Geocaches and Mountain Lions

The Geocache called Georgetown View is near here. The drop off is just ahead!
I walked alone on the mountain trail to find it.
Later, I was told there were mountain lions there!

A lake on the way to Georgetown. There are geocaches here, but not the ones I wanted to discover today.

While there are many geocaches near the mountain camp, and I've found several with hubby before camp started, I took a couple hours this afternoon to find a few more.

   To be clear, there are more geocaches up here than I could EVER find! Enough so that I can be selective and just go after the big ones close to the road.  But, today I went a little further than expected!

   I've been hearing about a town close by called Georgetown that I always expected to be a ski area metro!  It's about five miles from camp, so the Saturn and I headed toward Georgetown. 

  For the record,  it appears to be a quaint little old village with Clear Creek flowing through the center of town in its rush to the east!  Right after I passed the last house in Georgetown with it's one gas station, a bike shop, an art store, a motel, and a formal sign pointing to the entrance onto I-70, the road entered a little park and petered out to become a wide paved bike trail - and my Geocache still lay ahead somewhere down that bike path.

The road becomes a bike path running under the old railroad tracks!
I got out of the car to find my geocache on foot!

   Feeling somewhat apprehensive way out here without a soul in sight, I put my valuables in the trunk, locked the car and headed down (UP) the bike path toward my geocache!  I kept a lookout for large sticks I could use to defend myself should a 'stranger' come along!

   My GPS indicated I was at an altitude of 8,815 feet above sea level.  The path dropped off hundreds of feet to Clear Creek below and the winding road I had come up to this point on. My lungs agreed that I was much higher than my body was accustomed to.  

   But I'm stubborn, you know.  Now I'm watching for big stones I could throw at anyone who came after me. It was an eerie feeling that I had, but I didn't see or hear anyone.  I even figured if I was attacked, I'd take a picture of the person on my iPhone and then throw the phone down the mountain so when its GPS led people to it, they would know what became of me.  But I pushed on up the hill to where the geocache was suppose to be under a big rock.

  I was actually kindof glad to step off the bike path onto a 'grass path' toward an abandoned house all boarded up.  (I'll bet it's haunted.)  According to the GPS, I was very close to my geocache under a rock and extremely close to the edge of the embankment where I could fall to my death if I went to far. (Photos -  No, not of me falling, but of the embankment.)

 I sat on a big rock just to take in and enjoy the breathtaking, majestic, inspiring, view before and all around me!  Looking up, I even saw a thin ribbon of a long, flowing, waterfall ahead! 
The thin waterfall is top center and looks like it's dropping down behind the tall pine tree. I edited it hoping to make it easier to see if you click on the photo. It was grandiose to me! The blue sign is I-70.

The small Rubbermaid Geocache is in here someplace.

The creek I didn't want to fall down in to!  Very cold! That's the road I came up.

The cliff I didn't want to fall off of. That's Georgetown down below (slightly left center)

The path I didn't like, but it lead to the Geocache!
The sunset on the far mountain was beautiful!

Geocache area. The GPS led me right to it.

Whoa!  There it was. I glimpsed the edge of the plastic Rubbermaid container under the rock and pulled it out hoping there were no snakes under there~

 I even found one of Mondou2's white and blue whistles!  (I took it and left other swag.) 

I added a photo of Sandy's buster, and a gold Oak Coin. Buster lives on!!!!
I took a whistle of my favorite geocacher, Mondou2!
He leaves them everywhere all over the world!


On the Georgetown View Geocaching log I wrote, 
"Starcatcher55. I'm 61-years old, and I found this alone!"

Savoring the beauty of the mountains, the old rail road tracks, and enormous boulders scattered around, I started back taking more photos along the way just in case I ran into somebody not nice. It was still hauntingly impressive all around me.

Downhill toward the Saturn is around the last corner!
The car never looked so good!

Headed back to camp.


Arriving back at camp the Camp Director told me that Georgetown has mountain lions.
 Maybe that's why I felt like someone or something was following me.
Georgetown may have mountain lions, but I have guardian angels!

And no. I probably won't do that again.
Right Hubby?
Take Care on the Journey,
~Linda