Last full day of summer, 2014 - A short Activation hike to a beautiful mountaintop view from the somewhat smallish summit area of Mount Catherine.
A last minute decision to attempt a SOTA Activation on the last full day of summer 2014, led us to choose Mount Catherine, behind the Summit East (Hyak) ski area, near Snoqualmie Pass.
No Joke on Jester Mountain, but Mr. Murphy (as in Murphy's Law) showed up. Fall is nearly in the air. The flowers are long gone, replaced by late season berries and mushrooms. Air temperature when leaving the car at 9:00 AM was 44 degrees F. Crossing Snoqualmie Pass, the weather was rainly, foggy & windy. It did not look promising, but the anticipated East Slope of Cascades Rain Shadow was in effect, and we had a glorious day in the Wenatchee mountains.
Skunked In Switzerland!
My ambitions for activating several SOTA Summits in Switzerland fell far short. Switzerland has been experiencing one of the worst "summer" seasons in many decades. This is impacting tourism, and certainly impacted our plans.
Easy 2 Mile RT (or less) leads to this fantastic overlook of the Teanaway River Valley, Mount Stuart Range, Mount Rainier, Mount Adams and hundreds of other Cascade peaks.
All SOTA contacts were on 20M SSB, using my 20M inverted V dipole suspended fron a 22 ft. Carbon Fiber fishing pole. I made 12 contacts in 8 states over approximately 30 minutes.
Nice Hike on warm, sunny, first day of Summer, 2014.
Easy hike, mainly in shady forest, leading to a last ascent on road and trail through a clear cut, but re-planted, summit area of South Tiger Mountain. Unlike many other hikes in the "Issaquah Alps", this trail get relatively light use, and consequently light maintenance. It was a little overgrown in places, with Nettles in some areas.
My wife accompanied me, as well as our Yellow Labrador Retriever "Dexter", who proceeded to find any availble mud hole to immerse himself in...
Mount Baden-Powell is 2,865 meters, 9,399 Feet High. Blue Sky & Rarified Air.
On a brief vacation in Southern California to visit family, I managed to activate three (3) SOTA peaks. This is report 1 of 3 for this trip.
San Gabriel is 1,878 Meters, 6,161 feet elevation. It is a 6 point SOTA Summit.
On a training hike for our Switzerland Hiking / Climbing tour next July / August. Accompanied by my wife Sharon and our Labrador Retriever Dexter. Rattlesnake Mountain is a relatively easy 9.2 miles round trip (including preliminary walk to trail head from parking lot), gaining 2,500 feet +/- to a summit elevation of 3,517. TH is is easily accessible from my home QTH in Bellevue, WA. I-90 east to exit 32 in North Bend, then good but windy paved road to Rattlesnake Lake area. The hike is through mostly wooded terrain, with some sections
On a quck training hike for our Switzerland Hiking / Climbing tour next July / August, I carried along my trusty ICOM - IC - V85 2M HT because it has an output of 7 Watts. Together with my old AEA "Hot Rod" telescoping vertical antenna for 2M, it seems to work very well on 2M FM. Squak Mountain, 617 Meters, 2,024 Feet elevation is an easy 4.2 miles RT hike gaining 1,274 feet to the summit. It is easily accessible from my home QTH in Bellevue, WA. Park on SR900 (Issaquah - Renton Road) or, as we did, at one of the higher trailheads on Mountainside