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Keenan and I drove from San Diego to the Combs Peak trailhead (the spot where the dirt road intersects the PCT) via Chihuaha Valley Rd., following the driving directions on Summitpost without much issue. We planned to hike Combs Peak then drive over to Ranchita to do San Ysidro Peak, which would get us the two highest peaks in Anza Borrego. It took us between 2 and 2.5 hours to get to the trailhead from Pacific Beach, and we started hiking just before 8:00. We made it to the saddle near Combs by 8:20 and left the trail. 20 minutes later we were on top. We took a short break then walked back and were at the car by 9:30. We passed a small group that was heading out to do trail maintenance.
The drive over to the Ranchita area took about an hour. We parked in a turnout of off HWY 78 just east of Ranchita and just before the road begins to descend to the Salton Sea then took a 20 minute nap before heading out. There was no trail to follow, so we set out from the road cross country. The plan was to bag White BM then The Thimble then San Ysidro. From the road we gradually ascended a broad valley toward White BM summitting after 45 minutes of mostly easy hiking.
We sat on top and planned our route up The Thimble then descended the north slopes toward the planned route. 30 minutes later we were looking up at the class 2/3 route. The actual route wasn't as tricky as it looked from afar with the only one serious class 3 move. On the descent we noticed that easier routes could be found on the opposite (southwest) face. We ascended the east face.
Keenan skipped the final summit scramble, so I picked my way down the north side of the peak and met up with him. From there we side-hilled it across a small valley toward San Ysidro. From the summit of The Thimble it looked pretty close. It only took me about 40 minutes to get from there to the top even though the whole route was cross country. The cactus dodging kept things interesting. I got a couple of needle stuck deep in my leg that were challenging to get out. They had fishhook-like barbs at the end. At the top of San Ysidro, we enjoyed the ~75 degree weather and the views while we ate lunch. After that we descended a sandy slope then followed the creekbed and 4WD road back to near the summit of White BM, bypassing The Thimble around the west side. I hoped that we'd be able to take the 4WD road all the way back to the car, but we ran into private property and had to make a horrendous, unplanned sand slog back up to the ridgeline below White BM. From there we simply re-traced our steps to the road.
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