Capturing the Art of Nature
Liam Tackles Mt. Strachan
A lovely day for a hike, I invited Liam to try a tougher hike, he came along and had a great time
Category
Serendipitous Discoveries
Summits on the Air
2021
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There are 4 summits in the Cypress Mountain Park area that I can do and I try to get as many done each year as I can. The weather looked good for Saturday, dry, not too hot and so I felt it would be a good day for Mount Strachan. It being the highest of the summits and the one most exposed to the sun, one really needs to find an ideal day for it. Too hot and it is brutal, too cloudy and the views are lost. So having decided on the summit it was time to find a partner to share the pain and joy with. Ralph was busy, but my grandson Liam was fresh off his first summit where he did really well, so I felt he could handle a tougher one. His parents agreed and so he joined me the night before so he could have a fun sleep-over at granny’s and then come morning we would set off.
Setting off of course means for Starbucks. We also stopped to get some juices for the top and then it was the open road to the parking lot on cypress. It being Saturday, the traffic was lighter and we made good time arriving at the lot by 10:10, it was much fuller than mid-week and we were much further back in the lot. We got our gear put on and we set off for the service road to the south summit. I had decided to follow the road to the plane crash monument and then follow the trail to the summit.
Climbing the road went well and though steep in places we made good time arriving at the monument after about an hour of hiking. We took a few moments to read the message and then set into the bush to find the actual plane wreck. It was a small military training jet that crashed in 1963 killing the two pilots. The site has been left as a memorial to them all these years. There are two main areas of the debris and we reached the lower one and stopped to rest awhile before continuing along the trail and up to the other spot and eventually the summit. There is still a lot of wreckage there and I am surprised that people have heeded the request to leave it alone for almost 60 years.
Continuing up past the second debris field we started some steeper rock scrambling. This Liam really liked as it gave him a bit more of a challenge in picking his way up. We continued to make good time and before much longer we had reached the southern summit ridge. A brief stop and we continued to the drop and then the final ascent to the northern summit. The total time was now 2 hours 20 minutes which was quite good for me. There were a few groups at the summit but I had seen it busier. We gathered a few photos and then I selected a spot to set up my radio station.
Once settled into a spot I took a few minutes to rest and regain my breath before setting up the radio. Once rested I set up the beam and pointed it south then attached the radio and immediately heard a station taking contacts. I could hear him but not the stations he was working. After a few minutes he seemed to take a break and so I put out my first call. I had an instant reply and then another and so it continued for the next few minutes. My fourth contact was a summit-to-summit with a chap near Mt Rainier, 299km south. It was a good clear signal. After 40 minutes I called an end having logged 28 contacts. I decided it was enough as another station wanted the frequency and I still needed to eat lunch.
I settled back and finished my lunch while Liam was busy looking around the summit area. I then joined him and we wandered around enjoying the views. During my time up there a number of groups came by asking about the radio and finding it quite interesting. Hopefully some will join the ranks of hams. Well, it was now after 2pm and we needed to take the return trip seriously so I packed away the radio and we started back down the trail to the south summit. From there I followed the road back, I didn’t want to face the steep rocks going down as my knee tends to cause issues if stressed too much. The road proved less interesting but we made good time as we descended and we arrived back at the car a bit before 4pm. We made good time on our return drive as well, unlike last time with the heavy traffic
Liam did very well on his second and more challenging hike. I think he is likely ready to do anything that I can do. So perhaps he will join me on a few more this summer.