Sunday, January 13, 2019

2019-01-13 Cuyamaca In a Little Snow


After not being able to hike last weekend due to a cold which lingered into the week and therefore keeping me from riding my bike to work,  I was really itching to get out for a hike.  It rained yesterday and it’s forecast to rain most of the week.... Today was they day to hit the hills.  I wanted something up in the mountains and a decent hike so Cuyamaca Peak (W6/CC-014 - Cuyamaca Peak) was the mission.  I was concerned about the amount of snow they might have on the hill given the recent storm.  I didn’t want to be in deep snow but a light amount would be OK.  I have these things called Yaktrax that give you extra traction if needed.  I also had a couple of alternate peaks picked out at lower elevations.  I checked the cameras in the area and it looked like it didn’t even snow although I know they got some. 
(Click on pictures for larger, see video below)


I got an early enough start and was in the parking lot at 8:30.  Stepping out of the car, it was darn cold.  I resisted adding another layer (I had 3 on) figuring I would warm once I got underway.  I was right.  The ground was frozen which is much better than the alternative, mud.  Given the precipitation I could tell the area was pretty muddy yesterday.  I wanted to come back the way I headed up rather than the fire road but I nixed that, figuring it would be muddy on the way back. 

I really enjoyed this hike, especially because a part of it runs next to a stream.  I love the sound of running water.  I was on the lookout for ice.  My SOTA Yoda recommended that I pack some microspikes.  All I had were some Yaktrax that I had purchased for a Grand Canyon trip just in case.  Had we arrived at the canyon a week earlier we might have needed them in a few places.  I did some more research on both Yaktrax and microspikes since I hadn’t used the Yaktrax.  Turns out the consensus on the Internet was that Yaktrax are great in the city, shoveling snow, no good for hiking.  I figured I could get by and if I needed them it would be a good test.  A little more than half way up I decided I could try them  There was about  an inch of hard pack snow up the trail when I was about 3/4 the way up so it was a good test.  I mounted the Yaktrax and quickly found out why they are not recommended for this kind of hiking.  These do a good job of light gripping and are better than nothing but I don’t think they would do well on solid ice or in a steep climb.  The toe piece kept rolling up and over my boot and the back popped off at one point.  I will say they are better than nothing and are lighter than the microspikes.  I ended up stopping by REI on the way home and buying some microspikes after talking to a guy there that used them and then seeing how they grip the boot.  I’ll be ready for next week since I expect more snow in the area.

It wasn’t too cool and when I reached the summit there was only a slight breeze.  There was a huge crowd from TJ hiking today and they were at the far end of the summit so I setup next to two giant new towers.  They had one up there before but these monster ones are new.  I’m guessing they are getting ready to lease spots to repeater owners for public safety and other uses. 

Setup was quick as I was able to use a old support up there for my antenna.  I’m guessing that between the power lines and other RF it wasn’t the best position but it worked.  The 20 meter contacts were hard to hear but I got quite a few.  There were a lot of contacts complaining about bad interference.  I think there was a big station in the midwest running that I couldn’t hear.  I eventually switched to 40 m and that actually went a lot better noise wise.  I got quite a few CA guys in the area on 40. 

Lastly, I fired up 146.520.  I had only one contact there.  I called my friend Brian, KC2GNV, the DMR master in North Park.  We had talked before about  doing some digital voice direct testing which we did when I was on another peak.  We fired up DMR simplex (not using a repeater) and compared it to analog.  It was amazing to hear the difference.  He was using his HT, just like mine, from inside his house with a squat little antenna.  The voice quality on digital was like he was in a studio.  We could hear each other well enough on analog but it wasn’t even close quality wise.  (Check out the Youtube video that I included).  We weren’t supper far apart and we must have had good line of sight but the performance was amazing.  We also involved KK6YAE in the testing from Spring Valley with the same results.  Thanks Brian and Paul, that was fun and a great experiment.  We’ll be doing more of that.

After playing around with DMR, I hit the road back to the bottom.  It’s a quick two miles down but on mostly pavement but no enjoyable on the feet.  I went over to my favorite mexican place in Descanso and relaxed with some carnitas tacos and some hot tea.

All in all it was a lot of fun, and crunching around on the snowpack brought back some nice memories.  I learned more about hiking and radios and it got some nice vistas in with it.  More importantly, I finally was able to get some exercise.  This hike isn’t strenuous but is very enjoyable 7.8 miles.  (see route here).   One funny note, I made the exact same mistake as last time, turning left at an intersection rather than right since it is sort of counterintuitive to turn away from the mountain. 


 
(Yaktrax on the left, MICROspike on the right)


Contacts


Time
Call
Band
Mode

19:34z
K6MXA
144MHz
FM

19:45z
KN6IQ
14MHz
SSB

19:46z
K3TCU
14MHz
SSB

19:47z
KI4SVM
14MHz
SSB

19:48z
N4EX
14MHz
SSB

19:49z
W0MNA
14MHz
SSB

19:49z
KD1CT
14MHz
SSB

19:50z
AA1VX
14MHz
SSB

19:51z
W4ID
14MHz
SSB

19:51z
W0ERI
14MHz
SSB

19:52z
NS7P
14MHz
SSB

19:52z
K0LAF
14MHz
SSB

19:53z
WA7KTM
14MHz
SSB

19:54z
AG6UK
14MHz
SSB

19:54z
K6MXA
14MHz
SSB

19:55z
KB9ILT
14MHz
SSB

19:56z
K6QCB
14MHz
SSB

19:57z
W3REM
14MHz
SSB

19:58z
WC6J
14MHz
SSB

20:01z
N0MTN
14MHz
SSB

20:02z
AB4PP
14MHz
SSB

20:03z
WA6KYR
7MHz
SSB

20:07z
N6DNM
7MHz
SSB

20:08z
K6HPX
7MHz
SSB

20:09z
NK6A
7MHz
SSB

20:09z
KM6IFL
7MHz
SSB

20:10z
KC8NUR/P
7MHz
SSB

20:11z
MK6XA
7MHz
SSB

20:11z
K6KWQ
7MHz
SSB

20:14z
K6MBA
18MHz
SSB

20:30z
W6IPT
18MHz
SSB

20:31z
AF5WZ
18MHz
SSB

20:39z
KC2GNV
18MHz
DV

20:45z
KK6YAE
18MHz
DV


Loadout for today:

      Yaesu FT-891D HF Radio at 100 watts
   30’ of coax feed line
      Yaesu FT-2DR HT
      3 L of water (8 lb)
      SOTA Dog
      iPhone with All Trails, MotionX GPS and sota goat
      MFJ-939Y auto antenna tuner for 891
      Trekking poles
     Packtenna.
   Extra LiFePO Battery
   AnyTone AT-868UV DMR radio for testing.
   Delorme Inreach satellite tracker and communicator.
   Yaktrax

73,
N1CLC
Christian Claborne
Chris claborne

No comments:

Post a Comment