W7W/CW-095, Baldy Mtn... Mar 23, 2013

On Saturday March 23, 2013 I met my brother John KF7MYI at the BLM Big Pines Campground, half way between Ellensburg and Selah, WA in the scenic Yakima River Canyon.  It's spring time in Central Washington State where the sagebrush is aromatic and the rattle snakes are still dormant. 

We started out at  1270 ft ASL and the temperature was 32 degrees at 10 AM.  The hike to the summit would take us up 3234 ft in about 1.5 miles.  Google Earth shows a route from the campground, called the TP Jim Monument Trail.  The apparent TH took us through an old gate and followed an abandoned road.  The road petered out and we followed a steep boot track up the side of a gully.  We stopped to rest and my brother mentioned that he didn't realize we were following that trail.  I said that I'd hadn't noticed that trail until now. 

We followed that trail along an old fence line, probably 80+ years old, along the ridge.  Most of the wood posts have rotted away but the three strands of rusty barb wire laid on top of each other on the ground.  Just when I thought the trek was leveling out a bit... we were at the top.    My D72A's GPS put us at ~10 ft shy so we set up on the east side of the summit away from the Comm Sites.  At noon time it was mostly sunny and about 50 degrees.  Fortunately there was minimal wind.

My brother and I set up my 16 ft fiberglass fish pole which sets on top of two 3 ft sections of 3/4" PVC pipe guyed with paracord.  Luckily there were plenty of rocks to hold down the guys.  The fish pole supports a homebrew 1/4 WL 20 meter vertical dipole- similar to the Buddistick.  7 ft wire links are added to each leg for 30 meter operation.  The radio used is a KX3 powered by a small LiPo battery.  Tracking, self spotting via APRS and 2M contacts were made with a KW D72A HT using a homebrew vertical coaxial dipole.  

Ten 30M CW QSOs, four 20M CW Qs, five 20M SSB Qs, and three 2M FM Qs were made.  A S2S QSO was made with K6ILM on 30M to boot.  But the most memorable QSO was with a ham who proudly said that he was at 7000 ft level on the north side of Mt Adams with his Handy Talky.  Knowing that there is still 5 ft of snow at 2700 ft on Mt Rainier... I asked him how he got there.  In a suspicious way, he said that he couldn't tell me.  Me thinks he shouldn't have been there... and for safety's sake it was good that he had his HT on 146.520.

I didn't realize this hike was so steep until we headed down.  My legs were quivering from being tired.  We followed that trail down which at first didn't seem like it was taking us back to the campground... but it eventually did.  This-a-way added 1/4 mile to the return trip.  We eventually ended back at the gate we started out at... but to the left of it.  There was no obvious way to tell that that-a-way was the best route at the beginning of the hike.  This hike would be great for folks who are training to climb Mt Rainier or Adams.

Photos to view here:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/kr7w-sota/sets/72157633092114557/show/  Note:  In one of the fotos a 'wind turbine farm' can be seen in the distance.  We lucked out with very little wind during this activation.

Best Regards,
Rich KR7W
Tacoma USA
W7W/Rainier-Shalish