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Talk about a trip you took out to Anza Borrego

Carrizo Creek, BM LOST and South Mesa Messages in this topic - RSS

tommy750
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12/29/2017
tommy750
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Thought I'd burn off some Christmas calories and check out a few places I've been meaning to visit mainly stumbling upon while checking out GE. Three streams flow into the Carrizo Valley, Vallecito, Bow Willow and Carrizo. They feed Carrizo Cienaga/Marsh, an area undergoing tamarisk removal with mitigation dollars from Pattern Energy. Headed out Bow Willow Creek and parked near an old well and nearby structure remains possibly the old Bow Willow ranger station. Headed south over a small ridge and came across this recent addition to ABDSP:

Rock Heart by tomteske, on Flickr

On some low lying rises, a few cleared circles, some with small cairns and a few scattered flakes.

Cleared Circles2 by tomteske, on Flickr


Small Cairn2 by tomteske, on Flickr

On the way back, stumbled on this, presumably from one of the homesteaders that carved up parts of Carrizo Valley.

Burns 1960 by tomteske, on Flickr

Ended up finding over a dozen stone posts, some partially completed and others still piles of cobble next to a marker awaiting completion. Couldn't find much history about the homesteaders in this area. The only site I found info on was the stone cabin near the Carrizo Stage Station built by the Graves family of El Cajon per Lindsay.

Burns Stele by tomteske, on Flickr

Headed further downstream past the confluence of the three streams and started toward BM LOST, a great BM name, IMHO. Encountered more cleared circles. Reportedly they're now felt to be some sort of ceremonial prayer site and not "sleeping circles" since many are too small to sleep in.

Cleared Circle by tomteske, on Flickr

Cleared Circles by tomteske, on Flickr

Headed north and made it to BM LOST. One set of recent foot prints was spotted but no register. Here is the view from LOST looking southeast.

View from BM LOST by tomteske, on Flickr

BM LOST by tomteske, on Flickr

Here's the view toward the next stop, South Mesa. Just need to find a suitable finger to ascend.

To the North From BM LOST by tomteske, on Flickr

Wind carved statuettes.

Statuettes by tomteske, on Flickr

Finally on top without too much difficulty.

North of BM LOST by tomteske, on Flickr

Wouldn't say South Mesa is the most picturesque site in Anza Borrego, but it does have some funky stuff.

Concretions by tomteske, on Flickr

Dropped into a tributary of Gert Wash and headed toward a possible old trail spotted on GE. Walked right by BM Gert but forgot to add its location to my gps so maybe next time. Found this this little guy. Feather pattern is kinda neat close up. I know one of you knows what kind of bird this is.

Fallen by tomteske, on Flickr


Plumage by tomteske, on Flickr

Due to my usual late start times, was getting late in the day when I finally came across the trail and still only about half done with the trip.

Ancient Trail by tomteske, on Flickr

Before a sketchy washed out segment, what appears to be a trail cairn

Trail Cairn by tomteske, on Flickr

Came across a nice rock circle but it was right next to a rock square with some sort of cairns on one side, all being kinda weird.

Rock Circle by tomteske, on Flickr

Rock Square by tomteske, on Flickr

On a previous trip out here ( http://www.anzaborrego.net/anzaborrego/forum/topic948-carrizo-badlands.aspx ), I had found this rock square and assumed it was for an old miner's tent.

Southern Square by tomteske, on Flickr

Started thinking about it and remembered I'd spotted another similar rock square on GE miles to the north and wondered if they were related. Drew a NS line through the three and they all were exactly on it. Looked carefully up and down the line and found four more rock squares exactly on the same line. The line extended a little more than four miles and was slightly inside the CIA. Presumably it provided some sort of guidance for aircraft but the small 10 ft X 10 ft squares are difficult to see and possibly they had other enhancements that has since been removed.

Seven Squares by tomteske, on Flickr

Headed back in the dark and followed the Overland Stage Route most of the way. Can't really comment too much on what the marsh looked like but there is some standing water although not too appealing!

Carrizo Creek by tomteske, on Flickr

The barrier fence is up but no signage.

The Fence by tomteske, on Flickr

About 14 miles total and another fun trip in the desert. Enjoy. Tom
edited by tommy750 on 12/29/2017
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Britain
Britain
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12/29/2017
Britain
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That marsh has sort of dried up recently. There was a fire in the area, happened by and some folks were doing some reclaim. Guess the areas closed now. Need to revisit the area. Thanks for sharing.

