Tamanos Mtn – W7W/RS-015 – 24 August 2014

Tamanos Mtn, in Mt Rainier National Park is accessed via the Owyhigh Lakes Trail, either from the White River Road TH or the Deer Creek TH along Hiway 123.

WTA knows the way to Owyhigh Lakes:
White River TH:  http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/owyhigh-lakes
Deer Creek TH: http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/deer-creek-falls-to-owyhigh-lakes

Tamanos as well as some other SOTA summits can be seen from the Sunrise Visitor Center at Mt Rainier National Park.  This photo was taken from the Sourdough Ridge Trail.

Ms Pat WT7N and I decided combine this summit activation with a three day - two night backpacking trip.  From the White River TH we hiked this popular trail 3 miles to Tamanos Creek BC Camp (permit must be acquired at the White River Ranger Station).  

The Garmin map shows our route from TH to BC camp to Boot Track up to the Tamanos ridge.  The Owyhigh Lakes on the map is the popular destination of visitors in this area of the National Park.

The next morning we continued south towards Owyhigh Lakes.  About ¼ mile further is an open meadow at the apex of the trail at 5350 ft. The non maintained but obvious boot track to the summit begins here.  [Note:  At this point- APRS works flawlessly]  From the meadow we ascended up the side slope to the top of the ridge at 6280 ft in 4/10 mile.  Then we followed the ridge south for ½ mile to the summit at 6700.

There are two rock bumps on the summit that remind me of steam ship stacks which can be seen from afar at the right angle.  We did not climb onto the rocky stacks but were within 20 vertical ft of the summit.

Substitute Fishpole mast about 6 ft high.  A trek pole was used to place the Dan's Doublet center insulator at the highest point.

I had left my 21 ft carbon fish pole antenna mast in the car and became concerned that I’d have to make radio contacts with the antenna strewn on the rocks. The problem was solved with a scraggly dead tree about 5 ft high that became the apex for my Dan’s 44 ft Doublet antenna.

KR7W at Op Position.  Rig is KX3, 3S LiPo battery, Russian SK, Dan's 44 ft Doublet Antenna w/ Balun, Kenwood D72 APRS HT.  There's a red microphone that almost never gets used.

In the middle of the activation I looked up and noticed dark bottomed storm clouds.  “QRT BAD WX” was sent a few times and I went QRT.  Some kind chaser spotted me on sotawatch that I was QRT due to bad WX- a tip of the thank you hat to you kind madam/sir.  We quickly picked up and head back down.  At our BC campsite the rain started.  We quickly broke camp and headed to the TH in progressively worse rain.  Flash-Boom!  A lot of lightning and thunder- one strike ¼ mile away was scary too close.

Mt Tahoma (aka Lil Tahoma) looms really close to the west.  Looks like rain clouds coming in.

Looky here- Governers Ridge looms to the east.  In the valley between the ridge I am on and Gov Ridge is Owyhigh Lakes and the trail.

From the 6380 ft point on the ridge... Double Pk and Shriner Pk can be seen.  Both are SOTA destinations.

Our second night was to be spent at Dick’s Lake BC Camp in the Palisades area… but we took a rain check.  

End of Blog.  72   KR7W

W7W/RS-008 - Palisades Pk - 28 September 2014

A view from approx 1/2 mile into the hike shows Palisades.  We hiked up to the saddle between Palisades and the peak to the left (Marcus Pk).  Hidden Lake is hiding below the rocky face of Palisades.

Directions are from the Seattle Mountaineers book:  Guide to 100 Hikes at Mt Rainier National Park:  

Driving
Drive SR 410 4.5 miles south of the Crystal Mountain ski area turnoff and turn right on Sunrise Park Road. Drive 13 miles to Sunrise Point. Park in the large parking lot (elevation 6100').

