Capturing the Art of Nature
McKee Peak
Even with houses rapidly moving up the slope the main trail is still a nice hike and a good workout
Category
Serendipitous Discoveries
Summits on the Air
2018
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Ralph hadn’t activated McKee Peak in the summits on the air program and as he was looking for an easier hike to start off the season, McKee was a good choice for the day. I hiked it last year with Carolyn so I knew where to park and the basic route up the trail which made for a quick start and no unwanted detours.
We left my home at 8:30 and made for the normal next stop – coffee. That is normally followed by a fill-up for the truck but today we were on pavement the whole way to the trail-head so we used Carolyn’s EV. It felt good zipping by the gas station running on pure electrons! Soon we were pulling into the parking area and getting our gear loaded and ready for the hike. It is only 3km each way so not an overly tiring hike but it still takes some effort. The initial trail has a few steeper sections but it soon slows the elevation gain for a bit as one reaches the level of the highest houses. There is only one spot where the trail nears a property and the house can be seen, everywhere else is quite secluded.
As one nears the summit, the trail opens up into a wide meadow, this is the only area where one gets some view of the valley. It was fairly hazy so not much could be seen from the summit today. The pollution is definitely getting much worse in the valley. Continuing on, we soon reached the summit and the radio tower that takes the prime location. There were a couple groups at the summit with their bikes talking over the ride and their planned descent. We moved to the south side of the tower and there Ralph stretched out his wire vertical and I my 4 element yagi.
I soon had Carolyn in the log and then a few more stations including on summit to summit with a chap on a peak in the southern part of Whatcom County. Ralph was now working stations across the continent on CW so I decided to eat my lunch. Not much later a rain shower decided to water us and got things a bit damp, my tarp proved useful in keeping me dry, fortunately it wasn’t long lasting. As the rain slowed we packed up and started back down the trail having successfully activated the summit.
The walk down went quite quickly and we were soon back in the car heading for home. A nice easy outing and fairly close by. I can hardly wait for the new updated summits list to come out with a number of additional lower summits that can be done in a short period of time, but I think I will need to get my Morse code into use for many of them.