The Road to Potters Pond – GC3B

I have been looking at travelling to this cache for some time now. I do believe there are only 3 caches left in the USA/Canada that were placed in August 2000. Two of these caches are in Eastern USA and the third is in Utah.
If one wants to fill their JASMIR Chart then one of these 3 caches will be needed.

The problem with this cache is it is located about 2790 m (9100 ft.) above sea level so snow poses a problem for the major part of the year.

If one travels to this cache too early there is a locked gate about 12 km (8 miles) before the cache. One just has to read the logs to see see the problems many have had trying to get to the starting point for the cache.

I had studied this cache for some time after reading many logs for the last year. I also looked at the map that BlueRajah the Reviewer for the area posted and then the satellite maps as well.
Many talked about taking 2 hours to get to the cache and bushwhacking to the cache.
With the map above I projected it onto a Satellite map and had my way there.

The next problem was when we would do this cache. There had been talk of late September early October when it might be cooler.

It was decided that because of one of the party had to work we could only afford 5 days to drive from Vancouver to Potters Pond return. It was doable we thought.

I learned that there was another caching couple of Tugman and Wifey who have been wanting to do this cache as well and were looking at doing it a week or two after us. It was soon put together that we would team up and do it together. The plan was to leave Saturday morning and return Wednesday at about dinner.

The four of us left early Saturday morning and the stop for the night would be at Mountain Home, Idaho. Part of the problem for this trip would be the temperatures about 38- 41 C.
After crossing the Canada/USA border we headed south to the 405 before taking it and starting our trip east. Along the way we stopped to grab a cache or two.

It was a good thing that we decided and agreed that we would stay in Mountain Home, Idaho and the Mountain Home Inn.
We got there and it was HOT!…..
We checked into the Hotel and then headed out for dinner and did several caches after dinner before retiring for the night.

The next morning we on the road by 8 AM where the plan was to stop briefly in Twin Falls at the Bridge going over the Snake River. I can not stress this that this is worth the stop.

A note here that you can click on any of the following photos to see a larger version of it.

There is a walkway under the bride offering great views of the Snake River. On the east side it also offers a view of the dirt pile that Evil Knievel used when he jumped the Snake River.

The pictures posted here do not do this justice.

We also went down below to do the Virtual cache Centennial Waterfront Park and have a different view of the bridge.

From here we were soon back on the road to Nephi Utah.

Along the way we would make several more stops for caches and fuel.

Arriving in Nephi we soon found Motel 6 which we had booked before we left for two nights.
I have to say this Motel 6 isn’t your typical Motel 6 because you enter the rooms from the inside.
The first indication there might be a problem was all the old beds piled up in back of the parking lot. The next was after we checked in was the fact we learned the Wi-Fi wasn’t available in the room. Next was the fact we had a renovated room that was only partially painted. Tugman and Wifey had a fridge and Microwave and we didn’t.
I would avoid this Motel 6 till they get it done.

We went to Denny’s for dinner and forgot the fact that one can’t get a beer in this state in Denny’s.

After dinner we went out to do some letterbox caches. There is a power trail in the area with about 250 LetterBox caches. One of the caches was a really neat Virtual called DAUGHTERS OF THE UTAH PIONEERS IN NEPHI CACHE

This was followed by another virtual called Old Mill Park Cache

On Monday morning we left the hotel about 630 AM knowing that it would be about a 90 minute driver to Potters Pond.

We pointed the Escape east on Highway 132 to Moroni and onto 116 to Mount Pleasant where we joined 89 north to Fairview. Once at Fairview we joined Canyon Road ( Highway 31) around. When you approach State Route 264, keep right towards the Klondike cache.
When you get to this cache What’s a Graben? then turn right. This is Millers Flat Road. This road is drive-able in the family car and is also on Google Street view.
I am going to tell you now DO NOT take Skyline Road which looks to be shorter and quicker but this road soon changes and turns to a huge mud pit if there has been any rain.

Arriving at Potters Pond some 80 minutes after we left we stopped at the bathrooms and went looking for the infamous campsite 19. When we arrived 19 had two trailers in it so we parked at the trail head. The GPS indicated that we were about 320 m away from the cache but we read where it had taken some over 2 hours to travel this distance.
We prepared to leave each spraying a good amount of bug juice on each other. The trail was well marked here and we followed it and soon found the infamous log one has to cross. Both Carol and Marg didn’t want to cross the log so Tugman had brought a pair of gumboots along they would use to cross the creek.
Once across we headed off through the clearing and did the letterbox cache and then continued through the clearing and up the mountain. The boots were stored nearby for the return trip.
While we found the trail up and stayed on it I took a track of it and posted it to Open Street maps as well as a photo of it here.

Upon getting close to the cache we stopped on a log to rest for the last push to the cache. It was soon discovered that the cache was right where we were resting. While yes the coordinates are out one has to remember this cache was placed 15 years with an older model GPS.

From the time we left the Escape to the time we located the cache was about 50 minutes.

It should be noted that the cache height above sea level should be taken into account when doing this. Nephi is slightly over 5,000 feet up and the affects of the lack of O2 is noticeable for most. Make sure you take water!

After opening up the cache one of the first things to pop out was a can of bug spray. Very appropriate we thought.

The trip back down to the Escape took us about 25 minutes.

From here it was back to Nephi and caching along the way doing several Earthcaches, Traditional caches and Letterbox caches.

We decided to concentrate on LetterBox caches string at this cache. This road is in good shape and a car could drive it. While do a string of the letterbox caches we had to cut our trip short due to a Thunder and Lighting storm approaching us. We could start to feel the rain and really didn’t want to get caught out here in this.
Arriving back at the Motel we had logged about 100 caches for the day so far including Potters Pond!
We got cleaned up and headed for dinner across the street.
After dinner we did some more caches north of town finishing up the day with about 115 caches.

On Tuesday morning we started the trip back home with a stop in Salt lake City to do the Virtuals around the Temple. This took us to some very interesting parks. I have to say this is why I love doing these!

This following cache (Gilgal) is one that you would have no idea it was even there unless you had a reason to visit.

It has a lot to do with the Mormon Church and one takes away what they want but the Virtual sure gets you to look.

We stayed in La Grande for the night before proceeding back home today.

There were many more caches along the way home including this view at I Hate I-84, A Nice View cache. It should be noted this is an older cache placed in December 2001.

Arriving back home around 7:00 PM tonight has brought us full circle, driving some 3800 kms in this time.

We completed this trip June 27th to July 1st 2015.

I could not ask for a better group to do this trip with. I thank Carol, Marg and Malcolm for putting up with me.

I would like to also Thank BlueRajah the Reviewer for posting all the information about getting to this cache.