Route
From the east end of the parking lot, take the trail toward Sunrise Lake but turn north on the trail marked Palisades Lakes.  Continue on the trail, and before reaching Dicks Lake come to
a sign for Hidden Lake. Turn left on this trail and follow it past the lake; then ascend to the saddle between Marcus and the Palisades. At the saddle, head north and approach the
high point over a gentle slope. It may be slightly easier to go beyond the summit and double back on the northwest ridge, as this avoids some thick vegetation".

Red dots that begin at the saddle X above Hidden Lake, elev 6500 ft, show the off trail route to the summit. 

 Ms Pat WT7N and I followed the boot track from the Lake to the top of the Saddle X we pushed through thick bushy trees into a large meadow which revealed the route to Marcus Pk.  But instead, we ascended the meadow north, found an opening in the thick trees and headed upward toward the top of Palisades.  We zig-zagged upward avoiding the thick clumps of trees for approx 400 vertical ft.  We ended up on a saddle- about 40 vertical ft below the highest of the two bumps that make up the summit where I uttered, like pioneers before me, " It is enough. This is the place!"  at 1245 PM LT.  

This view is from Hidden Lake- looking upwards to the top of the 6500 ft saddle.

Looking down to Hidden Lake from (almost) the top of the saddle.

KR7W- in the meadow to the west of the top... pondering the route up the next 400 vertical feet to the summit.

On the summit saddle it was easy to attach my fish pole mast to a scrub tree and then carefully fan out the antennas wires in the scree among the scrubby trees.  I propped my 2 meter coaxial vertical antenna in a bush and set the D72 APRS Handy Talkie on a rock next to my operating position.

KR7W using straight key for CW.  Rig is KX3, Antenna is Dan's 44 ft Doublet + Balun, mast is 21 ft carbon fishing pole strapped to tree (above kr7w's head).  Kenwood D72 for 2 meter comms + APRS spotting.

Looking SW, a view of Mt Rainier on the west side of the saddle on the summit.

Looking west- a grand view of Grand Park - from the summit.

40M CW was produced 6 QSOs- which is a lot, 5 QSOs on 30M, and 15 QSOs on 20M.  4 QSOs on 2M FM were made interleaved between HF QSOs.  I again was amazed by 2M contacts.  A newbie ham in Lacey with a $40 HT- 57 miles away, A ham in his living room in Ellensburg- 50 miles away, and to a ham operating a remote base near Nassele, WA- 112 miles away.  I could have made many more contacts but time ran out.

Mountain Goats grazing.  Must be good eats in those rocks.

The trip down was almost uneventful- we saw mountain goats grazing on the rocky slopes above Hidden Lake... and there were lots more people on the trail on this beautiful fall day.  Some hikers spotted my collapsed fish pole and/or my 2 meter coax dipole in the pockets of my pack.  Some would ask, "Hey, what's that for?" I'd reply that I am a ham operator participating in SOTA (and explain that).  Some would ask, "What's the furthest station you contacted?".  I'd say, "NJ or NH or TN".  I actually knew where because more and more chasers are including their STATE in the contact exchange.  A tip of the appreciation hat to Chasers who take the time to do that!

On the return hike... we stopped at Clover Lake- about 1.5 miles from the Trail Head.

Next year I will be back to set up my tent for a few days at Dick's Lake back country camp and will attempt to summit Palisades and Marcus Pks from a base camp.  I am looking forward to that.

Photo credits:  Pat WT7N.

A quick movie of this outing:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rltzsukji0a5xic/Palisades%209_28_2014.wmv?dl=0

End of Blog.  72   Rich KR7W

W7W/RS-029 - Scarface - 19 October, 2014

19 October, 2014   Scarface   W7W/RS-029

Directions to the TH are from the book '100 Peaks in Mt Rainier National Park' by the Seattle Mountaineers:

"Drive to Enumclaw, WA and head east on SR 410 toward Mount
Rainier. Turn right on FS 73 and drive 10 miles until you
reach Eleanor Creek. At this point the road is almost directly
on the northern border of the park. There is a sign on the left
side of the road marked “Eleanor Creek, elev. 4520.” Park just past the sign".

