I had an exahausting, but great day yesterday. I checked out of the Brown Palace at 11:00 AM and then hit the road to Colorado Springs. I was on my way to my 200th cache - either Treasure of the Abandoned Railroad Tunnels or my backup plan, Son of the Treasure of Abandoned Railroad Tunnels. Both caches are on an abandoned narrow gauge railway - with lots of tunnels and stunning vistas. The railway is located west of Manitou Springs - literally across the highway from the entrance to Cave of the Winds.
Well after much hiking, scrambling, get poked by cactus, and freezing my hands in snow (there's a combination), I struck out on both caches. I have to say, I really went to extreme heights on the Son of Tunnels cache. I scrambled up the rocks to above the tunnel - and the rocks were covered in snow and ice - not the smartest or easiest thing to do while wearing just tennies. Getting down, I had to do a rear end slide the last 10 feet off of sheer rock face 45 degree incline. The entire time I was doing my Mountain Goat thing, I could hear the Ski Boy, in my mind saying, "Stephanie, Get Down. Now!". However, other than a cold wet rear end, some cuts and tears on my hand and some minor bruises, I was fine - but cacheless. sigh...
I wanted to do those two caches in honor of Dad who was the biggest Colorado rail buff ever. Oh well. I've got some simpler ones picked out, that I'm gonna try for tomorrow during a break in the conference.
Here are the obligatory pics:
The view down the interior of the Brown Palace from my room up on the 6th floor.
The view out from the last tunnel into the light.
Atop the tunnel looking way down to the road. The railroad bed is really only about 20 feet down (just can't be seen in this picture). So things aren't nearly as scary as they look in this picture.
7:48:55 PM 
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