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