Yesterday morning, I worked more on the narrow spot on the road up the Tio Grande. It was hard work using a pick and shovel for 2.5 hours. Here are some pictures that show my work, the narrowness, and the drop to the creek.

I also cut off some limbs on pine trees that were rubbing against the top of the vehicle.
In the afternoon, I drove over to road 133 on the east side of Broke Off Mountain to the Lucero Lakes area. I was going to hike over to where the Petaca Land Grant marker for mile 7 was placed in 1878. However, thunderstorms came in forcing me to abandon my hike. Out there I  ran in to a fire fighter for the Forest Service named Joshua who was checking out the soil. We hiked back to our vehicles together and the rain and thunder began a few minutes later.

Today, the forecast was for early thunderstorms, so I did not travel far from the cabin. I went up the Tio Grande and wandered the hillside where the 2-mile marker for the Petaca Grant was placed in 1878. It is like looking for a needle in a needle stack. The surveyors placed a stone 18x10x10 inches on the side of the hill. Well, there are hundreds of stones in that area. I need a better idea of the location to have any hope of finding it (if it still exists). I am hoping to find a marker on the east side of Broke Off Mountain where the ground is less steep and less forested. From such a marker, I will know where the east-west line is located making it easier to locate other markers. Of course, this is assuming that the markers are still out there.

Just a note about the survey markers: In October, 1878, the surveyors went back to find the northwest corner marker they set in May of that year. They did not find it. So, they could not find a marker they set a few months earlier, and I am looking for the markers 138 years later without surveying the line.  Maybe it is hopeless.    

Wildlife report: an antelope has been hanging around the cabin in the evenings and morning, and I saw a lone deer up the Tio Grande.