I've place this near the bridge crossing but far enough away from muggles crossing the creek to the clearing west of the bridge, located on the north side of the creek. This spot is related to San Diego history after the Battle of San Pasqual. The crossing is named after the famous Mountain Man and Adventurer Kit Carson who assisted Col Kearny in the battle.
Historic Information (no cache information):
The history of Los Penasquitos Preserve is interwoven with the history of California. During the Mexican-American War, it was the first stopping place for Brig. Gen. Stephen Kearny after the defeat in the Battle of San Pasqual in 1846.
Christopher Houston "Kit" Carson was an American frontiersman. The few paying jobs he had during his lifetime included mountain man (fur trapper), wilderness guide, Indian agent, and American Army officer. Carson became a frontier legend in his own lifetime via biographies and news articles. Exaggerated versions of his exploits were the subject of dime novels.
Lasting from 1846 to 1848, the Mexican–American War was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico. At war's end, Mexico was forced to sell the territories of Alta California and New Mexico to the United States under The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
One of Carson's best known adventures took place during this war. During a chance encounter, Kit Carson informed Kearny that Commodore Robert F. Stockton’s naval forces had already captured San Diego. Kearny ordered most of his Army of the West to return to Santa Fe while Kit Carson led Kearny and 100 travel-weary, ill-equipped soldiers to San Diego to help defend the city. In December 1846, Carson was ordered by General Stephen W. Kearny to guide him and his troops from Socorro, New Mexico to San Diego, California. Mexicans soldiers attacked Kearny and his men near the village of San Pasqual, California. (Look up historic reference for the Battle of San Pasqual for details of the battle).
Kearny was outnumbered. He knew he could not win; he ordered his men to take cover on a small hill (Mule Hill). On the night of December 8, Carson, a naval lieutenant named Beale, and an Indian scout left Kearny to bring reinforcements from San Diego, 25 miles away. Carson and the lieutenant removed their shoes because they made too much noise, and walked barefoot through the desert. Carson wrote in his Memoirs: "Finally got through, but had the misfortune to lose our shoes.” They had to travel over a country covered with prickly pear and rocks, barefoot. Carson led the men down what is now called the Kearny Trail that connected the Overland Trail (and Emigrant Trail) to San Diego where the naval troops awaited.
The place where they stopped and camped and got water was here at Carson Crossing. From here they went down to the western end of the canyon, on down through Rose Canyon, past False Bay (Mission Bay) and eventually to the Old Town area.
(Information taken from several sources and edited down for space. There are books and internet sites available that have more detailed information.)