Some friends invited us along for a Northern Idaho weekend to hike the famed Scotchman Peak, just outside of Sandpoint. It didn’t take much convincing, that with the challenge of the hike, mountain goats at the top, the promise of beers with friends afterwards… oh and it’s SOTA summit. Go figure.
The trek to the top was steep but uneventful, at least until you break through the treeline, then the views start to hit. It was right about that point when our group paused when I took off ahead knowing I had some setting up to do. At the summit there was plenty of space to hang out so I found a little rock perch to operate from, strapped my mast to a snag, and got to work.
This was only my fourth SOTA activation; contacts seemed to be a little tricky that afternoon and I had friends waiting at the top, so I made QSOs and after no further chasers came forward I called it good. The mini bottle of Cabernet from the AirBNB tasted mighty fine at 7000ft, and the view wasn’t too shabby, either.
Thanks to my chasers: WA6KHK, WA7G, W0MNA, WV0X, K3ENE
This summer I really wanted to get out and do some multi-day backpacking and bag a few peaks. I have a few rough periods at work throughout the year, thankfully they only last a couple of weeks, but when they’re over I like to escape into the wilds for a day or three and try to undo all of the sitting and screen staring.
This Fourth of July weekend, I had planned out a 3-day, 37-mile route through the Wenatchee National Forest. Skirting along the southern side of the Enchantments, the hope was to avoid the crowds yet get a glimpse some of the amazing views.
Day One
Getting our start at about 9am at the Beverly Creek Trailhead (elev 3823ft), the altitude gains started right off the bat. We veered east to follow the Bean Creek Trail and at about the 2 mile mark things opened up to where we could see our first target: Bean Peak. The next climb was spicy; gaining about 900ft in half a mile. Once getting up to the saddle and moving towards the peak, it was time for a break and a snack.
While working on peanut butter tortilla wraps and pondering on Bean Peak, we decided that it looked a little too technical for what we were wanting to attempt that day. What we really want to hit was Earl Peak, just a ridgeline traverse over. That’s the SOTA summit and on the way to camp, so we began to make our way along the ridge. Rocky and riddled with footpaths leading every-which-way. Evidently we got a bit off-course putting us below the intended route, and top of the ridge, by about 30 feet and no good way to work back up to it without backtracking across the sketchy loose rocks we just navigated.
Discussing our options, we decided our best bet at this point was get off the unstable slope we found overselves on and re-group. That was easier said than done, but with 900ft of scree surfing we eventually made it back down to the floor where we found some shade by the creek. Regaining some composure, resetting expectations for the day, and constructing a new route, we set forth upon one more climb up to the (much less rocky) saddle on the south end of Earl where camp was set for night one at 6166ft. Earl was going to be scratched from our agenda. We’ll be back for you, Earl.
Day Two
Getting an 8am start, we made our way around the SE of Earl moving through a couple of valleys for 4.8 miles before getting up to Navaho Saddle and meeting the County Line Trail at 6048ft. There we met a badass hiker from Roslyn (I don’t recall her name) who was out bagging peaks with a fast pace. Impressed, we continued on and up to summit of Navaho Peak W7W/CW-008–another steep job. At the top of Navaho, 7220ft, there were some snow spots and it was buggy, but the view was incredible.
Working 20m SSB and 2m FM, the activation was relatively quick and I nabbed 3 summit-to-summits. Thank you to my contacts: N6LY, KK6OO, KB7JB, KB7LYD, KE7JWP, WX7EMT.
The next section, which was not in the original plan but we had to opt for it in lieu of a 26 mile day two, was the Falls Creek Trail. A nice gent coming up the trail as we began to descend told us it was (English accent) “a bit tricky with quite a lot of blowdowns, but if you have GPS you’ll make do. cheers!” He was not bullshitting. This trail was mostly unused and navigation was, oh, tricky. Towards the end as we met up with the much more popular Ingalls Creek Trail, there were a couple of fun shoes-off river crossings.
