Hale Peak

hree members of the White Rock Amateur Radio Club (Brett, Ralph and Eric) hiked Hale Peak and activated it for the first time in the Summits-on-the-Air program on Saturday May 9th. The adventure began with everyone meeting at Eric’s and loading up the gear into his truck. We were on the road by 8:10AM and making good time to the nearest Starbucks where we filled up on essentials for the arduous adventure ahead. The drive through Mission, Harrison Mills and on to the start of the FSR went quickly and the truck was doing really well after its repairs in the garage the previous week. We now had 26km of rough driving along the Sts’ailes Service Road. Fortunately the road is well maintained and was not busy which was fortunate as the surface was dry and kicked up a lot of dust. For me the drive was easy but for my two companions who are not used to back-country driving the bouncing took its toll.

We arrived at the final road spur at 10:45, where we found a deep ditch across the road. The guys were a bit uncertain about the ability to continue on but on our second attempt we were across. We drove up the over-grown road and missed the trailhead on our way up. I soon realized that we had gone too far and turned around driving back down the spur very slowly while we looked for the cairn marking the start of the trail.

Once we found the marker we pulled to the side and parked the truck. We had reached the trailhead a bit before 11am which put us about a half hour behind our plans. We quickly got ourselves geared up for the hike and locked up the truck. The initial part of the trail follows an old road bed which looked good enough to drive with and ATV. The trail eventually veers off the road and begins a steep ascent of the slope to the peak. The trail wasn’t overly difficult and is well maintained, there were fresh piles of saw dust from trees that had fallen across the trail and were now split for easier hiking. The trail itself is well proportioned between steep sections and gentler patches with most of it shaded from the sun. After two hours the bedraggled team achieved the summit and we climbed into the abandoned forestry lookout. The building was in decent shape and offered a nice spot to rest and eat lunch. There were a lot of candles and some emergency supplies stowed in the room, the stove is usable for warmth and would be a good place to over-night.

Once we reached the lookout we rested and ate our lunch. It sure felt good getting the packs off and resting out of the sun but still enjoying a view of the mountains around us. Done with lunch, Ralph set up his portable vertical antenna and proceeded to make a few CW contacts across North America. Meanwhile Eric was enjoying a nice chat with club member Jim and then Eric’s wife Carolyn, who were both back home in White Rock, through the Cheam Repeater. Once Brett finished his lunch he strung is end-fed wire antenna between the lookout railing and a distant tree. It took a few attempts to get the rope high enough in the tree as the weight on its end wasn’t heavy enough to pull the line down.  It wasn’t long before he also had completed a few contacts. Ralph finished 4 contacts fairly early but Brett was stuck at three for quite some time. Then finally he made a contact with a local ham - Jan -  who is also a SOTA operator – a fitting end for the activation.

Now that both Ralph and Brett had achieved the minimum to qualify for the activation, we were ready to depart. The descent took only half the time of the climb but we were still quite worn out as we reached the truck. The return drive went without incident and we were soon recovering in our homes having enjoyed a great day in the outdoors. Plans for the next hike were already on our minds.