- Zosel BM
- Crab BM
- Dawn BM
Finishing up the easy part of the east ridge
After fresh coats of sunscreen, we dropped 800' from Rabbit to the Santa Rosa ridge toward Villager. Views on this ridge are phenomenal. To reach the descent ridge, we endured 3 miles of undulating bumps, almost reaching Villager Peak. The ridge was mostly open, unclogged with brush or other obstacles. A pleasant surprise. It wasn't as fast as a trail, but we made reasonable time moving down the gentle slope. I had loaded GPS waypoints making it easy to find Zosel benchmark, then Crab benchmark. Both had registers with few signatures, especially Crab with a register stuffed in a 35mm film canister. As the late afternoon daylight started to cast shadows, I wished the ridge was dropping faster. Half of the 5000' drop to Barton Canyon came at the end and we would end up doing it in the dark. The setting sun was partially blocked by the Santa Rosa ridge, leaving us in a long, lingering twilight. We tried to get off the ridge before nightfall, but it didn't happen. Instead, we had about 2 miles of the steepest part of ridge left when it got dark. In the last gasps of light, a bighorn darted down the ridge below us, but it was too dark for a photo. Just after that, my headlamp fell off and broke open, spilling its 3 triple AAAs into the dirt. I was only able to find 2. No problem, I had a strong backup handheld flashlight. Meanwhile, Henry's phone had died trying to record our epic GPS track. Also, his rechargeable headlamp was toast from the early morning. No problem, he had a backup handheld light as well. So far, so good. The final drop off the ridge was very steep and both of us took short slides. We worked our way very slowly to the canyon, dropping in about a mile from our entry track. We worked our way back, dipping in and out of 20' gullies and stumbling over boulders. With a couple miles left, my flashlight went dark. No problem, I always pack spare batteries. Score one for battery operated devices. With one mile to go, Henry's rechargeable light went dim, but it managed to eek out weak illumination the rest of the way. We would have been seriously in trouble without light. We got back to the truck at 11:45 PM utterly pooped. It was a 13 hour descent from Rabbit and 20 hours truck to truck. Still technically a day hike, 20 hours from 3:45 AM to 11:45 PM! At the park and ride on the way back, Henry and I both took naps before driving the rest of the way home. 21.5 miles, 7600' gain.
We were planning on a 14 hour trip, but obviously underestimated the return. Temps were pleasant, 50s to start, about 60 on Rabbit, and mid-70s in the canyon on the way out. Every time I do something like this, I swear never again, then I forget.