Night two’s dinner of smoked salmon, some spicy peanut butter ramen, and a shared Snickers bar was well-earned. Early to bed.
Day Three
Exit day, July 6. With some sadness, we broke camp and mentally prepared for returning to civilization. The hike out was amazing; Well-groomed, not terribly steep, lots of waterfalls and just a scenic treat. We stopped about a mile from the top to have lunch and refill water. I asked Tyler if he heard voices and he said my radio was talking—sure enough it was a CQ call from a SOTA activator. I reached out and connected with him, he was up on Red Top Mountain W7W/CW-061 and I was his fourth contact.
The remainder of the hike consisted of a simple climb to the saddle and then a fast-paced descent back to the trailhead. We cleaned up in a nearby river, stopped at a brewery in Cle Elum for a pint and a bite, then headed home.
The weekend was an overall success with some trials, course-corrections, incredible views and relationship-building hours on trail.
Experience can be a harsh teacher and through my first couple of failed SOTA attempts, I learned a lot. Or at least, enough to find a little success. Attempt One was a part of a 12 mile hike in Arizona; I had my Tech license, a XIEGU X5105 and a 20/10 EFHW but no mast. The activation zone was a giant rock so with no trees (or saguaro) and no mast, I tossed the antenna wire over the edge like a rappel rope, spotted myself and started calling CQ. As you guessed, the rock didn’t call back.
Attempt Two was in central Washington, again with the X5105 but this time I had a mast. Once again I spotted myself on 10m and began calling CQ—but it was terribly windy, awfully cold, and I had four other people with me including a six year old who became less interested in things every minute. No dice.
Fast-forward to this past weekend. I’ve since sold my X5105 and made the commitment by picking up an Icom 705, which followed the other effort of earning my General. Now I have the tools, and I have the talent license.
Rather than planning around a monster hike I tried to keep it simple; W7W/WE-022 is close to home and only about 4.5 miles round-trip. Setting up the 20/10 EFHW I spotted myself and started calling CQ on 20m. Not long after I faintly heard a “summit to summit” call (audio is bumped up for the video) and made the contact with N0DNF who, admittedly, was probably doing all of the work but we sorted it out and I got my first activation and the four points.
Stoked that I finally found success and pleased that my very first SOTA contact was a S2S with a Mountain Goat. Looking forward to my next activation this 4th of July on W7W/CW-013.
The area that Keith and I were setting out to ride was completely unfamiliar to us. I had mapped out a route that looked good on “paper” but with no real knowledge of what were getting into. The satellite imagery suggest there was a good parking area to leave the car, water along the way, and some potential camping spots. This was Keith’s first bikepacking trip, and being relatively new to riding in general, I kept the mileage to a conservative level.
We set off at about 11am for a 12-13 mile easy start. After an initial 4 mile steady climb we began a long and relatively quick 7 mile ascent. As we were approaching mileage where I had mentally noted we should start looking for a campsite, I began studying my computer map.
Where were we turning?
Wow that 11 miles sure went by fast.
What was our avg speed?
How fast were we trucking now?
OH SHIT. GIANT HOLE IN THE ROAD!
I knew that the next bit was going to suck. And hurt. There was no avoiding it so I just braced for the inevitable. BOOM. the front wheel struck the hole and I went flying off the bike, not completely because my feet were clipped in, but I was airborne.
After laying there for a minute performing a systems check on my body, I held my arm up in the air with a thumbs up signaling to Keith that I was dead, knocked out, or terribly wounded. Upon further examination of the bike, I quickly realized that the front tire had a bout an inch-long sidewall thereinflating, I then noticed how bent the rim was. It wasn’t taco’d, but tostada’d.
All good. We had miles in front of us and as long the bike would roll, my jacked up skin wasn’t going to ruin the entire weekend. We pressed on and found a great campsite about 10 minutes later. After setting up tents, I got into the cold Little Coeur d’Alene river and cleaned out my leg and arm scrapes–which was quite fun.
