Carolen, Ingrid and I went out to the trailhead the night before starting the climb. (Notice that Nancy is not with us? That's because she's smart). We thought it would be a good idea to walk across the desert floor in the dark and get as close to the start of the climb as possible (2 miles). Theoretically, this was a good idea. We needed to keep to the left and skirt around a land formation (Lute) to position us at the climb. So we walked for a couple of miles, trying to keep to the left as much as possible but nothing was looking familiar. Finally, we decided to stop in a box canyon and assess the situation at first light. Even though we were off track (notice I didn't say lost), it was kinda cool walking in the desert at night. The stars were twinkling and the cacti cast strange shadows through our headlamps.
The next morning, I climbed out of the canyon to get a better view and saw that we were too far east. So we cross country trekked back to where we needed to be and started climbing.
This is a steep, crazy hike. For some perspective, we gain nearly 5,000′ of elevation, most of it in the first 5 miles. It's really a mentally tough hike. Here's a blurb from SummitPost.org:
"Rabbit Peak lies along the southeast end of the remote Santa Rosa Range of Riverside county in Southern California. The summit features views along the Santa Rosa Range to the northwest, to the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park to the south, and the Coachella Valley and Salton Sea to the east. There is no higher peak further south in California, so the views in that direction can span to the Mexican border (and into Arizona as well) on a clear day.
Seemingly desolate and inhospitable, the Santa Rosa Mountains are laced with deep washes and shallow drainages. Summer temperatures are brutally hot, periodically interrupted by thunderstorms that send flash floods cascading down the sandy washes.
The peak lies in a predominantly desert environment, though the summit area is crowned with several varieties of pines. Cactus, Yucca, and other desert flora cover most of the hillsides and surrounding desert floors. Rabbit Peak lies within the Santa Rosa Wilderness which supports the largest herd of rare peninsular bighorn sheep in the United States.
All of the routes to the summit are difficult, though there are no technical challenges. It is highly coveted among peak paggers, appearing on both the HPS and DPS peak lists, commonly believed to be the most difficult (time-wise) on both lists. It is one of seven Emblem peaks on the Desert Peak Section's list, signifying its dominance of its surroundings (another way of saying it has a swell view)."
Upward we climb. There is nothing up here but rocks, cholla, ocatillo, barrel cactus, pear cactus, yucca, any kind of cactus you want. We don't get very far up before we see a Bighorn Sheep. First one I've ever seen in all my desert walkings! It made the whole trip worthwhile. He was just grazing along with not a care in the world.
I tripped over a dead yucca and face planted. Ingrid said I threw my trekking poles out in front of me as I was going down (in slow motion, of course). I didn't bend my knees because I was afraid the weight of the pack with all the water would injure me. So I fell into a push-up pose and caught myself right before my face smashed into the ground. Phew, that could have been bad. I fell down 3 times on this stupid hike and so did everyone else.
We climbed all day and didn't take many breaks. Ingrid amazed me with her ability to fall asleep on rocks. We had positive attitudes and were totally sure we would make Rabbit this time. We made it to Villager Peak about 4pm and decided to call it a day. Our plan was to get up super early the next day, hit Rabbit, then hightail it back down to the truck.
We spent a pleasant evening watching the sunset over the desert. I had honey bourbon and dark chocolate as a treat, then crawled into my tent to read. This is sad to say but I think I knocked out around 7:30pm. LOL.
We were up before dawn to start walking. We left most of our gear and just took the essentials with us to lighten our load. From this point, there is absolutely no trail. We were going cross country and climbing down the side of mountains and then climbing back up. A roller coaster of boulder scrambling, sketchy footing, and fall-away cliffs. Very slow going. We had given ourselves a cut-off time of noon to turn around to make it back down before dark. But the slow pace really gave us a reality check. By 10am we had been hiking for over 3 hours and still had a couple more miles to make it to Rabbit. So close but so far away! We made the decision to abort and turn around so we could make it back to the truck before dark. I was relieved but pissed! Frickin' Rabbit Peak.
I had some negative self talk going on when we decided to turn around. Second attempt, didn't make the peak, you suck, you failed, blah blah blah. Someone once told me (I won't say any names but you know who you are) that I'm a middle aged woman who sits behind a desk all week and I shouldn't be out there doing stuff like that. So of course, that little nugget always sits with me and taunts me now. What if that's true? What if I am a poser full of bullshit? But then I come back to the realization that Rabbit Peak is really hard core and we talked to military guys out there who were on their third attempt. And then I start justifying - we didn't make the peak because of this or that or the other thing. But I don't like making excuses. So it simply is. What I'm missing here is the joy of the journey. Once I was done beating myself up about it, I came full circle, and my thoughts then turned toward hamburgers. :-()
So let's get out of here! We flew over hill and dale..... except it was really steep shale hill and there were no dales. Some areas going down, we were like What! Did we really climb up this and look at that steep drop-off! This is crazy crazy crazy! I'm here to say that going down is harder than going up. My knees, hips and toes were throbbing! About 2pm, I started getting nauseous so began stuffing my face with bars. Guess I didn't eat enough lunch. Hamburgers, french fries.....
At last we hit the desert floor. OMG, I could kiss this desert floor. Gotta keep to the right and go around this frickin' Lute and we finally see the truck, shining in the distance. We made it back down at 5pm just as the sun was setting. I let off a YEEEEEHAWWWW and kissed the hood of my truck.
Then we ate hamburgers!
PS: If I ever talk about attempt #3, you have permission to kick my ass.
Photos on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1735313446753213&id=100008237237414
Villager Peak:
Elevation: 5,756′
Miles: ~13.78
Rabbit Peak:
Elevation: 6,640′
Miles: ~8.9
