20150321_villager_rabbit -- villager_profile.jpg

First | Previous Picture | Next Picture | Last | Thumbnails


We arrived at the trail head Friday night, basically a police call box on the side of a highway in the middle of the absolute no-where desert, completely flat nothingness save only the highway and a few spindly creosote bushes. We slept in the back of our trucks.

Shown above is a profile of stage 1 of 2 of our following two-day backpack trip. Stage 1 distance would be 6.6 miles and a whopping 5200 ft gain (with packs - yikes). We would drop most of our gear and extra water at camp on top of Villager. Then Stage 2 (shown on the next page) would take us over to Rabbit for an additional 7 miles and 3000 ft gain/loss (round trip). Then Sunday we planned to hike down 5200 ft, 6.6 miles back to the trailhead. This was going to be a true slobber-knocker!

A person needs roughly 1 gallon of water per day when hiking in the desert in mild temperatures. Any increase in temperature has a notable effect on the amount of water required. The highs for the area were projected to be in the low 90s; however, we would be rising to 6000 ft by midday, realizing an elevation cooling of 3 degrees per 1000 ft, or roughly 18 degrees, making the highs at the top in the low to mid 70's. The lows at the top would be in the low 50's (the actual temps turned out to be exactly as predicted). Although the temps were perfect, high winds were predicted for Saturday evening into Sunday morning. High winds can make the desert a completely miserable experience - there is no escaping the blasting dry air and sand.

I had packed almost two gallons of water, and Matt had a full two gallons, at 8.3 lbs for a gallon of water, we were carrying pretty heavy loads for an overnight backpack trip. I spent the preceding weeks purchasing new light-weight gear just for this trip, in hopes of reducing the torture on my already irritable knees (getting old sucks). Still, after $700 of new gear - backpack, sleeping bag, sleeping pad and hiking poles - my pack still weighed about 27 lbs (17 lbs of water), and Matt's was a full ten lbs heavier at around 37 lbs.

After meeting up at the trailhead we relaxed, watched the shooting stars and chatted about the upcoming hike a while before heading to bed. Matt sounded a little anxious, which surprised me a bit. I was feeling only intense excitement over the upcoming challenge. I usually don't sleep the night before a trip - like a kid on Christmas eve.

Matt and I had both backpacked up to Villager last year around this same time of year. On that trip we stood teetering on the top of Villager, not sure whether to continue on to Rabbit. We peered longingly over at that higher, more majestic peak, but finally concluded that we had not prepared appropriately (not enough time, water, food) to safely make it to Rabbit and back (in hindsight, a very wise decision). So we contented ourselves with spending the night on Villager for that trip.

The Villager/Rabbit peak bag is by far the most popular and revered trip within the borders of Anza Borrego desert state park. I've been camping and hiking AB for over a decade now, and I've spent quite a bit of time contemplating making the dual peak climb. Last year we succeeded in making it up to Villager, but it left me feeling like I had only accomplished half of the goal. So many of my hiking friends have told their stories of the punishing one-two punch of Villager and Rabbit, and I wanted to have a story of my own. So long have I studied the area on the maps or looked up to see Villager and Rabbit from other nearby peaks within the park, only to wonder what it was like at the top.