Peak 3,395ft P300
Wee BM ^2x ex-SDC
Rass BM ^2x ex-SDC
Inspiration Point

Continued...

After dropping my wife off at the San Diego airport, I headed for Anza-Borrego where I planned to spend the next 5-6 days. Yet another storm was bearing down on the state, slated to begin arriving in the Southland around 1p. I had made no plans for peaks today, figuring I'd wing it as I drove northeast across the county. Not wanting to get caught out for long should it begin to rain in earnest, I was looking for short hikes I could do in less than an hour. All of these easily fit the bill. I got no serious rain during the day though the clouds were quite ominous starting around noon.

Peak 3,395ft

This summit is found in the West Santa Ysabel OSP just north of SR78 and east of the Santa Ysabel (at the SR78/SR79 junction). There are multiple signs along the park trail (an old ranch road) that ask folks to stay on the trail to avoid "sensitive areas". As Greg points out in his PB trip report, this seems incredulous because the OSP is obviously used for cattle grazing. I did much what Greg did, staying on the trail until one can approach from the southwest, out of easy view from the TH parking lot and the adjacent highway. Greg further comments that it "appears" the summit is on private property, but of this there is no question. One must cross a well-maintained barbed-wire fence before climbing the final 1/4mi to the summit. The top is large, flat and open to views in all directions. The beautiful green that has carpeted much of the county early this year was muted due to the overcast. My return was much the same route, the roundtrip taking about 45min.

Wee BM / Rass BM

Both of these are minor point within Anza-Borrego that used to be on the San Diego Sierra Club's peak list. They have little prominence, really just points along the ridgeline decending down from Montezuma Valley to Borrego Springs, just north of the Montezuma-Borrego highway. There is a park trail that descends this ridge to the Hellhole Canyon TH on the desert floor, going within a few yards of each point. I chose to simply stop at points along the highway that were within 1/2mi of each summit and went up steep cross-country slopes from there. There was much evidence of fire having swept through here not long ago, but the new grass and plants inspired by the strong winter rains are brightening up the whole park. I found benchmarks andregisters at both summits, but the registers were badly neglected, damp and difficult to write in. The one on Rass BM was left open and scattered, leaving it in poor shape. Oh well.

It was a few days later when I realized I had already climbed both of these summits. They had seemed familiar at the time, but my GPSr showed them as unclimbed. I realized that a programming error had left all the summits in my database that aren't on LoJ unclimbed. Whether due to age or just the sheer volume of summits, I find it harder to remember where I've been. Good thing I write things down. :-)

Inspiration Point

After Rass BM, I drove down to Borrego Springs where I finished buying a few supplies and got an early dinner at a taco shop. My meal was an enormous "monster" burrito which I might normally have had trouble finishing. Not having eaten all that much over the past 5 days, I found myself a bit ravenous and had no trouble eating the whole thing, never even slowing down. I even went next door afterwards to get some ice cream for dessert, just to finish things off.

On my way out of town heading east on S-22, I took a detour to visit Inspiration Point in the Borrego Badlands south of S-22. It is overshadowed by the slightly higher Fonts Point that lies about 3/4mi south of Inspiration Point. The roads to reach both of these are basically drives up sand washes. The one to Fonts Point is signed at the highway and in better shape that most vehicles can navigate in normal conditions. This road is probably the better choice to reach Inspiration Point too, starting from where it passes within 1/4mi. I used a lesser road that goes within about 1/4mi on the north side of Inspiration Point, much sandier and 4WD recommmended. Where the road goes over the crest and down the other side, one can park and follow the drainage boundary to reach Inspiration Point. While the views are nice, it has no advantages that I could see over Fonts Point, and I'm not really sure how it made it to the USGS maps. After returning to the highway, I drove a few miles further east to the Palo Verde Wash jeep road where I pulled over to spent the night. Patrick and Karl were scheduled to meet me here sometime during the night, for a climb of Marble Peak in the Santa Rosa Mtns the next day. Rain would patter the car's roof and and off during the night. Hopefully not so much rain for the next day...

Continued...

Author:

Is this a correction?