Edit: So that was a planned burn ?
edited by Britain on 12/29/2017

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tommy750
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12/29/2017
tommy750
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Britain wrote:
That marsh has sort of dried up recently. There was a fire in the area, happened by and some folks were doing some reclaim. Guess the areas closed now. Need to revisit the area. Thanks for sharing.

Edit: So that was a planned burn ?
edited by Britain on 12/29/2017


Here's something from Helix, the company hired by Pattern Energy to plan the mitigation, regarding the prescribed burns. Think most of it is completed. Was dark and couldn't really get a feel for what was changed since the last time out.

Carrizo Marsh Mitigation.pdf by tomteske, on Flickr
edited by tommy750 on 12/29/2017
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Britain
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12/29/2017
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tommy750 wrote:
Britain wrote:
That marsh has sort of dried up recently. There was a fire in the area, happened by and some folks were doing some reclaim. Guess the areas closed now. Need to revisit the area. Thanks for sharing.

Edit: So that was a planned burn ?
edited by Britain on 12/29/2017


Here's something from Helix, the company hired by Pattern Energy to plan the mitigation, regarding the prescribed burns. Think most of it is completed. Was dark and could really get a feel for what was changed since the last time out.
Edit: Yes they burned up pretty much everything there. Closed it all off. After the 7.2 earthquake, most of the swamp water went underground.

Carrizo Marsh Mitigation.pdf by tomteske, on Flickr

I think the burn was in 2013 or 2014. I seen the burn from the freeway. I think I know where the Lost BM is but cannot find anything on it. Spent some time in Red Rock Canyon via South Mesa. Found the Leckie BM by accident. The squares are really interesting. May go look for them.
edited by Britain on 12/29/2017

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rockhopper
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12/31/2017
rockhopper
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Looks like perfect weather for desert exploring. Thanks for the trip report and good investigation of the "squares" alignment.
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tommy750
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12/31/2017
tommy750
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rockhopper wrote:
Looks like perfect weather for desert exploring. Thanks for the trip report and good investigation of the "squares" alignment.




Was indeed nice weather. The squares were an unexpected find which is not super uncommon on GE. Right next to one of them, I noticed this weird vehicle sized anomoly in Deguynos Canyon. It shows up in 2012, is gone by 2014 and reappears 1/4 mile downstream by 10/2016 and remains in the same place in 6/2017. Someone must know what it is since there appears to be lots of tracks up that wash on all the satellite images.

5-27-12 Overview by tomteske, on Flickr

5-27-12 by tomteske, on Flickr

11-8-14 Overview by tomteske, on Flickr

6-30-17 Overview by tomteske, on Flickr

10-13-16 by tomteske, on Flickr

Yeah, I spend a lot of time on GE smile
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Britain
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12/31/2017
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Someone dragging it around? Squares, did you put boots on the ground to find them all?
edited by Britain on 12/31/2017

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tommy750
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12/31/2017
tommy750
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Britain wrote:
Someone dragging it around?


I was thinking Mother Nature but who knows.
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12/31/2017
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Squares seem to run through the old bombing range. Wonder if they were at one time a lookout posts. Seem to be on high ground.

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ziphius
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12/31/2017
ziphius
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Nice detective work on the squares Tom. Thinking the rectangular object is a vehicle that got move around by flash floods? Dead bird is a loggerhead shrike. They are quite uncommon, yet I found a pristine dead one in Inner Pasture a few years ago.

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tommy750
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1/3/2018
tommy750
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ziphius wrote:
Nice detective work on the squares Tom. Thinking the rectangular object is a vehicle that got move around by flash floods? Dead bird is a loggerhead shrike. They are quite uncommon, yet I found a pristine dead one in Inner Pasture a few years ago.


Thanks for the bird info, ziphius. That Deygunos object looks like a vehicle but not sure where it went during that one satellite pass.
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tekewin
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1/7/2018
tekewin
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This was a cool trip. The area around Lost BM looks very interesting. I scanned caltopo around Bow Willow Creek but didn't see Lost on the map. I might have been looking in the wrong place. I noticed the benchmark was placed by the Division of Beaches and Parks. I just saw one of the those marks on top of Sombrero. I guess all of Anza-Borrego is a state park, it's just odd to find those markers in the remote desert.
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tommy750
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1/8/2018
tommy750
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tekewin wrote:
This was a cool trip. The area around Lost BM looks very interesting. I scanned caltopo around Bow Willow Creek but didn't see Lost on the map. I might have been looking in the wrong place. I noticed the benchmark was placed by the Division of Beaches and Parks. I just saw one of the those marks on top of Sombrero. I guess all of Anza-Borrego is a state park, it's just odd to find those markers in the remote desert.



