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View Full Version : Indiana XJ and the quest for lost civilization (ALMOST)



4.3LXJ
12-08-2014, 11:49 AM
This journey started a long time ago, when I was twenty. I was working for the Forrest Service and had the dream job. I was paid to travel and hike all over the forrest. In the 1880s the government decided it needed to find out what it had and ordered the entire country surveyed in to square mile sections. My job was to go find the originals so that those pieces of land didn't need to be resurveyed. The few bucks a day they paid me saved Uncle Sam several thousand dollars. It ended up being a life changing experience, giving me a few new hobbies such as antique bottle and rock collecting. And a real love for local history. The amount of things that happened in the mining days of California is just amazing. And a lot of it was documented in the original survey notes. And my bottle collection was growing. One other thing we had to do was determine if the government onwed these or if they belonged to a ming company.

http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/uu215/warriorsuspension/Petroglyphs/Meadow%20Lake/DSC00639_zps1c14f683.jpg

http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/uu215/warriorsuspension/Petroglyphs/Meadow%20Lake/DSC00637_zps9626ef70.jpg

It turns out the government owned them by a distance of thirty feet. They had survived extensive mining in the area. And it was the start of this adventure. Who could have known?

4.3LXJ
12-08-2014, 12:10 PM
Fast forward a few years, well more than a few, and I was googling petroglyphs in CA. So I find this Youtube vid of some others a guy named Alex made. Turns out there is a very well known bunch on top of Donor Summit within sight of the old Donor Summit highway. It even has a stone pedicil to mark them. So, did some more searching and light reading through some archeological journals and come to fine out, there are thousands of those all within three hours driving from me, at the northern apex of them. Sounds like a new quest to me.

They belonged to a group of middle age Indians called the Martis People. Here is a link so you can read about them.

http://www.donnersummithistoricalsociety.org/pages/bookreviews/MartisIndians.html

So, armed with a general map I knew where there were 278 glyphs just a few miles north of me. Of course it would take two hours to get there :D They are near one of the lakes in the High Lakes area. There are many roads and hiking trails dedicated for that purpose. So off I went in search of ancient civilization.

I started out two weeks ago thinking I would get there and at least mark the place on my GPS. But, best laid plans often go amiss. I had earlier taken my Atlas transfer case apart and removed the synchro rings and detent pins. Why? They are hard to shift and are set up so you cannot use front wheel drive only in high range. Advance Adaptors does not want you using front wheel drive only at high speeds. Hogwash I say. Done it many times. Who knows when I am going to blow up my locked D35 and need to drive out? So I started out heading into the interior of the area.

http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/uu215/warriorsuspension/High%20Lakes/IMG_0957_zpsb6ac68c0.jpg

http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/uu215/warriorsuspension/High%20Lakes/IMG_0958_zps8468e1bc.jpg

http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/uu215/warriorsuspension/High%20Lakes/IMG_0959_zps19ede57a.jpg

Everything was fine and dandy until I got to this

http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/uu215/warriorsuspension/High%20Lakes/IMG_0960_zpsf1695805.jpg

It isn't all that bad, but a stock rig without lockers would not make it through here without assistance. Photo does not do it justice. I went to shift into 4WD and all I got was a tink, tink. It just would not engage the front end. I didn't think I could fix it there, so I continued on anyway in 2WD. Made it through there without spinning a tire and on I went. Then I got within 1/2 mile of my destination, and there was a class 4 obstacle. It was getting late and no one was around, so I turned around and went back. I thought maybe I could try it and winch through if nothing else, but why take chances. So I went home.

4.3LXJ
12-08-2014, 12:34 PM
Two weeks later, problem solved. I took the Atlas out and started taking it apart and found what was wrong. That teflon washer that goes on the outside that disappeared into some other dimension in my shop? Gotta have that. Even tried to buy one. Couldn't find one anywhere in town. If I had known, I could have loosened a plug and everything would have been great. Oh well. After that trip, in drought stricken CA, we have been getting record rain and the snow has started to come down.. That nice dry road has turned into this

http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/uu215/warriorsuspension/High%20Lakes/IMG_0985_zps72da1292.jpg

Lots of water in the holes over the top of the tires. Almost got stuck in one that had been silted in by run off. I was pushing a wall of mud in front of the diffs. I really did not want to get out and pull cable in that. Took a different line and made it through while testing my roll over angle. Then I made it to where I turned around.

http://youtu.be/6-zH3YIwHm0

Got to the lake finally, and pulled into a nice spot, put a can of chili on the engine and got out to do a little hiking

http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/uu215/warriorsuspension/High%20Lakes/IMG_0988_zps97b172cb.jpg

As I said, we have had record rain for the last two weeks. Just beyond me was the outlet of the lake. And the water was up high enough I didn't really want to cross in this cool weather. The upper end had the same amount with the water flowing in.

http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/uu215/warriorsuspension/High%20Lakes/IMG_0987_zps7e4130b8.jpg

As near as I can tell from my studies, the glyphs were on that granite knob just over the hood of the Jeep. So close, but so far.

