4/25/2016 Topic: Moving to the desert MarkG	Hey All - Just signed up on the forum and thought I should say hello. I've been checking out the great trip reports and info here for a long time. Now that I'll be moving to Borrego Springs in June (yeah, great time to move to the desert!) I figured it was time to become "official". Single guy, late 50s, kinda solitary but not unfriendly. Have been living in Northern Cal (Sacramento and Bay Area) for 3 decades but I grew up in San Diego/El Cajon and have been going to Anza-Borrego since Boy Scout camp outs. If anyone noticed a gold-colored 2-door Wrangler about 3/4 way up Pinyon Wash back in mid-February, that was me. Had a great time camping there for a week and hiking all over the wash, Harper Flat, the bajada and not quite all the way up Sunset Mountain. I love hiking, camping, backpacking and photography. I like both mountains and desert equally - Eastern Sierras, Trinity Alps, Death Valley and of course Anza-Borrego. Really looking forward to throwing on the backpack and just heading out right from my front door in the Deep Well area! Mark
4/27/2016 Topic: Moving to the desert MarkG	Thanks to both for the welcomes! I love the heat and don't even think about A/C until it gets about 95. I was reading some posts elsewhere from folks who also moved to Borrego in June. Sounds like it's a great time to start out on My Big Desert Adventure! Hard to miss that pink buggy, I imagine! I'll be sure to wave!
4/30/2016 Topic: Moving to the desert MarkG	Hey, thanks for the hello rockhopper. Yes, I'm definitely looking forward to seeing the stars at night! I often sleep lightly in a sleeping bag and I tend to wake up a few times during the night. My tent has a mesh top and when I was in Pinyon Wash in February I got accustomed to judging what time it was by observing how far the Big Dipper had rotated around the North Star. I kinda liked that! My first trip to ABDSP was... oh, it must have been 1970 when I was 11. I plan to live in Borrego Springs at least until I can't live on my own anymore and I hope to be finding new corners of that beautiful desert until the day they bury me. Well, just before the day they bury me, I guess!
2/11/2017 Topic: Spring at Cottonwoods/Nicholias Cyn/Upr Rockhouse? MarkG	Hi All - I'm planning a 6-day backpacking trip through Rockhouse Valley for next week and I'm hoping someone might be able to give me some tips for finding the spring that's near the Cottonwood Camp at the upper Rockhouse ruins. From what I can tell it's down in the canyon from the bench. The USGS map puts it on the west side of the canyon but Schad describes it as "200 yards east of the main canyon in a tributary ravine". The Lindsays also describe it on the east side. I'm guessing it's somewhere around 33.492784,-116.41761. Am I close? With all the recent rains and patches of snow still on Toro Peak I'm thinking it should be pretty reliable. Thoughts? Also how much can I count on Toro Spring? Any info would be much appreciated. Thanks! Mark
2/11/2017 Topic: Spring at Cottonwoods/Nicholias Cyn/Upr Rockhouse? MarkG	Thanks for the info and the heads-up Daren! I enjoyed the photos from your October, 2012 trip too!
2/11/2017 Topic: Spring at Cottonwoods/Nicholias Cyn/Upr Rockhouse? MarkG	Thanks rockhopper. I haven't hiked up the canyon before but I have been out to the end of the road with my Wrangler. I hiked the road a couple of weeks ago, down from Jackass Flat to the Butler Canyon junction and it's in relatively decent shape. The plan is to camp near the lower rockhouses the first night. Next day I was going to go back to the car to port a 5-gal water supply back up and cache it by the lower rockhouses. Maybe I don't need to do that? I'm a wimp when it comes to betting on a source of water. Next day's plan is head to the camp at Cottonwood Bench and hang out there for a couple days, assuming a sufficient water source, and day-hike the area, probably over toward Toro Spring. Leaving there I'll head back to the lower rockhouses via the Santa Rosa native village site, to pick up my water cache and then back down the canyon and home on Day 6. If for some reason I don't get water at Cottonwood, I'll return directly to the lower rockhouses the next day and then day-hike to the Santa Rosa site the following day.
2/11/2017 Topic: Spring at Cottonwoods/Nicholias Cyn/Upr Rockhouse? MarkG	I'll be carrying my 6-liter dromedary and yes, that should last for a couple days. Maybe I will re-think the trek back to the car on Day 2 for water.
5/24/2017 Topic: Hapaha or Hahapa Flat? MarkG	It always bugs me to see the name showing up different ways on different maps! The state park sign as you enter the flat from Fish Creek says Hapaha. Curious if there's any consensus which is right and which is wrong?
5/25/2017 Topic: Hapaha or Hahapa Flat? MarkG	The Wilderness Press "Anza-Borrego Desert Region" map (the one that comes in the Lindays' guide book and is also sold by itself in lots of places) shows it as Hahapa. I have two, both 2006 copyrights, most recent is a 2014 3rd printing, and they're both the same. I think I've seen that spelling elsewhere too but don't recall specifically where now.
5/25/2017 Topic: Hapaha or Hahapa Flat? MarkG	Ahh... Indeed I see now that the rest of the book uses the correct spelling. Probably just a typesetter's error on the map.