Now looking at the time, it was only 1:00. What the hell were we going to do for the next seven or eight hours until bed time? It was decided to pack our shit back up and press on. We had plenty of daylight and energy left, so we ultimately ended up climbing the big pass for another 10 miles which led us to one of the best campsites we saw all weekend.
Setting up camp for the second time in one day, we settled in and relaxed for the evening. I fired up my HT radio and made a couple of contacts, one with a person who was camping in the valley down below and another with a guy who was over in Hayden Lake, about 10 miles away.
The next morning we took off and finished out the last 4 miles of the climb before descending back down into the valley before, once again, climbing back out to get the car. Stopping partway up for lunch, it was a long slow trudge without much shade… but I enjoyed it. I think Keith enjoyed most of it. 😉
End of the day, the weekend was a total success. Keith performed on the bike better the bike than I had expected and we concatenated our three-day trip into two. Our packing lists were good, but we both learned a few things (as one always does) in the field. And while I had a nasty wreck that I’m still healing from, I was able to get my bike back into working shape to ride out the remainder of the trip. And I have a spare set of 650b wheels that I can switch out in under 10 minutes.
A friend group is doing a R2R (Rim-to-Rim Grand Canyon) hike in a couple of weeks and invited us out on one of their training hill climbs today. We punched out about 15 miles and 3000 ft elevation loss/gain. Beautiful day for it and a much needed break from the busy couple of weeks I’m in the middle of at work.
While visiting family in Arizona, I couldn’t help but to have a go at my first SOTA activation. My old stomping grounds of South Mountain Park, where I grew up hiking, mountain biking, and later trail running, seemed like an appropriate range. I found a peak on SOTLAS that wasn’t familiar to me but had plenty of 2 meter activations and devised a rough plan.
With my new callsign in place, K2VFZ, I created a SOTA Alert the day prior for 146.58 @ 10am. My mother dropped me off at the trailhead at 6am and I was off to get in the majority of the elevation gain before the desert heat spiced up. Reaching the AZ at about 8:45am, there was plenty of time to monkey with the radios. I started without a spot, just calling out on 146.52 using a Signal Stick (I could see the city of Phoenix at nearly 180-degree field) and heard… nothing.
Switching antennas, I unfortunately didn’t have any mast (ordered but not in poss.) or tree at my disposal so I draped the 2m slim jim over the edge of the rock/cliff where I was positioned. Subsequent calls returned nothing and I decided to make a spot for the x.58 and tried again, and again, with no luck.
Throwing ideas at the wall, I pulled out the HF radio (which I had never used) and plugged in the 10/20 end-fed antenna that I (again) draped over the edge of the cliff. After creating another spot on 28.470 ssb I called out several more CQs with no responses.
Admittedly, I was a little surprised that I didn’t have a single contact on 2m. This was my very first time, though, and I’m about as new to this as it gets; chalked it up to a learning experience enveloped with a nice hike.
+++
Notes & Lessons Learned:
As mentioned, I’m not really sure why I never made a contact on VHF.
Admittedly, the j-pole cliff hang wasn’t great.
That needed to be somehow erected, though at that location there weren’t many options.
The Signal Stick antenna should’ve been enough. Maybe?
I had line-of-site to much of the city of Phoenix. But I didn’t hear anything (even when calling for a radio check on 146.52).
My HF antenna “setup” was just an absolute disaster.
Draping it over the cliff is not getting it up in the air.
Ordered a SOTABeams Carbon 6 mast and have also put together a tree-hanging kit as a backup.
The 1 meter length of RG316 coax is not enough of a ground/counterpoise.
Not even sure that’s the right explanation, but I’ve gathered that was sub-optimal. I have since ordered a 25 ft length of LMR195 coax.
