Rabbit Hill (again)
Shaz reports…
We headed out to revisit Rabbit Hill. This is now part of the Mountain Dog Challenge run by Further Faster, but our original tick for the challenge was Double Hill. When Double Hill was changed out for Rabbit Hill it became one of our training walks for The Old Ghost Road. So when Mirjam and I first did this - it was with loaded packs as we built up comfort carrying heavier loads.
Liz wasn’t able to make that training trip - so that called for a revisit… and Yay! without heavy packs this time.
We’ve done the route up to Trig M a good dozen or more times between us in various configurations, and this time I was pleased to note that I was faster than the DoC time of 90 minutes by at least 15 minutes. Definitely fitter than a year ago! We stopped for a quick coffee break at the trig and continued to follow the ridge down the other side of Trig M and on…
Mirjam and Liz down the far side of Trig M. The dogs are scouting ahead - possibly looking for the rabbits of Rabbit Hill. Plenty of scats but no sign of rabbits on any of our visit (there was another attempt with Liz, but we had to turn back when visibility dropped and it started to snow).This trip has stunning views, but being our second outing I didn’t take quite as many photos (although this doesn’t hold true for all second visits).From Trig M you follow the ridge, with a few bumps up and down. The last bit drops down into a boggy patch - which was a lot boggier last time. This visit it was just damp without the boot-sucking bog part. Then you climb up again to the top of Rabbit Hill. This is an unmarked route without a track, but easy enough to figure out on a clear day.
Ahhh - boots off. Last time we got to Rabbit Hill I was breaking in a pair of boots that I never really got 100% comfortable with - and my boots came off. I’m using a different pair now that my feet enjoy, but I thought I’d revisit the pleasure of cool feet just for fun.It took us two-and-half hours from the car park to Rabbit Hill, including stops. Lunch at the cairn on Rabbit Hill - and then back the way we came… with another quick drink stop (dogs only I think - they were more thirsty on this trip than they were at Mystery Lake). The return trip took 2 hours all up.
This was a big improvement on our last trip where we were uncertain of the route and carrying about 12kgs. I think we shaved off about an hour on our previous trip time for the 11 to 12km route.
Some photos from the rest stop at Trig M on the way back to finish off…