2009-01-24 40 -105

About

The Fort Collins geohash for January 24nd, 2009 was located 21 miles (33.8 km) west of Loveland, CO near Pole Hill Road in Roosevelt National Forest.

Expedition

During my research I found that Pole Hill Road is also Forest Service Road #122, and extends from US 66 on the west to Loveland, CO on the east. I decided to attempt to reach the hashpoint from the east since I don't have a high clearance four wheel drive vehicle that is required for the west end of the road, which is a popular 4x4 trail and due to its elevation probably has more snow on the ground than the east end. There is a seasonal gate on the road about 2 mi (3 km) east of the hashpoint, but even if the gate was closed I was prepared for the hike. So I drove south to Loveland from Fort Collins, and turned west on First street. That turned into Pole Hill Road, and I passed some reservoirs on Bureau of Reclamation land. Just past the last reservoir, and with 6.6 miles (10.6 km) still to go, I was greeted by a large sign that designated the road ahead as private. I pulled off the road and consulted my maps to determine if the road was actually private or if this was a scam put up by some local resident who did not want a bunch of campers and four wheelers tearing down the road in front of his/her house during the summer. Both of my maps showed a high grade dirt road that winds past the reservoirs to a power plant (which is where the seasonal gate was), but I could not determine from the maps if any of the sections were private. I took another look at the road ahead, decided that the road's condition was too good to be a Forest Service road, and turned around to drive home.