Advice on tackling Rabbit Peak

[simonov]

I was thinking of having a go at Rabbit Peak this winter and was wondering if anyone here had some advice regarding routes, etc. I understand it is not as straightforward as following the trail up Jacinto, for example. John Robinson suggests a bit of scrambling, but is short on details (at least in my 25 year old edition of San Bernardino Mountain Trails).

Would anyone like to share some advice, anecdotes, etc? BTW, I have read Bob Burd's trip report.

[KathyW]

If you start along S22 (14.8 miles from Hwy 86) and go over Villager Peak you will find a use trail the whole way to Rabbit Peak.

It can be hot out there, so start very early because you start at 980 feet above sea level.

You just cross the flat desert area to the broad ridge and head up - you will probably pick up the use trail before you get to the ridge - the ridge is on the left in this picture:



You just continue up the ridge and over the bumps, including Villager Peak, until you get to Rabbit Peak. It's pretty much uphill until Villager Peak but after Villager it is up and down, so remember you'll have some uphill on the way back out from Rabbit Peak.

Villager Peak is the last bump along the ridge in this picture:



Here's what Rabbit Peak looks like as you leave Villager and continue on the ridge up and down over the bumps:



Here's a map of the route:



Keep in mind that it is a very difficult hike of 21+ miles and about 8000 feet gain including that 1100 you have to do on the way back out from Rabbit to Villager. In my opinion, it is at least as difficult, if not more, as the Cactus to Clouds hike from Palm Springs to the top of San Jacinto and the back to the tram station. You can refill your water at Long Valley when you do C2C but there is no place to refill water for Rabbit; so you carry more weight.

The hike to Villager is 14 miles round-trip with 4800 feet gain, so you can always just stop at Villager if you think that Rabbit is too much.

I have day hiked to Villager Peak, but when we did Rabbit we backpacked (we started out with 6 liters of water) to Villager on the first day where we dropped our overnight gear and continued on to Rabbit and then back to Villager to camp the first day. The second day was an easy hike out to S22 from Villager (just 7 miles and all downhill on the second day).

If I do Rabbit again, I'll do it as a day hike without that 40 pound pack. I'll start before dawn and probably come out in the dark because the days are so short in the winter and I can be a bit slow.

Pictures of our trip to Rabbit:

http://kathywing.smugmug.com/gallery/1254196#P-1-15

Pictures of my hike to Villager:

http://kathywing.smugmug.com/gallery/1234857#57845042

The Santa Rosas are beautiful, so enjoy. Another nice hike down in that area is the hike to Rosa Point from S22.

There are a couple of other routes up Rabbit that the HPS has details on:

http://angeles.sierraclub.org/hps/guides/30f.htm

I'd like to do the route from the Oasis area in the Coachella Valley sometime.

[halhiker]

Rabbit from the Coachella Valley IS a pretty straightforward affair although it is rather difficult. I think it's quite a bit harder than Skyline and definitely takes longer. The trail to the main ridge is well marked with white rocks (at least as of a few years ago). Once at the 3000+ foot level it's pretty much cross country although the "scrambling" is never more than class two. It's just steep and rocky, much like most of the mountains surrounding the Coachella Valley.

You can cache water at numerous places along the way to pick up on the way back. No need to carry it all to the top and back down. Start early: chances are you'll finish after dark. Bring a good light and a back up.

The first time I did it I really underestimated the challenge and I also ate something that didn't agree with me. On the way down, I was seriously looking around for somewhere to lay down and spend the night. I stumbled out and felt worse than on any hike ever. (Second worst was an 18 hour day on Mount Logan in the Yukon).

Robinson's book details how the peak has often inspired climbers to pen verses of poetry and it did me. Upon summiting, I wrote this:

Among desert climbers this peak is famed
Yet I somehow feel it has been misnamed
A rabbit is gentle, soft and mild
But this peak is rugged, harsh and wild
I have longed to climb it
Today I scratched that itch
And from this day on
I'll call this peak "The Bitch"

I did climb it a couple of years later and had NO problems.

Don't go when it's real hot because there is NO shade and the heat off of those rocks on the alluvial fan will bake you.

Have fun!

Hal

[simonov]

Thank you very much for the detailed explanations. The photos and map are especially helpful.

I would prefer to do this as an overnight, and frankly it doesn't sound very difficult as such (except for the dry aspect). I am not quite in good enough shape to do it in a day, and I hate stumbling around in the dark anyway.

[halhiker]

There is a nice plateau at about the 3000 foot level that would be your best spot to overnight. It'd give you a nice shot at the top and then a good chance to make it out before nightfall. Then you wouldn't have to carry all your gear up the steepest part.

Hal

[KathyW]

The summit of Villager is a nice place to camp. The summit area of Rabbit is also broad and gentle, so you could camp there too.

[simonov]

The summit of Villager is a nice place to camp. The summit area of Rabbit is also broad and gentle, so you could camp there too.

Camping at Villager sounds good to me. At least I get to drop the pack halfway to Rabbit. I like your idea of doing Rabbit on the first day, but it might be easier for me (coming from Costa Mesa) to get an earlier start the second day for Rabbit, then pick up the pack at Villager on the way out.