5/28/2017 Topic: Coyote Mountain crazy wind MarkG	It was definitely windy out here on Friday! I've found the wind predictions on NOAA to be reasonably trustworthy and worth checking before planning a hike. But the wind forecast only seems to go about 3 days out. Here's what it looked like up on Coyote Mountain back in March when the flowers were in bloom:
5/29/2017 Topic: Coyote Mountain crazy wind MarkG	The winds can vary a lot depending on where you are in the valley. I live in the Deep Well area (near the junction of Yaqui Pass and Borrego Springs Roads) and it's usually a lot windier here than in town. I've left home with a 40mph wind blowing to go to the market and over there it's barely more than a pleasant breeze. A fun alternate way down Coyote Mountain is to hike down the crest of the ridge running east down to Clark Valley. Sounds like it would be much further to get back to your car but it only adds about 1.5 miles. Some really dramatic views into the canyon south of the ridge. A few times it'll look like the ridge ahead of you is about to drop off into space but just keep going. When you get closer to it you'll see it's not insanely steep. You'll pick up a faint trail now and then but it's hard to go wrong even without it. The ridge falls off almost straight down to your left and right so you can only go forward!
1/14/2018 Topic: Bucksnort Area Backpacking MarkG	I'm looking at possibilities for a week-long backpacking trip in February and would like to check out the Bucksnort Mountain area, something around the upper reaches of Cougar, Sheep or Salvador Canyon that I could hike into from Lost Valley Road. Does anyone know of any reliable water sources in that area? The Bucksnort Mountain Quadrangle shows an unnamed spring at the bottom, at the top end of Sheep Canyon and there's certainly an outcropping of trees and plants there in Google Earth but I know that doesn't mean you'll find water. Any info, thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated! Mark
1/14/2018 Topic: Bucksnort Area Backpacking MarkG	Thanks DH. I can comment about Boulder Alley as I was just in Collins Valley yesterday. It was graded in 2017 and it's nothing now. You could get through with a Subaru. In fact I left Collins Valley because there were too many people out there. But the trip I'm looking to make would be hiking in from the top, Lost Valley Road, and not necessarily descending into the canyons beyond where I might find water. Mostly I want to explore the area above the canyons.
1/15/2018 Topic: Bucksnort Area Backpacking MarkG	Thanks guys, that's helpful info. Maybe I'll make an exploratory day hike to the Sheep Canyon spring area to check it out before I bet my life on it. For the backpacking trip, much will probably depend on how much it rains between now and February.
1/15/2018 Topic: Bucksnort Area Backpacking MarkG	Well I went out there today to have a look and check out the spring. I might not have gone down far enough but I only found a few small pools and a lot of damp sand. I spotted a gate on the road in Google Earth and planned to park there. That would have made it just a 1.5 mile hike to the spring. But I didn't see the gate a mile and a half earlier on the road (because it was open the day LANDSAT flew over). That made my hike a bit longer than I had planned and so I didn't go bush-whacking way down to the bottom end of where the trees grow. Might be more water down lower. The terrain here is probably a bit more rugged than I want for a backpacking trip. Still it sure was a nice day out there having lunch on a big rock overlooking the spring with the Santa Rosas off in the distance.
1/17/2018 Topic: Bucksnort Area Backpacking MarkG	Thanks Jim. That area might end up being the spot though I was hoping to find something a bit more east. But then you run into the Boy Scout property (as I discovered last weekend). Wonder if they ever permit hikers to cross over to get to the state park? Maybe I will give them a call to see!
1/28/2018 Topic: Yaqui Hills rock shelter MarkG	I went for a small, 2-balloon day hike in the Yaqui Hills today and came across this neat little one-man rock shelter. Since I live in Borrego Springs and I can hike these hills right from my front door I tend to pass them over too often, looking for more of a "get-away" place to hike. But really there are a lot of little treasures to be found in these hills and I don't think I've ever run into another hiker out there. edited by MarkG on 1/28/2018
1/29/2018 Topic: Hiking out of Los Coyotes Indian Reservation MarkG	I know it has said in the FAQ on their website for some time that the only designated trail is to Hot Springs Mountain http://www.loscoyotestribe.com/faq/
2/4/2018 Topic: Yaqui Hills rock shelter MarkG	It's just big enough for a person to sit in it cross-legged or with their knees up. It's not obvious from the angle of the photo but there's an opening, on the right side to walk into it. That's the side that's typically downwind so it seemed to make sense to me as a wind shelter.
2/7/2018 Topic: Rock Oven? More Interesting Finds in the Desert... MarkG	Was rummaging through some photos I never did anything with and I came across these from a trip last year up to cottonwoods bench - found a little rock cubby. It looked too purposeful to have just happened by nature but then it could have been the hikers from the week before that laid the "door" where it was! No sign that fires were made inside it but maybe it would get warm in there with the summer sun beating down on it. This was in the hills southwest of the upper rockhouses heading toward Nicholias Canyon. A little rock "oven": A bit closer look: With the "door" propped open:
2/8/2018 Topic: Rock Oven? More Interesting Finds in the Desert... MarkG	Yeah, probably right. I had the impression that it didn't quite look historic but not entirely modern either. Perhaps it has seen many different uses over time... Still an interesting little find out there.

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