| Rosa and Rabbit Backpack | Private Trip | February 7,8 1987 |
Left for Rabbit at 7:30 AM, reaching the top at 10:45. Got back to camp at 1:30 and took another 3 1/2 hours to reach cars. Saw extensive activity with an airplane in Rattlesnake Canyon, apparently a practice rescue mission, which culminated after dark with a helicopter landing high up in the canyon where someone was waving a flashlight.
Participants were Ron Bartell, Christine Mitchell, Wendy Ruess and myself.
There are no longer any Indians at Indian Ranch Reservation (at the bottom of Hall Canyon on the Panamint Valley side of Telescope). There are a dozen or so trailers which are occupied on the weekends and at least one person living at the ranch full time. A gate blocks the way through the ranch but the friendly people at the ranch can be raised on a CB radio or it can be walked around to the West. We spent the night at the ranch.
We started walking at 4:15 in the morning, following the road up into Hall Canyon. The 1952 "Telescope" map shows a trail going North out of Hall Canyon but we didn't find this trail until we got up onto the ridge. The trail is then easy to follow to the spring at 4,400 feet in Hall Canyon (shown on map). An apparently passable 4WD drive road comes over from Jail canyon to the spring, where there is a small cabin. The spring looked like it might flow year around. The 4WD road then continues up Hall canyon to around 7,000 feet, but it is not passable to vehicles beyond the spring.
At 7,000 feet we went north to a west ridge coming off the peak. At about 9,000 feet we decided to try a snow chute, a mistake since the snow was too soft and we kept post-holing. Finally got to the top a little after 6. I was quite tired by this point and it was after 9 before we got to the cars at Mahogany Flats. Participants were Wendy Ruess, Steve Crooks and myself.