I continued on down the trail and passed another lake

http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/uu215/warriorsuspension/High%20Lakes/IMG_0992_zpsd11cfd60.jpg

Then I came to something you don't see everyday

http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/uu215/warriorsuspension/High%20Lakes/IMG_0993_zps3bb9819b.jpg

A rock two track. In the Sierras, we have two kinds of mud. With bottom and without. Most of the mud has a bottom and you just wheel through it. But this was glacial fill. Probably 50 feet deep and wet most of the year. So there is the lowest rock bridge in existence just to keep from making it one deep hole.

I went on for a few miles and found myself alone on the trail and entering a large burn we had in 08. Steep down hill and lots of big rocks. This stretch is better going up than down, so I turned around and headed back out before the rain came. Here is one last little vid of some pebble crawling in the trail. Something to make you cringe if you have a locked D35 like I do.

http://youtu.be/6J8yOdevVyc

TSquared42
12-08-2014, 01:48 PM
Very cool, can't wait to see some of those glyphs. :goodjob:

XJ Wheeler
12-09-2014, 01:29 AM
Loving the excursion. Wish we had anything close to that here. Keep em coming Steve, I can at least enjoy seeing it on the screen. :p Did a little surveying back when I lived in Colorado on our land. Big mining area so you definitely find some cool stuff.

cantab27
12-09-2014, 01:59 AM
coolies steve .....yall know I would hit that mud .......

4.3LXJ
12-09-2014, 10:30 AM
Thought about you Wayne when I went out again yesterday and found a little mud. :D

Pookapotamus
12-09-2014, 01:53 PM
Can I be your "short round" Steve???

4.3LXJ
12-09-2014, 01:58 PM
Anytime Dana. But don't mess with the blond :D

WhiteDevil1311
12-09-2014, 06:15 PM
Damn man im envious. I worked land surveyment for a few years and originals are the holy grail.

4.3LXJ
12-09-2014, 07:37 PM
I got to do about half of the Tahoe National Forrest. Pure gravy

WhiteDevil1311
12-09-2014, 07:51 PM
I came across some that people moved decades ago and restaked. I lived land disputes....nada but job security downside is im in chiraq and transits were often stolen even chained down

WhiteDevil1311
12-09-2014, 08:25 PM
What were you looking for? Stones right? Did they slam pipe in the forest?

4.3LXJ
12-09-2014, 08:40 PM
Sometimes we found a mound of stone, more like three or four rocks in one spot. Since we were in the forrest, we went by scribed trees. Had township and range, section and bearing and distance to the corner and a separate blaze down low in case of logging. Blazes grow over, so we had to chop into the scar and verify the identity of the tree. We went back and set caps later

WhiteDevil1311
12-09-2014, 08:59 PM
Nice. Scribed stones are solid gold here. What equipment did you use to make sure it was right? Im not sure if being dept of interior gave you access to non civilian obtainable tech like gps and laser robots back then.

WhiteDevil1311
12-09-2014, 09:00 PM
Alot of stones have been replaced by brass discs here too due to redesigns of intersections (#1 spot they still exist). Well in smellinois anyways

4.3LXJ
12-09-2014, 09:05 PM
We just went from one known corner to the next. Each found corner had to match the description of the trees exactly. We did accept stump holes as partial evidence if we had one scribed tree. We didn't have GPS back then. It hadn't been invented yet. :D I found one on a granite knob that only had one down tree. The wind had blown some sand and the tree was reduced to something the size of a limb. But the pitch on the blaze preserved it. Before finding it I put myself within 80' with a compass and map

abebehrmann
12-10-2014, 08:40 AM
Awesome! I think this would be my ideal wheeling trip; off roading mixed with history, mystery, and a scavenger hunt. Can't wait to see more updates.

4.3LXJ
12-10-2014, 09:29 AM
Uh, mystery. :confused: Might need some help there

abebehrmann
12-10-2014, 09:54 AM
Hahaha. Are you actually going to find them? What condition will they be in if you do? If you don't find them, where did they go? How many other people have seen them? SO MANY QUESTIONS

4.3LXJ
12-10-2014, 10:02 AM
To answer your questions, sort of. Almost all the locations are not published. You cannot find them on the net like you can for others. It is a vandalism thing. And you have to know what you are looking for or you will walk right past them. So yes, more updates. In fact, there is one within sight of the top of the Rubicon trail, and no one knows it is there even with as much traffic as it has. There is a new set I found out near the Hell Hole trail that are newly discovered as of two years ago. We also may have a line on some near the Fordyce Creek trail that are unexcavated. So stay tuned

WhiteDevil1311
12-10-2014, 05:11 PM
80' with compass and map is damn good. I didnt know if gps was around then its been around a while but up til recently was only available to its owners the DOD. The boss wouldnt buy a gps unit heck i have a defunct nikon in the garage i cant do nothing with. I didnt know if you used chains or not.

WhiteDevil1311
12-10-2014, 05:12 PM
The petros are awesome. Havnt seen any here but the native evidence is rich especially in vast swatches of untouched earth.

4.3LXJ
12-10-2014, 05:12 PM
no, we paced. We could get reasonably close that way