Our goal for this outing was to hike the E-W ridge west to the summit, do the SOTA thing, hike the N-S ridge south to the Grand Park Trail, enjoy the views as we hiked back to Lake Eleanor. 

It's 100 yards to the National Park boundary and one mile to Lake Eleanor on a boot track originally made by fishermen.  Hike another 4/10 mile on the National Park trail to Grand Park to the base of the E-W ridge ('Scarface X' on map below) up towards the summit of Scarface.

Very scenic Lake Eleanor.  Scarface is top center in this photo.  

Here's the GPS Tracks of the Hike

CAUTION:  Before I go any further... The Mountaineers book I cited above rates this climb with a difficulty level of 2 (out of 5).  I personally think it is a bit more difficult.  Also, I do not recommend going to this SOTA summit unless the seasoned hiker possess decent route finding skills.  The hike is mostly in dense forest with very few landmarks to sight to. A GPS with an adequate map is highly recommended.

The hike along the E-W ridge is about a mile.  There's hundreds of blown down trees to navigate around.  If I interpret my GPSs stats correctly... the one mile straight line route ended up being approx 2.5 miles of walking.

Here's a looky up the E-W ridge.

Taking a rest to change GPS batteries- still on the top of the ridge. The blow downs are plentiful for the next 1/2 mile.

We followed the ridge for 3/10 miles until a large rock outcropping detoured us to trek along ascending the steep ridge at approx 100 ft below the ridge line.  Because we are not on top of the ridge- we are walking at a steep angle. 

Here's a shot at the summit destination about 4/10 miles away- as seen from the top of the ridge.  It's easy to see why John Muir or early Park visitors named this peak "Scarface".  

The map shows a 'bump' at 5800 ft along the ridge.  After passing under the bump, we hiked up 30 V ft to see what we could see from the ridge top.  The above photo shows our destination.  At this point I am somewhat discouraged because it's taking more time than I budgeted and we aren't close yet.

We are out of the woods... so to speak... as we enter this clearing where the E-W ridge meets the N-S ridge.  It's an easy (as compared to blown down log hopping and walking at a 45 deg angle) 2/10 mile and 300 vertical feet to go.

We arrived at the true summit about 50 minutes later than I estimated.  I began the activation with 2 meter FM and attempted to make comms with hams in Tacoma.  I was barely heard on the club repeater.  My only contact on 146.520 was with a ham driving through an espresso stand in Mt Lake Terrace, WA, north of Seattle, 63 miles away.  Also, there were no APRS comms until I reached the summit.  

A rarely seen frontal view of KR7W at the key.  BTW- the old Russian Cold War key that broke down on the last activation was repaired and is back in service here.  The radio is a KX3 at 6 watts.  The antenna is a Dan's 44 ft Doublet with 4:1 Balun.

HF propagation was sketchy due to a CME, so I had to cut the activation short after 10 QSOs to be sure to have enough daylight to safely get back down the N-S ridge and then to the National Park trail back to Lake Eleanor.

The views on this hike were not plentiful... but here's a shot of Lake Eleanor from the very edge of the summit- near the scarred face.

The trek down was nice at first as we walked on game trails along the N-S ridge.  We ascended a high bump on the ridge for the views and could see Grand Park and some of Mt Rainier.

Here's a shot of Grand Park with Mt Fremont towering above.  The Fire Lookout cabin is seen if you squint just right.

After passing the bump we ended up on a rocky drop off.  At this point we had run out of time to follow the ridge down to Grand Park.  We descended east following the lay of the land hoping to intersect the National Park trail back to Lake Eleanor. The lay of the land took us to many detours around trees and rock formations which resulted in the 'not the most direct way' to the trail.  A mile on the Nat. Park trail to the lake and another mile to the car gave us one hour of daylight left.

Credits:  Hiking partner Ms Pat WT7N for the photos and encouragement to keep going to the summit after the going got tough and frustrating for me.  Thanks to chasers for the QSOs and waiting for me.  

End of Blog.  72, KR7W