My fascination with this mountain began in 2021. I found it studying the 2016 Forest Service topo maps around Black Star Canyon. The map showed a benchmark symbol at elevation 2829' near the end of ridge above Baker Canyon, but it had no assigned name. I wanted to explore it and see if the benchmark was still there, but I could find no information online. The peak was not in Peakbagger, Lists of John, or Summitpost. I scouted it early 2021, riding a mountain bike to the base of the mountain. I found the old road and an overgrown firebreak that was passable half way up the first bump. It was a serious bushwhack from there. I prepared for battle and made an earnest attempt on 2/26/2021. For more than two hours, I bashed, ducked, and crawled, but the brush was impregnable. Running low on water, I never reached the top of the first bump. Dejected, I bashed, ducked, and crawled out for two more hours, having nothing to show but bloody scratches and bruises. GPS showed I turned back 0.6 miles from the summit. Later that year, I made an attempt from the south up the East Fork of Black Star Canyon. That trip ended the same way, though I turned back even farther away. I had to respect the moat of snarled vegetation from all directions.
Although it had denied me twice, I decided to revisit it in 2025. My new strategy was Operation Fiskars. Loppers and hand saw. My first bike and hike was in early January. I was surprised to find the firebreak had been cleared up to the point it ended. A new trail branched north, ending at a wooden bench facing west. Mysterious person(s) had been working in my absence, though they had not gone farther than the end of the firebreak. I struck out from there, clipping and sawing a path up the ridge. According to the GPS, my progress was glacial. Hours of pruning netted less than than 0.1 miles. I knew it would take many trips to break through. A second trip in January still left me below the first bump. I found moments of relief when I stumbled on 20' that didn't require clipping, followed by frustration when I saw how little the line on the map moved. On the fourth trip, I reached the top of the first bump and got my first look at the prize. The farthest bump on the ridge was only 0.2 miles away. On the fifth trip, I made it to a saddle below the peak and saw a hundred feet of open slope. On the sixth trip, I brought a register and painted cans in case I made it. I only had to cut through one heavy section, dancing along the cliff edge to avoid much of it. The highest point on the ridge was not the peak, it was the next bump over. I found a reference mark on a cliff boulder. A few feet away, I found a rotten wooden post and a pristine benchmark stamped "Baker" placed in 1928. The name tracks as it sits above Baker Canyon. I placed a register in white cans, in disbelief that I was standing on the benchmark. I spent about 20 hours total clipping, breaking one pair of loppers along the way. The full round trip now should take me about 5 hours. I met a turkey vulture on the way back. There were dozens of vultures and red tail hawks using the cliffs to hunt in Baker Canyon. I also met a coyote on the trail just before reaching the road. Despite the clipping, brush contact was still involved, as well as light scrambling and route finding.
Baker Benchmark at the end of the ridge
Looking south
With the name, I was able to look up the datasheet in the USGS database (https://geodesy.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/ds_desig.prl). It showed both the station mark and two reference marks (I only found one). The permanent ID for the mark was DX4244. The last recorded visit (USGS calls it a recovery) to Baker was in 1964. I think the clipped trail will last a while, but will need annual maintenance. I made route decisions on the fly, and sometimes started 15' in one direction, only to change my mind and go another way. This caused confusion both directions following false clips to dead ends. There weren't enough rocks to build cairns at key points, but I am not sure I want to add ribbons. Baker is now accessible. My small contribution to Orange County hiking. I filed a recovery report on the USGS web site, and if accepted, it will have a 2025 update. I also added it to peakbagger along with the GPX. 13 miles round trip, 2327' gain.