[KathyW]

simonov:

Just be careful about your starting time the first day. Unless it is a really cool day or your body is adapted to handle heat, an early start will help get you up to where it is cooler before it gets too warm out. It can get very hot on the flats and the first section of the ridge. It also snows on Rabbit from time to time - maybe this weekend Rabbit will get some snow.

Kathy

[magikwalt]

I've been gathering up details on this trip for a while now. Still haven't done it so Thanks to Cathy and Hal for their insight.

There is a small book available called Supersize It, Big Hikes in Southern California by David Harris. Robinson's book is a little bare. It has a nice write up on the hike, a color map and a photo with a trail line embossed.

I picked up my copy at the Desert Map & Aerial shop on Hwy-111.

[simonov]

Well, all my local hikes with the hiking club were cancelled due to rain; the desert shooting date I made for myself also had to be postponed (not so much because of rain as because of the wind); and I am not a big fan of walking in snow; so I decided sort of spur-of-the-moment to head out to Anza-Borrego and have a go at Villager Peak, sort of reconnoiter the trail. I hope to lead a small party of backpackers a little later in the year on a two-day walk up to Villager and Rabbit Peaks.

I left the house in Costa Mesa at 5:30 this morning and after driving through the rainy San Diego County high country and eating a couple of eggs Benedict at the Red Ocotillo in Borrego Springs (a charming little diner in a Quonset hut, with a dog-friendly patio in back), I set off on the trail at 9:30. It was a gorgeous day with blue skies mottled by clouds, and some suspicious looking gray stuff swirling around the mountain tops to the northwest as well as above the ridge up to Villager Peak:



I was surprised how easy it was to find the "use trail," as I didn't expect there to ever be much traffic here. It is well travelled and there are lots of ducks and cairns along the way, at least at the lower elevations. However, not long after I got to the rocky wash coming out of Rattlesnake Canyon, I lost the trail and found myself following the wash up into the canyon. I grew a bit nervous as the ridge continued to rise to my left, with no trail in sight, so before it got too high I simply started climbing straight up. Once I got to the top I quickly reacquainted myself with the trail and continued up on the crest of the ridge.

By now I realized I had made a mistake in selecting my light day hiking boots instead of my old Vasque mountaineering boots (in 1982 when I bought them (two resoles ago), they were called "hiking boots;" now everyone who sees them insists they are "mountaineering boots"). I was expecting a simple desert day hike with a light pack, and the Vasques are awfully heavy and it sometimes gets tiresome to walk with them. But they are sturdy and have steel shanks and the trail was the rockiest I have every walked once I got to the ridge. The lightweight day hikers offered no protection from the rocky trail, and I knew I would pay for this oversight later.

I continued slogging up, up, up. It actually wasn't that hard of a hike, just uphill all the way. Despite the rocks, the trail was good. Eventually the wind started gusting and I resisted pulling out my Marmot shell until nearly the end, when I started getting cold. About this time, I also began paying close attention to the dark clouds roiling down from the mountains to the northwest. It was clear they were headed my way, but all morning so far they would dissipate before getting to my ridge. But the distant mountains were increasingly obscured, the clouds weren't dissolving as before:



I was prepared for rain with a vinyl poncho from (I'm not kidding) about 1974, but there were a few moments when the wind threatened to blow me over. One of these was at a point where the trail curves around the edge of a cliff with a 500 foot drop at least. Luckily, the wind was blowing me away from the cliff, toward the ridge, but it was an ugly sensation indeed to find myself leaning towards the abyss in my attempts to stay upright. I was vaguely afraid the wind would stop suddenly and I would topple over.

I was the only person on the mountain. There wasn't a soul for miles.

The wind ruined everything. By this time it was hard enough to walk on the rocks and the wind just made it harder. I finally staggered away from the trail to get behind some rocks into the lee of the wind, and thought about what it would be like if the rain came, as by now it appeared certain to do. The rocks would be slippery and I would flounder around in my light day hikers and the wind blowing me back and forth. I decided to head back, 2.25 miles from Villager Peak (just under five miles from the car).

With my feet in mind, I swallowed two Aleve tablets and started down at 11:40. The rocky trail pummeled my feet, it was terrible. But I made good time. I was careful as I came off the ridge to study the approaches from the other direction, that I had missed on the way up. I was feeling pretty good as I trotted through the wash when suddenly I kicked a rock with my left big toe. Baroque profanity filled the desert air for a moment or two, but I limped on.

As is now usual with these hikes, I felt superb by the time I got to my car, except for my feet. No matter what, my feet always hurt. So I was glad at 1:30 to arrive back at the car, where I removed my boots and ate the sandwich I had packed up the ridge and back. The wind was shaking the car by now; the storm had followed me down the mountain. The high ridges where I had been walking an hour or so before were now hidden by gray clouds:



I drove home via Salton Sea and the I-10, completing a great loop. I have decided to do Rabbit Peak as a two-day hike during winter or spring, but will postpone any scheduled hike if the forecast calls for anything besides perfect hiking weather.

There are more photos available, and you can also download a Google Earth track of my hike.