Tongue Mountain (W7W/PL-057) SOTA

A look at the summit on the way up. It looks a little intimidating from this
angle. It seems that all the mountains around here end with a steep rock at the
top! Sunrise Peak was the same way which is only a few miles away.

I continued with SOTA this weekend when Delma and I headed out to the hills. We headed out on a Saturday night after we put the kids to bed with plans of camping with a little hike on Sunday morning. The weather was great. We got to camp between two summit Trailheads Tongue Mountain (W7W/PL-057) and Juniper Peak (W7W/LC-014). My original plan was to wake up and do Juniper but my back was pretty sore so I took the easier Tongue Mountain at 1.7 miles instead of 2.9 miles. Del decided that she liked her sleeping bag and wanted to enjoy a couple of more hours of sleep without kids jumping on her bed! I headed up to the summit on a great day. I move slowly to keep the pain under control. As they say slow is smooth, smooth is fast. This is an
easy trail up and then a narrow last 1/2 mile to the top. I took my KX3 up and decided to do SSB only on this one. It was great to hear all the chasers again as this was my first SSB activation for about a year. I am sure that my low chaser #s can be contributed to my 5w on AA batteries with a 41' inverted V on the summit. I was also battleing with the CA CQP going on. Thanks to all the chasers that were able to pull me through the noise.

 Directions:
- From Randle, WA on Highway 12 drive 1 mile south on forest rd 25.
-At the first road junction take the slight left (east) onto FR23
-Drive approximately 9 miles and turn right onto FR28. (main intersection)
- Continue approx. 1 mile and turn left on FR29.
- In approx. 4 miles turn left on FR 2904
- In approx. 4 miles you will see the marked TH on the right side of the road. There is a large parking area there with camping available. Plenty of room to turn a trailer around and facilities for unloading a stock trailer. motorcycles allowed on trails.

Mount Rainier

Misc: There was no cell signal, with verizon, for the majority of the trip. I was able to get enough signal to get a spot out at the top of the summit. I would be prepared with other means of spotting though. Additionally these trails are shared with horses, motorcycles, bikers, and hikers. I ran into no other users while I was up there though.

The scramble to the top. The scramble is a tough one.
I had to leave my dog at the bottom chained up in the
shade as I was to nervous to bring her up with me.
Grizzy was happy to take a nap after the trip.

Looking down into the valley

My log.

Thanks to all the chasers. I look forward to seeing you on the next one.