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tommy750 Posts: 1049
12/29/2017
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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 Posts: 602
12/29/2017
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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 Posts: 1049
12/29/2017
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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 Posts: 602
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 Posts: 668
12/31/2017
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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 Posts: 1049
12/31/2017
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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 
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Britain Posts: 602
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 Posts: 1049
12/31/2017
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Britain wrote:
Someone dragging it around?
I was thinking Mother Nature but who knows.
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Britain Posts: 602
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 Posts: 911
12/31/2017
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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 Posts: 1049
1/3/2018
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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 Posts: 368
1/7/2018
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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 Posts: 1049
1/8/2018
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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 Posts: 602
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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Britain Posts: 602
1/8/2018
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Nevermind your picture from the BM tells all.
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tekewin Posts: 368
1/8/2018
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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 Posts: 602
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 Posts: 1049
1/16/2018
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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
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Britain Posts: 602
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
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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Britain Posts: 602
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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Britain Posts: 602
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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