Mount Catherine (W7W/CW-066) / Denny Creek Water Slide / Wynoochee Falls

On Saturday 30 July Lily (12), Brookelyn (7), Kimber (3) and I headed to Mount Catherine for a hike and SOTA activation. This was the second time that Lily and I had done Mount Catherine. Peyton was with us last year but his year he was visiting his dad in Montana, he will be back next weekend with hopes to hit Mount Townsend (TBD).

I had talked to Chris, WX7EMT, a couple days prior and I knew that he was planning on doing Mount Defiance also today. I figured that I would be able to work him while I was driving up to Catherine and possibly get up in time to get a summit to summit with him. It turns out that Chris got a late start due to his wife having a flat tire and decided to do Catherine also.

On the drive up 146.52 was really busy with SOTA activators. I was able to work KG7VIZ on Mount Pilchuck, WX7EMT on Mount Catherine, and K3OG on Big Snow Mountain just on 146.52 on the way to the trail head. I know that there was a couple other activators on frequency also, one was on Green Mountain and another on Fremont lookout but not within the activation area for SOTA.

We got to the trailhead and started hiking at 1330, a little later then planned but this is what happens when you head out with young kids. As you can see by my Fit bit profile below the hike was 1.83 miles with 1,407 ft of elevation gain and took us 1:17 minutes. We really took our time with Kimber (3 years old) but we had a fun trip, Little 3 year old legs do not move very fast, but she is doing great considering she has juvenile idiopathic arthritis, she does really great all things considered. Sometimes dad gets a little more exercise when she needs to be carried.

On the way to the summit we were able to meet Chris, WX4EMT, coming down from his activation.

Once I got to the summit I quickly decided not to do HF (Sorry Chasers)! The summit block is very small and there was quite a bit of hikers up today. With Kimber I also wanted to keep a close eye on her because it would be easy to fall off the summit in all directions. So we sat and enjoyed the view and I used the Kenwood to work contacts on VHF. The first contact I got was K3OG. Peter was nice enough to wait for me to get to the summit so that I could get a summit to summit contact. I wanted to work him so that he could start his trip off the summit. I knew that he had a long trip down from Big Snow Mountain. 

I ended up getting 7 contacts with the HT and did not have to work hard at it. In fact my first 3 contacts were on frequency waiting for me to get to the summit. Thanks Peter, Chris, and Doug for being there waiting for me!! 

After we made the hike off the hill we headed down to Denny Creek to the natural water slide. Here is a link to the Washington trail association hike: http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/denny-creek

The site states that it is 6 miles round trip but if you only go to the water slide it is less then three miles. We hit the water slide at just over one mile and the other half mile was exploring. There is a lot to explore and it is a great time!!! Pictures below show our waterslide trip.

 On Sunday we did a day trip to Wynoochee Lake and Falls. This is another short but fun hike with swimming for kids. Here is a link for that: http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/wynoochee-falls If you are ever in this neck of the woods and you have kids they will love these places. See pictures below.

I shared a little more about our weekend then just our SOTA trip but there is so much more that we do on a typical weekend then just SOTA. We are a busy family. I drag my kids to much more then just mountain tops! 

My wife and I were just commenting how we never have pictures of each other. I guess we are going to have to get better at that. 

Thanks everyone for reading my blog. I love the comments and emails that we get on them and they are a lot of fun. It is also a great way to keep memories to look back at later. 

See you all on the next one...thinking Mount Townsend on Saturday 6 August with Lily and Peyton...of course everything is subject to change in the Conover family!

Lily is working on a Video of our trip right now and I will upload to YouTube and attach to the blog when she is complete. She loves shooting video and editing so it will be great to see what comes out.

73,

Silver Peak (W7W/CW-052) SOTA

On 9 July Lily, Colten, Grizzy (Lab/Shepherd/Spaniel Mix) and I made the 1.5 hour drive up to Snoqualmie pass to do some hiking and radio. The weather seemed iffy but looked to be good if we were to get to the east of the pass. I had been looking at getting up to Silver Peak and thought that this would be a good day to do it. We got a little bit of a late start and left the house around 0930. We were at the trailhead at approximately 1130 and started to hike. The weather was great. There were some clouds but they left us alone on the hike and on the summit. We did not start getting any rain until we were off of the steep parts and back on the PCT. On the way up to the summit I was able to work Chris (WX7EMT) on the summit of Jester Mountain and Tim (KG7EJT) on the summit of Thorp Mountain. It is great to get to work other activators but it would have been nice if I was on the summit to make these summit to summit contacts. I listened to Tim work a few other summits.

Here is the video of our hike and activation. Cool part about 3:30 in the video when Lily works Katie and Tanner, W7TAO's children. Thanks Todd it was fun!

