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Chariot, Oriflamme, Rodriguez MTB Loop

anutami

Posts: 491

10/15/2012

anutami

Posts: 491

Took advantage of the cooling weather last week, and have always wanted to do the Chariot Canyon, Oriflamme to Rodriguez loop on my Mountain Bike. This ended up being about 16 miles and I was huffin and puffin

Parked right off the road and headed up

Gate was Locked! I thought this was always open, and I would have hate to have been a jeep coming from the opposite direction to find it locked. I guess with the fires? they are keeping it locked

Nice gradual climb through the mine district

Pretty crazy to still see water out there this time of year

This is right about when you enter ABDSP going south on Chariot Canyon and would be a cool "boondock site" when the seasonal stream is running

Mandatory Scat photo

on the decent down oriflamme the road is VERY Rough and washed out from the recent rains, but is still accessible by jeep

highlight of the trip was this spot here, can you see what is in the picture?

Radio Collar

and bone fragment

headed up rodriguez canyon

the powder shack?

the trek up canyon was pretty sandy in some areas but is easily accesible by jeep

Nice view from the top looking out north

I ended up returning the radio collar and bone fragment to the park headquarters...
here is the park rangers reply

Thank You for dropping off the collar and bone fragment. What you found was one of the Buck collars that was placed on deer during our Mountain lion study (just concluded) in the park. Our partners at CA Fish and Game, and U.C. Davis who undertook the study, were able to determine the preferred prey species for lions that exist within our boundaries based on the data received. What we retrieve from this collars download will now be entered into that data base.
The bone fragment (vertebrae) is well weathered but looks to be associated with the collar. Likely more fragments will show themselves as the remains continue to weather out of wherever they came they came to rest.

Thank You again for your find, and for returning this important scientific data for use in our on going wildlife studies.

Ranger Steve Bier
Anza Borrego Desert State Park
(760) 767-5311
edited by anutami on 11/29/2012

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