Capturing the Art of Nature
MacNab Peak
A small peak north of Dewdney Peak, just waiting for a visit
Category
Serendipitous Discoveries
Summits on the Air
2018
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I recently added MacNab Peak to the list of summits in the SOTA program and I wanted to get a first activation on it. The old logging roads though likely overgrown still looked fairly open and I was hopeful I would be able to drive them a fair ways before needing to hike the remainder. So I planned my adventure with my son Nick and we set off for the summit. The drive in went quite quickly as we made only one stop for fuel and then we were soon approaching the start of the Norrish Creek FSR.
The drive up the mainline went quickly but I read with some annoyance that the gate blocking off most of the FSR was to be closed again in January. We just learned of its opening and now it will be closed again. We soon approached the side road that leads up the slope of MacNab and there we were greeted with a locked gate! Not at all what we had planned. Rather than reduce as much of the drivable road as possible we suddenly were faced with all of it. This added 2.5km of road to our hike and 300m extra elevation. I decided to go hiking but I didn’t expect to reach the summit.
We started up the road and enjoyed the views as we passed them, it was a steep road and though clear and easy the steepness paid its toll, by the time we reached the last drivable spot we were already quite tired. The extra distance added enough extra time to the hike that it would have been far too late in the day to be at the summit. We rested for a bit and then continued up a long straight stretch of the road, it slowly deteriorated in quality as we progressed but it was still quite easy for walking. Eventually we reached a large cross ditch, on the far side the road was in very poor shape and it would have slowed our progress further. The area was still open but the ground was now completely covered in low plants without any open space.
As we knew we weren’t going to make the summit, the additional effort needed for the next section seemed a bit much for Nicholas and so we called it at that spot and there we ate our lunch before starting back down. As usual the return hike went much faster though we still had to be careful with each step on the loose gravel. The views we did see were quite nice though limited to the Norrish valley. The most interesting was a brown toad we found on the road as we descended. We arrived at the truck in reasonable form, disappointed that the gate robbed us of the summit but still feeling good about the fresh air and exercise. In the end we only hiked 7.25km but it was over road that was steeper than the higher sections I had planned for. I will need to try for it again when the gate is open.