Vedder Peak

Both Ralph and I were feeling the need to activate another summit. As the season was progressing, finding a Saturday with decent weather was becoming more of a challenge. When we first planned for this hike, the weather looked like it would be dry but as each day passed the outlooks kept changing from rainy to chance of showers to cloudy and back. It wasn’t until the morning we were leaving that we made the final call.

Ralph arrived at 8:30 and we left in the truck for the start of the trail. The drive along the forestry road could be done in a car until the last kilometer. But as both Ralph and I feel, the further you can drive the better, so we needed the truck for that last bit of road. When we arrived at the end of the road we found two other trucks parked there. We found a spot a bit further from the end and there were geared up and started off for the trail. It was cool and no rain in sight so we started over the big diversion across the road placed there to keep all non-foot users away.

The hike along the road and then the trail was very pleasant and the cool air allowed us old guys to make good time. We encountered a few others on the path but for the most part we had it to ourselves. We took a brief stop at the north viewpoint where I gathered a few photos of the clouds hugging the top of Sumas Peak. We didn’t feel tired out yet so our stay was short and we were off to the next viewpoint. On the south looking viewpoint, we stopped to get a rest for a few minutes, here we noticed just how much the wind had picked up.

Once rested, we continued to the summit making reasonable time as we descended to the small lake and then back up the steep final climb to the summit. On the top we were faced with a constant wind which in the cool air was chilling us quite quickly. We ate a quick lunch and then started making calls to complete the radio activation. Ralph got his simple wire antenna strung up in the tree and I went to set up my Yagi only to discover a connecting cable was missing, I hadn’t loaded it after my vacation to Ontario! So, I was forced to make calls with the simple antenna on the hand-held. My first contact was with another chap activating Hollyburn Mountain in West Vancouver. I managed to get 3 more but it was quite tough. Meanwhile Ralph was making Morse contacts with people on the east coast! Once he had made enough I tried calling on my KX2 on the 20m band. I ran into a crowded band due to a contest, but I was able to work one more station. By now I was getting way too chilled to be able to write well so I decided to pack it in.