13 October, 2013
I was once told that there are 61 Goat Peaks, Creeks, Ridges, Lookouts, and Lakes in my great state of WA.
This particular Goat Peak is located just east of the Cascade Crest here in WA State.
Myself, partner Ms Pat WT7N, and Bro Mike drove 19 miles east of Chinook Pass on Hiway 410 to one of the three Goat Peak THs. Our TH is located directly across the highway from the Hells Crossing Camp Ground. Garmin said that the distance to the summit was 3.2 miles with an elevation gain of 3000 ft. BTW, we did not take the http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/goat-peak-1 recommended route.
I was once told that there are 61 Goat Peaks, Creeks, Ridges, Lookouts, and Lakes in my great state of WA.
This particular Goat Peak is located just east of the Cascade Crest here in WA State.
Myself, partner Ms Pat WT7N, and Bro Mike drove 19 miles east of Chinook Pass on Hiway 410 to one of the three Goat Peak THs. Our TH is located directly across the highway from the Hells Crossing Camp Ground. Garmin said that the distance to the summit was 3.2 miles with an elevation gain of 3000 ft. BTW, we did not take the http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/goat-peak-1 recommended route.
The three of us had visited
Goat Peak a few years before- long before I knew about SOTA. Back
then we hiked to the summit in almost rainy conditions and didn’t see much
except for some old fire lookout phone insulators nailed to the trees. This trip we were rewarded with a lot of
nice scenery on a cool clear warm in the sun fall day.
From our chosen TH at 10
AM, where the temp was 28 deg F, we began gradually ascending in meadow like
terrain. But soon we were climbing up a
gully with a creek in it. The going was
rough for ¾ mile climbing over and around rocks. After that the trail is OK to do business
on. We encountered a bit of snow, left
over from the previous week, on the trail between 5,000 and 5,500 ft elevation. This snowy area of the trail was along the
north side of the ridge in the shadow of the sun.
 |
| The beginning of the snowy trail |
I was a bit confused when
we came to an intersection where the WTA trail meets our trail which was about ½ mile from the summit. I was thinking at this point there would be a
spur trail to the summit. But no… our
trail and the WTA trail converge to create the American Ridge Trail which
routes within 50 ft of the Goat Pk summit and keeps on going southwest towards
the PCT. We encountered a party of three humans and two annoying canine hikers
in a snowy area who were heading back down.
We had the whole summit area to ourselves. Fine Business.
The actual summit is a large flat surface approx 20 x 20 ft where the fire lookout cabin used to sit. There was no place to strap or jam my fish pole mast into so I opted to set up my station 40 ft downhill a bit off the beaten path. But first I wanted to operate on 146.520 FM. I had pre-programmed some Yakima repeaters into my 2M HT and called for ops to QSY to dot five two. A long enjoyable QSO was had with a ham on a Yakima Ridge and another with a ham on Whiskey Dick Mtn near the Columbia River close to Vantage. I am always amazed by 2M DX.
The actual summit is a large flat surface approx 20 x 20 ft where the fire lookout cabin used to sit. There was no place to strap or jam my fish pole mast into so I opted to set up my station 40 ft downhill a bit off the beaten path. But first I wanted to operate on 146.520 FM. I had pre-programmed some Yakima repeaters into my 2M HT and called for ops to QSY to dot five two. A long enjoyable QSO was had with a ham on a Yakima Ridge and another with a ham on Whiskey Dick Mtn near the Columbia River close to Vantage. I am always amazed by 2M DX.
 |
| The summit about 40 vertical ft above the trail. The old fire lookout stood atop this big old rock. |
Admission of error: I should have
listened on the frequency before I spotted myself on 14.061… as this frequency
had some other SOTA activity on it. I
could faintly hear another activator and the very loud QRO signals of the chasers. I couldn’t make out the summit’s call sign
due to the strong chaser signals. I
wondered if some chasers might think that they made contact with me because of my
error. I moved to 30 Meters and made 10 QSOs. Then back on 20 Meters there was still
activity on 14.061 and I still couldn’t get the activator’s call sign. I moved to 14.065 but did not spot myself. It took a many CQs to finally make a contact. I must have been spotted by another chaser or
RBN and then 27 QSOs were made.
It was such a nice sunny day basking in the southern sun I’d walk away from my radio and hike up to the fire lookout location just to look around and chat with my hiking companions. I was in no hurry to leave. But backcountry common sense took over and we packed up our stuff, but a bit later than I’d usually do. It was just getting dark just as we approached the TH.
It was such a nice sunny day basking in the southern sun I’d walk away from my radio and hike up to the fire lookout location just to look around and chat with my hiking companions. I was in no hurry to leave. But backcountry common sense took over and we packed up our stuff, but a bit later than I’d usually do. It was just getting dark just as we approached the TH.
 |
| The snowy trail on the way back to the TH. Bro Mike wears his ORANGE because it's hunting season in WA state. |
Epilog: Just the other day while hiking
to another SOTA location… I was thinking about all of the SOTA outings I’ve
been on this year… and if I had to pick one of them that stand out as my
favorite… It would have to be this trip to Goat Peak.
Here's a few Flickr fotos that show some SOTA radio activity:http://www.flickr.com/photos/kr7w-sota/sets/72157638048325035/
73 to all.
-30-
Rich KR7W
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