Capturing the Art of Nature
Liam Tackles Black
His first summit adventure, no problems just much fun
Category
Serendipitous Discoveries
Summits on the Air
2021
Click on image to view gallery
Finding companions to hike mountains is becoming harder with me going mid-week when most are working. My mother suggested taking my grand-son and so I asked all the needed powers and he was willing to give it a try. Black Mountain was a good first summit as it is fairly short though steep. So, with the heat of the past few days returning to normal levels it was a good day to go for a hike. Liam arrived at my place for a 9:15 departure. He was ready, his younger brother wanted to go but his turn will come. I checked his gear and added a few items to his pack for safety and we were off to the first Starbucks along the route.
Next it was the highway, the map showed some delays along the later section and so we were anticipating some delays, fortunately by the time we got to where the jam was most of it was gone and we only had a very short section of slow moving – if only the return had been so. We arrived at the parking lot a bit before 10:45, it was almost empty – so nice. After a quick run to the facility, we were on the way to the summit. There was construction occurring at the base of one ski-left – they were building a track for a coaster to operate over the summer and it looked like they were almost finished. We followed a short detour around the construction (as if we don’t get enough already on the roads) and were soon trekking the lower part of the trail.
We reached the next fork and the ascent began. We made very good time climbing the steep sections, Liam had no difficulty, unlike his grand-father. After an hour we had reached the small pond just below the main ones at the summit, here we rested a bit and I gathered some photos, this little pond is particularly scenic. Then it was off to the summit ridge and cabin lake. There was one woman enjoying the scene of the lake as she ate her lunch, Liam seemed to like the spot but we soon departed for the northern summit. A few minutes more and we reached the summit area. Liam scouted it and I pointed to the big rock whose top was the highest point. I mentioned that he had to get up there to reach the summit, that he did in very quick order feeling very proud of himself having now climbed his first real summit.
Now I dropped my pack in the usual spot for my activations and started to assemble my station. After a few minutes, I was on the air calling for contacts. Almost immediately I heard a regular chaser from Sequim Washington and so I had my first contact, followed immediately by fellow club member Ken, our association’s top chaser. A couple minutes more and I had 4 contacts, they kept coming for awhile longer and finally I heard my buddy Ralph from his jobsite in Abbotsford. I turned the beam south and heard another SOTA station in Washington state and completed a summit-to-summit contact. After a short break to eat lunch, I worked a few more stations but then things seemed to slow down. Since I didn’t want Liam to get bored, I packed up the gear and we started back to Cabin Lake.
At the lake we found a couple soaking in the water, Liam declined the opportunity. I gathered a few photos and then asked Liam if he wanted to walk to the south summit which has better views. He did and so we were off to see that spot which I hadn’t done in a few years. Unfortunately, the haze was heavy enough that the view was barely visible, so we didn’t get to enjoy the view like I had hoped. At least Liam seemed to enjoy the attempt. Then it was back to Cabin Lake and the descent to the car. We took 1 hour 22 minutes to climb, 48 minutes to descend. So over-all they were good times for me, and Liam had no problem keeping up, rather I had the problems keeping up with him, oh to be 11 again, but I really wouldn’t want it. As we crossed the parking lot, a nice cooling breeze came up and made the last part of the walk very pleasant rather than the drudgery it often is. I changed out of my hiking gear and soon was ready for the drive home. As we dropped down the slope we stopped at the main viewpoint and I showed Liam some of the scenes of Vancouver. Though Hazy we were able to see many of the clumps of man-made mountains throughout the lower valley. Done with sight-seeing we continued on our way and made good time at first along the highway for a few kilometers but then started into stop-and-go traffic for several more, it took quite some time to get to the bridge but once there we made better time the rest of the drive home, arriving home at 4:22. So a full day, and one Liam quite enjoyed. I do believe he will want to join me for another.