Villager Peak, Rabbit Peak #2

20 November 1993

By: David Eisenberg

Leaders: David Eisenberg, Carleton Shay

Our biggest fear was that the temperature would be too warm. Fortunately, we had a temporary cool spell. We came prepared for heat, but the cool weather allowed us to carry less water. (Carleton carried 6 quarts of water, the rest of us had 9.)

Five of us met at 6:30 am at the base of Villager. Carleton, John Southworth, and I carpooled the night before and were well rested. Bob Baird and Theresia Glover carpooled out that morning! Perhaps they wanted to see if they could sleepwalk up to Villager? We made a last minute check of equipment. We kept daring each other to call off the trip, but no one did so we began our desert walk at 6:40.

There was no particular problem with the hike, unless you want to count the ever increasing weight on our backs. We cached water about 2 hours from the top which we reached at 2:40. We set up camp and decided that we needed more exercise so we climbed Villager.

Back at the campsite, the wind was getting stronger and the temperature colder and we quickly dropped off to sleep. Theresia brought a new tent from A-16. It was Frisbee shaped. When she threw it in the air, it set itself up! The rest of us slept out.

Sunday, we left the campsite again at 6:40. We saved 2 minutes because we had climbed Villager the day before. 3 hours later, we were at Rabbit. Carleton announced that he had drunk only 1.5 quarts of water and that he would be dumping 3 quarts at the campsite! It was cold and we were in a hurry so we left after 10 minutes. We were back at the camp at 12:20.

We quickly packed up and departed at 12:50. We had figured that we would need to leave by 1:00 to get out in daylight. We were indeed back at the cars at 4:50. I drank all 9 quarts but Carleton still had 1/2 quart left!

We celebrated a great hike with dinner at Sizzler's in Indio. Thanks to all for a great hike. Thanks especially to Carleton for his wonderful Co-Lead.