Capturing the Art of Nature
Dewdney Peak
A wet day for hiking the hills but we had a lot of fun picking a path through the trees to the summit
Category
Serendipitous Discoveries
Summits on the Air
2015
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Last week I had such a lovely day for hiking the hills but one of my companions was unable to come and he really wanted to get out this Saturday. He was determined to go regardless of the weather. So even though rain was forecasted and in fact this morning it was indeed raining, we still set out for the summit. We left at a leisurely 8am and made straight for the local Home Depot so I could purchase a small tarp. I had thought Brett had one big enough for two but it was not. Done with shopping we made good time through Mission and on to the Lougheed Highway. As we came by Dewdney, the highway takes a right turn and crosses over the Nicomen Slough, today we would fortunately be going straight. We noticed that the highway was closed at the bridge over the slough, it was broken and being fixed. Numerous cars were having to be turned back.
We continued past the intersection and made our way along the flank of Dewdney Peak to reach its eastern side. Looking up we saw a cloud covered summit. It was going to be a damp one. We entered the forestry road and I announced our entry via radio, to which I immediately got a response back from a pickup coming towards us. They were the only traffic on the road frequency that we heard all day. When we arrived at the side road we were to take we were greeted with a closed gate and a sign warning to stay out due to blasting! This was very disappointing for us. I drove past to see if there was a second road we could take, there wasn’t so we turned around thinking about an alternative.
When we got back to the gate I stopped to look at it and thought the sign was a bit makeshift. So I checked the gate and found it unlocked and no lock in sight. So we decided to head on up and drive to the ridge as planned. The drive up the slope went fairly well, it was rough in a few spots but not difficult. We did follow one wrong branch a short ways before realizing it was the wrong one based upon my previous trip. So we backed up and turned onto the correct one to continue up to the ridge.
The drive along the ridge was easy except for the fog we were now encased in. We eventually got to where I was stopped back in 2010 but now a road continues past and we travelled it to where I had marked as our parking spot for the day. The road end was surrounded by steep slopes on 3 of the 4 sides. It looked quite isolated and remote here in the rain. Well we had arrived and now we had to get out and endure the rain first hand. We got our gear organized and my rain covers on and set out for the slope.
We had only around 400 meters to walk to the summit but we had 50 in elevation gain as well. Not a huge walk but we had no trail and a slippery wet mossy forest floor to make our way across. Even though it wasn’t much height to gain the slope looked steep and challenging in the dull foggy rain. We picked our way up and over fallen trees and around some rock outcrops and slowly made our way through the trees to our goal. The GPS units made the task fairly easy as we avoided any false turns. It was fun hiking through here but even though the understory was open the sheer number of trees limited ones view to a short distance. I can now better appreciate how easy it would be to get lost. One doesn’t have to get far apart to lose sight of each other.
As we neared the map summit I stumbled upon the official Dewdney Summit trail. It was well worn and easy to follow. I continued along it for the short distance left to the summit where I turned off and walked to the actual point on the map. Now this point was a couple dozen meters from the SOTA coordinates so we set off to find that spot as well. It looked to be on another small knoll and was likely only a foot or two lower than the map summit. We decided to pick a rise between the two for our operating position.
As is common practice on the west coast for campers, the first order of business is to set up the tarps. So both Brett and I got busy tying them up and getting our gear stashed beneath them. I brought my portable chair and set it up next. Finally came my antenna. That took only a few minutes more and now I was on the air. Meanwhile Brett was still stretching out his HF antenna. I got two contacts in fairly quickly and then a final two 10 minutes later. Well I had achieved the minimum four needed to activate the summit so I took a break from it and helped Brett finish setting up. I then pulled out my cook stove and heated up a can of soup. It felt great having something hot in the damp rain. Hiding under the tarp was also very effective in keeping dry and warm.
Brett tried a few different bands and modes before he finally got a run of contacts including a pleasant surprise from a station in Spain. That contact really made our day as we had only 5 watts of power and a very limited antenna. Once Brett had exhausted his pileup he stopped for a bite as well. We had both achieved our goal and we felt the day was a great success. We were still wondering what happened to our fellow club members who had said they would be looking for us. I noticed that I did have minimal cell reception, so I called Ralph. He answered and said he was driving between stores. He did have his mobile radio and so he fired it up and I had immediate contact with him on my radio. So I logged one more contact before packing things up.
As we packed up, the rain picked up as did the cloud thickness. So we got things put away quickly so we could get back to the truck and get some heat. We followed the Dewdney trail for about half of the way back while it paralleled our upward leg. Where it veered off downslope we turned right, towards our truck. Following a track on the GPS sure makes backtracking easy. Soon we were on the steep initial slope with the truck peeking out between trees. It felt good getting back to it and starting up the heater.
Though somewhat wet, I was surprisingly still fairly dry for the most part. It felt good and I enjoyed the hike much more than I thought I would. I do think I will not avoid the rain as much as before. The drive back down the slope went without incident. I did notice that the road now had a lot more puddles in it and a small dip that had only a large puddle on the way up now had a reasonably size stream running across the road as well. So the rain was definitely being felt on the hillside and it was time to head home. We arrived at the gate and took a few photos of it for our collection. We were even more convinced that it was merely a sign left behind that someone had written the blasting notice to annoy other people. Done with the back-country we stopped for a warm coffee in Mission before heading the rest of the way home.