We got the directions off of the Washington Trail Association (WTA) and they were spot on. http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/silver-peak. When you are in the area definitely look at doing Mount Catherine ( W7W/CW-066) as it is a short 3 mile round trip hike and another amazing view. http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/mount-catherine. Another Summit that is in the area that you could do if you are very ambitious is Tinkham Peak West (W7W/KG-063). When you hike the trip to Silver you are in the Saddle between Tinkham and Silver Mountains. I have seen reports on Peak Bagger that have summited this way. Check this Peak Bagger trip report out for GPS tracks: http://www.peakbagger.com/climber/ascent.aspx?aid=469450.

Elevation profile from gpsvisualizer.com

WTA says that Silver Peak is a 5.6 mile round trip hike. I think that it is more like 6 - 6.5 miles round trip. I did not have a GPS on but I ran across a couple that stated that their GPS said 3 miles and they were still short of the summit. Still a great hike though. The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) portion of the hike is very gentle until the you turn off the PCT for the 2nd half of the hike where most of the elevation is gained. You gain about 1400 feet in about 1.2 miles.

Cell Service - Verizon, full voice and data at the summit. No signal after you were down about 300 ft off the summit.

APRS - I was able to transmit and receive signal on most of the hike. I also was able to self spot on the summit using APRS to SOTA

Weather - Weather was cloudy and about 60 degrees. We had some cloud breaks on the summit. A slight breeze on the summit but very comfortable. A little bit of rain on the way down.

Equipment - Yaesu FT817nd, 41' EndFed Random Wire (Wireman Part #534) / 16' Counterpoise, Palm Radio Mini Paddle, Yaesu VX-6, Kenwood TH-d72, Elecraft T1 Antenna Tuner. I also had my Elecraft KX1 in my bag. I guess you can never be too prepared!

GPS Tracks: http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=3440757

Mount Catherine (W7W/CW-066) SOTA

Lily and Peyton at the Summit

 I had to make a quick trip to Ritzville, WA on the 24th of August to take Lily back to Montana. She spent the last few weeks with me and had to start school on the 26th. We decided to make a quick Geocache hike and SOTA activation on our way over. Mount Catherine was a great choice because it was a short, quick hike, It was a SOTA complete for me, and there were geocaches on the way up. Thanks to all the chasers that worked me up on the mountain. I apologize for the "CW moments" as it had been a while since I had practiced. I am continuing to get better though. One thing that I really need to do (I keep saying this) is to get back into a SSB mode. I had the kids do some calling on 2m FM but there was just not anyone taking today. I have recently purchased a LNR Precision FX4 but it seems to be very picky with antennas. I just got a LNR Precision MTR EF Antenna. If I can get this tuned and working I should be able to get the kids back on the air. They are both working on getting their tickets but until then I like to hear then on HF. If there are any ideas on antennas I would like to hear. I am working the linked dipole option also but I have been busy lately.

Charlie the GEOSOTA dog on the summit.

Directions and Information:
http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/mount-catherine

Cell Signal: 

Cell signal (Verizon) most of the way up and great at the summit. No issues with digital spotting.

Repeaters:
Did not try any repeaters up here. I did make a couple calls on 146.52 with no luck.

 Radio working conditions: 

No noise...great conditions.

Trail Conditions

2 miles great trail.

Weather: 

Nice warm, smokey day today.

Fees:

None, I can't remember if there was a requirement. I have all passes in my truck so sometimes I forget to worry about things like this. I don't believe anything is required though.

APRS:

Not tested today. Sorry.

Mount Rainier through the smoke

Making the Geo Cache find at the top

Not sure what is going on here. Peyton and Lily took lots of pictures for me.

Not sure where it goes but it is there.

A quick picture of my setup. Elecraft KX1, Yaesu VX-6, 500mah battery, and a box to keep it all dry!

Support for the EF Antenna.

The radio all boxed up and ready for the trip off the summit. 

 Summit information and resources used for planning

www.runningmap.com

I use this app to estimate distances of new trails.

www.geocaching.com

Here is one of my secrets!!! Even if you don't do geocaching take a look at the map. If you manipulate it right up can see every summit out there. If there is a geocache at the top, there is a way to get there. Sometimes if you click on the cache it will even give detailed directions to get there and some good pictures.

http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GCHJTP_muddy-outlook

Here is an example of some decent directions learned from a geocache. The information was out dated but much of the time it is not.

www.pnwsota.org

I link to this site from my blog and from my blog to this site. This site is great because it posts the necessary information straight to the Summit Page.

http://www.cqgma.net/mvs/index.php
Adventure Radio Map View - I like this map as a way to see the summits. It seems more user friendly with filters then the SOTA mapping software.

http://www.nohrsc.noaa.gov/interactive/html/map.html
NOHRSC Interactive Snow Information - This is a great tool to see where the snow levels are and what they have looked like in the past on certain dates.

http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/draw/
Put in a route in this site and it will give you a gps file for the information you provide. This works if you want to draw and upload a route into your GPS for use on the trail.