September 2022 News

Here are the news and updates since July. It's been a busy couple of months for me personally. I've been busy with home stuff and haven't gotten out like I would have wanted to but that is coming to an end and I'll be headed back out soon.

New Guest Author

I'm happy to welcome my friend JP who has offered to write about one of his adventures here.

The Blueprint Petroglyph

The desert has gone silent. Where once it was inhabited by homesteaders, miners, and even ranchers, now it’s a checkerboard of wilderness areas delineated by long, lonely roads. Surely many interesting and historic sites remain, but how accessible are they now that most of the roads have been closed…

Starbuck's ExploringJonathan Pusey

New Feature

Free trial

You can now do a free 14-day trial of the paid membership tier to see if you like it. During the free trial, you will have the same access as the paid membership.

I also went through and updated all the existing waypoint files to include gpx and kml files. The server wasn't allowing downloads of the gpx files for some reason. They now have their own space on Box.com where you can download them.

New trips

Chuckawalla Bill’s

Anthony William Simmons, also known as Simon, but more famously as “Chuckawalla Bill”, fixed up this little cabin and lived here from around 1932 to 1936. Born on August 2nd, 1875 in Pennsylvania. He served in the U.S. Army during the Spanish-American War and later in with the British

Starbuck's ExploringGuy Starbuck

The Blueprint Petroglyph

The desert has gone silent. Where once it was inhabited by homesteaders, miners, and even ranchers, now it’s a checkerboard of wilderness areas delineated by long, lonely roads. Surely many interesting and historic sites remain, but how accessible are they now that most of the roads have been closed…

Starbuck's ExploringJonathan Pusey

Hess Mine

Not far from the Tioga Pass entrance station to Yosemite National Park lie the remains of the Hess Mine, one of the more accessible 1940s-era tungsten mines in the High Sierra. Three widely-separated claims comprised the mine: the main claim at the north end of Steelhead Lake; a small middle

Starbuck's ExploringHugh M. Smith

Silver Bell and Golden Bell Mines

These are two relatively easy mines to reach in the heart of Joshua Tree National Park. It is just a few miles west of the popular Cholla Cactus Garden. History Silver Bell Mine Phil Sullivan (who also worked at the Contact Mine) and Albert Vivian staked the Silver Bell claim

Starbuck's ExploringGuy Starbuck

El Dorado Mine

James “Chuckwalla Jim” Wilson discovered a rich gold-bearing outcrop of rock in this canyon in 1901. He called it the El Dorado (also spelled Eldorado). Wilson loaded small batches of ore on burros to be processed over at the mill at Pinyon Well, and all the way to an arrastra

Starbuck's ExploringGuy Starbuck

Updated trips

Railroad Tie Cabin (Old Womans)

Back in the winter of 2019, my friend JP and I took a hike to a forgotten cabin on the northern end of the Old Woman Mountains out in the Mojave Desert of California. The cabin is inside the Old Woman Wilderness but it isn’t a hard hike. It makes

Starbuck's ExploringGuy Starbuck

“Antelope Cottonwood” Mill

We found this small modern mill that seems often overlooked on Chidago Loop Road in the Benton Hills north of Bishop. The equipment is a mixture of new and old. It is nice to see so much of it still here. Hopefully, it remains that way. I couldn’t find much

Starbuck's ExploringGuy Starbuck

Cary’s Castle

Tucked away in the backcountry wilderness of Joshua Tree National Park is a hidden gem called Cary’s Castle. In 1935, at the tender age of twenty-four, a young man named Arthur L. Cary (often misspelled “Carey” and so the site is called Carey’s Castle in many places) moved from

Starbuck's ExploringGuy Starbuck

So, I was surprised to get feedback on how much the emails for each post were missed. I'll try and go back to doing that more often, but I won't send out an email for every post. You can always opt out of all emails on your account page (click the account button at the top right of the page).

In the future, I think I will do these news updates once a quarter. The next news update will be at the end of the year in December.

Thanks for your continued support! I can't do it without you.