BM Lost is about 1.2 miles north of where Canyon Sin Nombre dumps into Carrizo Creek. Easy hike and nice views. The only other named BMs I know of out in that area are Pelvis, Valle, Leckie and Gert.

https://www.ngs.noaa.gov/CORS-Proxy/NGSDataExplorer/ is a good source of info on BMs and I use it all the time
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Britain
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1/8/2018
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tommy750 wrote:
tekewin wrote:
This was a cool trip. The area around Lost BM looks very interesting. I scanned caltopo around Bow Willow Creek but didn't see Lost on the map. I might have been looking in the wrong place. I noticed the benchmark was placed by the Division of Beaches and Parks. I just saw one of the those marks on top of Sombrero. I guess all of Anza-Borrego is a state park, it's just odd to find those markers in the remote desert.



BM Lost is about 1.2 miles north of where Canyon Sin Nombre dumps into Carrizo Creek. Easy hike and nice views. The only other named BMs I know of out in that area are Pelvis, Valle, Leckie and Gert.

https://www.ngs.noaa.gov/CORS-Proxy/NGSDataExplorer/ is a good source of info on BMs and I use it all the time

Gert is north of the Sin exit into Carrizo. In between?

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1/8/2018
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Nevermind your picture from the BM tells all.

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tekewin
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1/8/2018
tekewin
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tommy750 wrote:

BM Lost is about 1.2 miles north of where Canyon Sin Nombre dumps into Carrizo Creek. Easy hike and nice views. The only other named BMs I know of out in that area are Pelvis, Valle, Leckie and Gert.

https://www.ngs.noaa.gov/CORS-Proxy/NGSDataExplorer/ is a good source of info on BMs and I use it all the time



Thanks! Saved for later.
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Britain
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1/16/2018
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Went in and tagged the Lost BM. Had the great idea of preplanning on cutting through the badland area east of that marker. Go get Gert and see two of the rock squares. Well, the badlands won. Spent 4 hrs in it. Found another Park BM, a pole on top of a high narrow ridge with no way of getting up to it, possible a Geocache. I think if I had my rock hammer at one area a few step hold and I could of went up to the next mesa. They certainly took a swipe at that tamarack. Burned through the center Carrizo, also looks like heavy equipment went in a cut up a bunch. There's plenty more left to be torched.

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tommy750
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1/16/2018
tommy750
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Britain wrote:
Went in and tagged the Lost BM. Had the great idea of preplanning on cutting through the badland area east of that marker. Go get Gert and see two of the rock squares. Well, the badlands won. Spent 4 hrs in it. Found another Park BM, a pole on top of a high narrow ridge with no way of getting up to it, possible a Geocache. I think if I had my rock hammer at one area a few step hold and I could of went up to the next mesa. They certainly took a swipe at that tamarack. Burned through the center Carrizo, also looks like heavy equipment went in a cut up a bunch. There's plenty more left to be torched.



Would have to agree, east of BM Lost definitely puts the bad in badlands. I climbed up to South Mesa and then followed the NE drainage into Gert and followed that due east bypassing all the fun smile
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Britain
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1/16/2018
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tommy750 wrote:
Britain wrote:
Went in and tagged the Lost BM. Had the great idea of preplanning on cutting through the badland area east of that marker. Go get Gert and see two of the rock squares. Well, the badlands won. Spent 4 hrs in it. Found another Park BM, a pole on top of a high narrow ridge with no way of getting up to it, possible a Geocache. I think if I had my rock hammer at one area a few step hold and I could of went up to the next mesa. They certainly took a swipe at that tamarack. Burned through the center Carrizo, also looks like heavy equipment went in a cut up a bunch. There's plenty more left to be torched.



Would have to agree, east of BM Lost definitely puts the bad in badlands. I climbed up to South Mesa and then followed the NE drainage into Gert and followed that due east bypassing all the fun smile


Well. guess I'll go a bit north next and see if I can get up.to South. The same Idea follow the wash down to Gert.

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1/17/2018
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Here's the other marker. It's in the badlands area. About 1/4 east of Lost and a bit south. I took a lot of Photos from lost into the badland. Theres an oddity of the lone pole on the ridge. On the other side which I didn't go there's another pole at the base.


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1/18/2018
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BTY I did find a path up through the badland to south mesa. Theres a pole or something on the top. I think its a marker for the way. For me it opens up South mesa and Red Canyon beyond.

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