More about Fort Defiance, a winter hideout of Sontag and Evans
The following comes from Evans & Sontag, The Famous Outlaws of California by Hu Maxwell, reprinted 1981

"The winter rains were setting in by this time, and Evans and Sontag prepared their quarters. In the mountains it either snows or rains nearly all the time in the winter. In a place far removed from all human paths, several miles from Sampson Flat, lies a deep, rugged gorge, called Dark Canyon. Seldom was it ever visited. Once in a long time a Miner or hunter would penetrate that region of rocks and tangled brush, but not often. Beneath a cliff with overhung this canyon there was a cave, and of this cave, Evans and Sontag made a fort, for their winter quarters. They piled up rocks to block the entrance to the cave, and in the vaults beyond, they lived. An army could have been held at bay. There was only one approach possible, and that was exposed to the rifles of the men in the cave. The bandits wee reasonably secure."

"Their clothes were worn thin, and their shoes full of holes. For awhile they had nothing better than old barley sacks wrapped round their feet; and thus they trudged through many weary mile of snow and rain. Trying to kill a deer, a rabbit, or even a bird to allay hunger. Sometimes they would come back to their cold cave at night, half famished, and not a mouthful to eat. Thus they would wrap themselves in their damp blankets, and lie down, sick at heart and sick of body to forget their sufferings in sleep, and perhaps to dream of happy times, gone by - to wake and find it only a mocking dream, and to hear lonesome dripping of the night rain through the rocky roof of the cavern."

"Sometimes, when the rains would let up temporarily, the men would go to the house of some mountaineer, and out of charity he would feed them, and give them a few beans, potatoes and flour, and they would wander back to their cave again."