 50 yards in, I hit a 3+ feet deep snow bank, and the truck comes to a stop. Great. It’s 11 am, I’m 10 miles from the I70 exit, and my truck is stuck, with about

[Quick]

Bummer. Just spent the long weekend down in Moab. Drove out of Moab about 5 minutes ago.... Would've loved to snag it! Oh well. A great excuse to come back down in a week or two if no one beats us to it!

[BruteForce]

Bummer. Just spent the long weekend down in Moab. Drove out of Moab about 5 minutes ago.... Would've loved to snag it! Oh well. A great excuse to come back down in a week or two if no one beats us to it!

He already has the container, just hasn't finished the tale. Staging from I-70, that'd be a hell of a hike to the location where I placed the container.. Some good climbs, sand, rocks! On second thought, maybe easier on foot than on machine!

[blamkin86]

(Continued from the Failure story above)

So, I’m truck’n down I70, back towards the exact same place I was an hour or so earlier. This time I’m armed with the knowledge that a), I was in the right place last time, and b) I need to veer to the west before heading up to the top of some mesa on a trail, where the stash is (hopefully) located.

I dive off at exit 131 again, head south and west and... hey, there’s a sign with a map.



Knowledge is power. The red line across the map is I70. If you look at the left-most triangle, that’s the I70 underpass I took earlier in the day. If you look just below that triangle, the yellow dot is where I parked my truck and started my previous attempt. If you look just above that triangle, that yellow dot is where I gave up, turned around, and headed back to the truck.

This time, I know I need to somehow, in the snow, find the trail marked 641. According to my calculations and help from my wifes’ GPS, the stash is somewhere above that same black 641 box on the map.

I also need to be a little smarter this time. I do a time check. I do distance check between my last waypoint and the stash - again 3 miles. Bad. Remember there’s a lot of snow - crusty snow that’s very slow hiking - think 1MPH or so.

I look at the clock, add up the time, add, oh, half hour for searching for the box. I’m not even back to the truck ‘til 6pm, plus the drive back to Moab. I’m supposed to be back by 6. They’re supposed to worry at 9.

I now realize, that somehow, I have to get closer in the truck. I’m pretty sure that’s not going to be possible, but I have to figure out something - or I’m staring at an 8 mile hike, starting at 12:45PM, through the snow. Without snowshoes.

I arrive at the site of the first picture again. I decide, this time, I’ll do the old scout trick. Go a little, get out and see how far I can safely go, get out again, over and over.

With about an hour’s scout/plow driving, I make it all the way past Dutchmans’ arch, up to where 641 (AKA Devil’s Racetrack) starts going uphill hard. I saved myself quite some time - I park the truck “off road” as well as I can, and get packed for the now 2.25 mile hike (as the crow flies).



This is what my “trail” looks like. Sometimes I could see the “trail” markers, sometimes I couldn’t. Almost the entire way was busting through 6-12 inches of crusty, then damp snow. At one point, I actually was hip deep in snow, but I just was not going to turn around.

After, I don’t know, a couple hours of hiking, I started recognizing the terrain from the pictures posted here. I started watching the GPS closely, and got within 80 feet before my distance started going back up - I knew I had the thing now.

I walked a little back down the trail, then over to the cliff side. The GPS beeped (signaling my arrival). I set down my camera on the first rock and...



Found it. Staring back at me from that crack to the right of my camera.

Somehow, I have absolutely no idea how, I had Cell Signal at that moment. I texted my wife with my success, and told her not to worry if I was an hour or so late. I also gave more details about where I was, how I got there, etc. I didn’t expect a response, as it was about 3pm and I knew they were still negotiating Granary canyon.

I had a couple snacks, and looked through the box. I forgot to take a picture of myself wearing the shirt, because a) My fancy camera died on this hike and b) I don’t have any idea how to take a delayed pic with an iPhone.

In any case, all I had to do now was hike back (what turned out to be) 3 miles to my truck, get through the sketchy snowy parts I’d already completed, and drive to Moab. This last picture of the adventure is me getting back to I70 in the truck.



So, the crew is supposed to be done at 5:30. I don’t have any texts from anyone, and I arrive back at the Jug Handle Arch parking lot at 6:30. All the cars are there, which is good, since that means no one came out and went for help. I relax, put back the seat, and watch the sky get darker.

About 6:45, I see headlights coming off the face of the rocks behind me. I suit up again, and head off to the canyon exit to help out. I scramble up to the end of the last drop, and help get everyone off the mountain, and we are out of there about 8pm.

We sidle over to Pasta Jays, hoping they’ll serve our cold wet asses and not be closed. Luckily for us, we have a great wait staff who agree to stay late and serve us - and the food is terrific as always. We arrive back at Sleep Inn about 10:15pm.



Where’s the stash located? I’ll say I picked a “Moab Friendly” location, in hopes that someone would bag it a lot more quickly this time. I absolutely LOVED the location, but it really was more suited for spring/summer/fall - winter was just too hard with the snow and I can see why it sat there for awhile.

[BruteForce]

Wow! I can't believe you hoofed into this location. ON an ATV, it's an arduous ride. You hiked in the exactly route I would normally ATV into. You're a stud, to be sure. Thanks for finding and relocating. I'm going to be in the Goblin Valley area in a week (pretty close to Moab). If you put it near enough, I may find an relocate a third time!

[blamkin86]

See Below...

[blamkin86]

(Mods - I'm not sure why my uploads are getting resized oddly... If there's something I can do to fix this, please let me know).

Stash Location: N 38 50.160 W 109 45.516



WARNING: The road leading to this stash was VERY muddy when I dropped off the box. If you feel your vehicle or you cannot negotiate the sticky mud, PLEASE park and walk the short distance to the trail head.

DO NOT GET STUCK IN THE MUD AND BLAME ME. Come back another time if you feel it's too muddy. Use your own judgement.

In normal times, the road is just another Moab dirt gravel road. Right now, with all the snow they've had in the area, it's a mud pit. I made it in my truck, just fine. Several other vehicles came through while I was placing the stash. You have been warned.



OK, for those still reading. I recommend going "as the crow flies" up the tall rock outcropping pictured below. By doing so, you get to do some fun (easy non-technical), climbing, stemming, and other fun stuff. While you can go around the backside and come up from behind, you're missing part of the flavor of the trip. Also, unlike the last stash location, only part of the trip is on trail. For some of the trip, you are free to walk about the back country.






Good Luck!








And, it's under this rock!

[accadacca]

Very cool @blamkin86. You concurred in the end! The pictures look a little small but work just fine. Maybe @Sombeech will have some advice?

Thanks for re-stashing it too on the same weekend. Extra points!

[BruteForce]

I am going to be a mere 20-30 miles from the new stash location next weekend. So tempting to grab it yet again!..

But alas, I think I'll let somebody else grab it this go around.