Matching unit just laying on the rock next to me should’ve been (vertically) suspended.
I’ll probably us my camera tripod or perhaps trekking pole to accomplish this next time.
Still unsure about the need to trim/modify the antenna wire to achieve 10 meter tuning.
The X5105 has, from what I gather, an exceptional built-in tuner… so I don’t think I need to do anything to the wire as long as I tune after setup. Maybe I should’ve gotten the random wire antenna?
+++
8.21 miles
Taliensen West
Frank Lloyd Wright, though a Wisconsin native, loved, lived-in, and gifted Arizona many years and contributions of his incredible architecture. Myself, as the son of a structural engineer and an Arizona State University alum, I feel very familiar with FLW and his achievements. We were privileged to tour his Talisien West home-slash-studio
Nearly every year, I meet up with my college buddies somewhere and we go to an Arizona State football game. This year we met up in Seattle and, true to my nature, I found a running event to do. The Dicks-a-Thon is a 26 or 14 mile run around hilly Seattle where you go navigate from one Dicks Drive In to another, eating burgers along the way. I opted for the half-marathon route as, it was a game day with friends and I had places to be (and more beers to drink).
As if that didn’t sound like enough of a digestive challenge, we all arrived in town the night before and were out drinking until about 1am. That didn’t make the run particularly amazing, but it surprisingly wasn’t too bad.
I’m no longer taking freelance work* so there was no real need to keep a professional site going for design stuff. If you arrived here via https://mackey.design you’ve got the correct online presence.
This is the new manifest—an untidy home to anything I deem worthy of the time it takes to upload & type.
Drove out to the Oregon Coast for ‘spring break’. The weather was shit and it was too early for puffins, but we ate some great fish-n-chips and went for a couple of nice hikes. Plus, setting up the camera + tripod on the rainy beach with 30mph winds was entertaining for everyone inside the restaurant watching me.
Corrie and I (and a few hundred others) dodged the smoke from wildfires raging in Idaho and Washington to ride our bikes in beautiful Ketchum, ID. The gravel was supreme, the climbs were long, and the headwind was bastardly. Pedals turned and beers earned, as they say.
I should be better and snapping pics whilst on the bike (as in, I should do it).
This was hashed out over several cups of coffee. I’ll be remote in the Seattle area for a couple of weeks in July and had an open weekend to fill. Rough-cut of the itinerary, starting just outside of Carnation, WA:
Friday 7/22
3:00pm – ride to Mill Creek
Saturday 7/23
6:00am – Mill Creek to the ferry station in Seattle
11:25am – take ferry to Bainbridge Island
12:00pm – check out the bike shop/museum and probably grab a bite
And like that, it’s all over. A lot of solo time on the bike; burning through miles, thinking about life and thinking about nothing. Drinking wine by myself in a hotel room while my bibs dry in the bathroom shower. Being honked at. Getting waves. Sweating the days crashing and nights.
The front-end of this trip was a RAGNAR run north of Seattle where I did 28 miles within a 24 hour span. The backend was the RAMROD where the ride was something like 150 miles with 11,000 ft of elevation.
Road cycling is freeing. The constant wind in your face, views flying by quickly, but no so quickly that you can’t digest them, the effort and the low-grade fear of vehicles.
Every ride is a true to life experience.
There’s a loop around here some refer to as the Albion Loop that starts in Pullman, rolls the hills of the Wawawai Highway, climbs Klemgard hill and drops down into the valley to speed through the small town of Albion. It’s just under 25 miles, takes a hair over an hour depending on wind, and is a real no-brainer.
When I’m in cycling shape, I’ll do this ride once a week. It’s great for training and tremendous at clearing the mind. Simple enough to do with zero planning but there will be two or three sections that really make you work, and think.
If you ever find yourself in Eastern Washington and would enjoy a quick ride, do it. Also, hit me up and I’ll do it with ya because I honestly can’t ride it enough.
