Capturing the Art of Nature
McKee Peak in the Sun
After a week’s delay, our hike up McKee was a delightful romp in the fresh air.
Category
Serendipitous Discoveries
Summits on the Air
2020
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I was to have hiked McKee a week earlier but on that day the wind was pushing 50kph with a wind chill of -10 and lower! Since this is a hobby and not a job, I saw no reason to force myself into an endurance test of misery. So here we are a week later, and the wind was light and the temperature around 12C, such a difference a week can make. In addition to Ralph, joining me was my son Nick, his shift has changed as a result of the virus adjustments and so he has Saturdays off for the next while. So, Ralph came by my house and we loaded up the car and started for the hill. Our next stop was skipped in light of most Starbucks being closed and so we accepted a bit of suffering due to a lack of caffeine. This put us at the parking spot in record time and the warm sunshine distracted us from whining too much about the lack of coffee.
Once parked we quickly got our gear on and we started along the road for the start of the bike trails. I was having trouble with my Gaia app this morning; it had shown all the trails the night before but this morning it was just showing the topo map of the area. It was extremely annoying but I thought I could remember the route from last year and so we set off with confidence that we would find our way without any wrong turns. The walk along the bike path was fast and we encountered only a single mountain biker working his way down as we went up. In short order we were onto the main roadway that leads to the summit and before much longer we were stretching out on the small bench at the summit. There was one chap resting there when we arrived, but he soon left, and we had the bench to ourselves.
I got my yagi set up, this time I used a new plastic pipe to secure the boom to my walking pole. I had found that the yagi’s clamp was damaging the foam cover of the pole and I wanted a way to avoid that. Nick and I crafted a piece of PVC to replace the clamp. The PVC pipe snuggly fits over the handle and has a square hole cut for the boom to slide in. It is faster to set up than the clamp, does less damage and seems to hold the boom just as well. Once I had yagi in place I connected it to my new 2m band pass filter and then that to the radio. I was soon making 2m contacts. Ralph meanwhile had set up his Alexloop and was making some 20m CW contacts. He was finding that harder than my 2m contacts today. I guess it is hit and miss depending on the day. The filter seemed to be working for me, but I didn’t try without it here. I will need to test that on another outing.
We operated for over an hour while Nick flaked out on the grass and had a snooze in the sun. It was a fun time working the stations and chatting with a few hikers and cyclists about ham radio. The place had a number of people out on the trail but not as many as last year and most seemed to be spacing themselves apart properly. We finished our calls and packed up and started back down the trail to the car. It went very quickly, and we had soon loaded ourselves into the vehicle. On our return I stopped to get some cheap gas in Abbotsford where it was 95cents a liter! Then we dropped into Davis Meats to stock up on some quality meat. The drive the rest of the way home went quickly and before driving boredom set in we were unloading the car. It was a gorgeous day for hiking a summit and we all felt it was a fun time. Now to plan for the next summit, only a few can be done this early in the season. Perhaps I should try some snow plowing but the cold is just not my thing.