W7W/RS-036 Shriner Peak 15 Sept, 2013

Shriner Peak is located in Mt Rainier National Park along the the east boundary.  It takes about 2 hours to drive to the TH from our house in Tacoma, WA.  The hike begins at 2400 ft ASL and tops out at 5834 ft in 4.2 miles.  The first 2 miles gains more than 2000 ft.  The summit offers fantastic views of Mt Rainier, Mt Adams, Mt St Helens, and into Oregon on a very clear day.  There is an old historic Fire Lookout (which houses two National Park radio repeaters) as well as two primitive back country camp sites.  The closest water is at Shriner Lake about 1.5 miles down hill way off the beaten path.  

Shriner Peak is the high spot in this photo which was taken about 1.5 miles from the summit.  It's beginning to look a bit like fall in the mountains.

Shriner Peak is home to one of the four historic Fire Lookout buildings in Mt Rainier National Park.   This photo was taken near the end of our stay when the rain clouds were beginning to look threatening.  

The WX was predicted to be a nice mostly sunny day with a chance of mountain thunderstorms in the late afternoon.  It seemed like it would be a pleasant hike with 60 deg F at the TH but after a short time it was becoming increasingly hot and humid.  After a mile the trail leaves the tree canopy into the open for sunshine from the south.

 I've been to Shriner Peak many times over the last 15 years.  At least 5 of those times I've brought a QRP rig and worked some CW on 20M.  After I started participating in SOTA I came to Shriner in Aug 2012 for its first activation.  No other SOTA ops have been here since and now I am back.  I set up at my usual place, campsite #2, a nice spot off the beaten path.  

In the trees at campsite #2.  Trekking pole holds up my PVC Pipe Coaxial Dipole for ARPS self spotting.  My pack substitutes as a desk with the radio on top of.  The 44 ft doublet is to the left.  The bright red thing on the pack is an Acme QRM Cutter microphone (link below).

The usual station of KX3 w/ 3S Lipo bat, 44 ft doublet antenna fed w/ TV twin lead+4:1 balun- held up with 18 ft carbon fiber fish pole was set up and OTA at 2100 UTC.  

3 QSOs on 40 CW,  10 QSOs on 20 CW,  10 QSOs on 20 SSB,  3 QSOs on 30 CW, and 2 QSOs on 40 SSB.  I usually attempt to make SSB QSOs on activations but am rarely successful.  I am pleased that I could give 12 SSB chasers points on this outing.  Also, this was my first time operating on 40M SSB.  KF7TTM, Kathy a pretty new ham in Seattle answered my 40M SSB CQ not knowing what SOTA was.  I encouraged her to Google it.  Maybe she's a chaser now.

Normally I say something about the trip back to the TH was uneventful.  Not the case this time.  The predicted thunderstorms in the mountains came true for us.  When we descended to 5000 ft we were in the clouds which was dark and eerie.  A few BOOMs were felt and heard.  About an hour into the hike a hard rain broke out and we ducked under a tree to to put covers on our packs.  10 minutes later the rain ceased and the remaining trip to the TH was dry. 

Info on this hike can be found here:  http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/shriner-peak

A few more photos can be found here:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/kr7w-sota/sets/72157635825779756/

Info on the Acme QRM Cutter microphone can be found here:  http://kr7w.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-acme-qrm-cutter-microphone-for-kx-3.html

End or report.  Best Regards,

Rich KR7W
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