San Mateo trip planning

[Hikin_Jim]

Note to @Sean : This might be a good thread split point. See what you think. [Done. --Sean]

I'd be up for a trip to very end of the public land in San Mateo after it cools off in the fall.

I'm not sure you'd be happy with a slow poke like me, but I've had such a trip in the back of my mind for some years now. Do read on.

I've been a bit past the junction with the W Clark Trail, but that's it. So, most of the following is based on map scouting and satellite photos. By the way, I was quite surprised to see signs of frequent use on the W Clark Trail, mt. bike tracks as well as a pair of trimming shears hung on a tree.

Background.

• About a mile and a quarter downstream of the junction with the W. Clark Trail, in satellite photos, I can see what looks like some pretty rough terrain, boulders, an all-rock creek bed, potentially falls and rapids, and a large wall-to-wall permanent pool of about 300' x 75' in size. I think this stretch, about 1/4 to 1/2 mile long, is the crux of the route -- although there is another wall-to-wall pool of about 190' x 40' further down.
• About 1/2 mile upstream of the rough terrain is an oak grove. Just downstream of the oak grove are some flat, open areas that look suitable for camping.
• It's about 10 miles from the Fishermans Camp Trailhead to the Camp Pendleton boundary.
• Annotated Caltopo map: https://caltopo.com/m/SD9A

The Plan. My (ahem) "brilliant" plan is to do a three day trip as follows:

• Day 1 would be about 7 to 8 miles in length. I would hike in to the vicinity of the oak grove with an overnight backpack and set up a camp somewhere upstream of the previously noted rough terrain.
• Day 2 would be with just a day pack and would cover the remaining 2 to 3 miles down to the boundary and return, then staying at the same camp as the first night. All over night gear would have been left in place.
• Day 3 would be 7 to 8 miles to hike back out.

I think this would be pretty doable. A strong hiker could probably do it in two days, but I have no idea how rough that terrain down there really is. If one has to bypass a lot of that rough section, it could take an hour or two of bushwhacking just to get through that one section, and there maybe other sections like it. For me, 20 miles in two days involving off trail travel in rough terrain, potentially with either a swim or bushwhacking, is a bit much. Therefore, breaking it into 3 days makes it almost leisurely or at least breaks it up such that no one day is overly hard. One doesn't have to hike constantly feeling pressured for time.

I've been down canyon recently, and it's really not that hard to get to the W Clarke Trail junction. The additional 1/2 to 1 mile travel to find a suitable camp site shouldn't be inordinately difficult, so I'm confident that Day 1 and Day 3 are quite doable. It's the middle day, Day 2, that is the unknown.

There, in a nutshell, is my plan of attack for getting down to the boundary and back. The earliest I would consider doing it is maybe late October, 2022, when things start cooling down. We frequently get a day or two of 100F highs in early October. I think the ideal time to do it would be mid-March to mid-April because you'd have relatively long days in terms of hours of daylight -- but temperatures would still be moderate. Late fall could work too, but the days start getting really short. Winter, when it gets dark at 5:00 PM, might be pushing it, but, then again, this approach breaks things up so that all of the days of the trip should be pretty doable even on days where there are relatively few hours of daylight.

HJ

[tekewin]

Let's see what our schedules look like late fall or early spring. I can backpack in the first day, but might want to hike out the second day depending on how the final section of the creek goes. Do you think the boundary is marked?

[Hikin_Jim]

Do you think the boundary is marked?

It's hard to say. The little square symbols on the map that are part of the boundary line imply a physical "monument," a marker of some type placed during a cadastral survey. The problem is that:

• The monument could just be a rock or stack of rocks, depending on how old the survey is. In times past, it was common to place a large stone in the ground with an "X" carved into it. These can be terribly hard to find. The stone may have shifted, covering the "X," the stone may be obscured by brush, or the stone could have been buried -- or dislodged -- over time.
• The monument could be just an iron pipe. I've see these from the early 1900's. The problem here is that they often rust through.
• The monument could be a little metal disk. Those are more modern, maybe from the Depression era onwards, although practices were not uniform. Bedrock works well, but in loose soils, good luck finding it.

Add to that the fact that this is in a stream bed. Flooding can remove most anything. You might think that periodically the government would re-survey, but typically not. Re-surveying is an expensive process. Unless there's some question or dispute or maybe some construction project or something, a re-survey is not typical. So, are the monuments marked on the map still physically present? You're guess is as good as mine. Something like that can't be determined via satellite photos.

In addition to surveys, of course, the marines may have put a fence up or have posted signs. However, given the inaccessibility of area, I doubt the marines would put much emphasis on security here. If a fence were put up at one time, it might have been washed away at a later point, but, then again, there could be fence posts remaining.

My approach would be to:

• Keep track of my navigation so that I know when I might be approaching a marked monument or the boundary in general.
• Keep my eyes open for any monuments, fence lines (or the remains thereof), or signs.
• Maintain situational awareness. If the canyon starts really opening up, and it appears that one might be exiting the canyon, there's a good chance that's exactly what's happening. In other words, if you exit the canyon, you're probably on the marine base, and you should turn back.
• And, finally, look for the gauging station that I can see in the satellite photos (see attached). The gauging station is clearly on the marine base. If one actually gets to the gauging station, one has definitely gone too far.

One wonders how actively patrolled the boundaries of the marine base would be. I suspect not often unless there were an access road. The gauging station does have a road to it. I wouldn't be surprised if the marines did periodically patrol the gauging station area -- which is all the more reason to turn back prior to getting to that point.

There's one slight complication to the above: The boundary actually joins the creek about a mile upstream and then follows the creek down to just above the gauging station. If one stays on the right hand bank (NW) as one descends, one will generally not be in the marine base, however, in practical terms, I doubt they'd be patrolling upstream of the base proper. To split hairs even further, survey lines are straight whereas creeks are crooked -- and change exactly where they flow over time -- so one could trespass unknowingly, but, again, I doubt they're sending foot patrols up the creek to see which bank any hikers might be on. I imagine that visitors are so few (a handful per year?) that it's just not a concern.

On a really esoteric note (map geek alert!), the boundary starts where Protraction Block (PB) 41 turns into Section 24 and then follows the PB/Section boundary down until PB41 turns into PB 42 and Section 24 turns into 23.

Uh, that's really nice, Jim, but what does that mean in English?

PB's are land that's been laid out on paper but never actually surveyed. Sections are established by an actual survey. In other words, that part of the CNF is so remote and rugged that it's never been surveyed. That's kind of cool to be able, in 21st Century America, to go into rugged, remote, unsurveyed land. There are six such blocks in Township 8 South, Range 5 West (SBBM): PB 38 through PB 42, forming a sort of wilderness-within-the-wilderness. Welcome to the great unknown! Thar be dragons there!

HJ

[Hikin_Jim]

@Sean , thanks for creating the topic. The photos didn't xfer over, so I'm going to try to add those.
@tekewin , hopefully you'll catch that this topic has been created.

HJ

[tekewin]

I'm here. To reach me outside the forum, use:
t e k e w i n @ g m a i l . c o m

[Hikin_Jim]

I'm here. To reach me outside the forum, use:
t e k e w i n @ g m a i l . c o m

OK, cool. Let's definitely stay in touch as fall approaches. I kind of like this "in my back yard" area that doesn't get all that much use compared to over-run places like Baldy and Icehouse Canyon. In addition, I find that unsurveyed "no man's land" on the edge of the marine base to be most intriguing.

I have the same email provider, but my address is h i k i n . j i m I don't check that address all that often, so be patient if you email me. I'll also try to be more regular here.

HJ