2018-08-09 Timber Top Mtn

2018-08-09 Timber Top Mtn., Summits on the Air with the Ham Ninja

This morning’s summit is W7A/AP-015 - Timber Top.  The road up into Crow Poison starts about 2 miles south of alpine and is an easy drive up to the ingress point.  As you may have seen from yesterday’s post, it rained (with hail and lightning) yesterday so the ground is moist.  I met an older fella who collected a couple of stumps to make bowels.  I went to school with his kids.

The hike to the summit wasn’t steep but because I couldn’t find a trail up, I had to cut through a new thicket of aspen that was so thick I could barely make it through.  Although the pine will take 100+ years to come back, the aspen will be full grown in just a few.years.  It was probably 72 degrees with a high overcast to start, then it cleared and then it started clouding over for the afternoon rains. 

The radio setup was easy.  I guess the only factor that comes into play is when I pulled out the very small paracord to lash the vertical to a fallen tree limb.  All of the shrubs and fallen trees with branches are sporting about a million grappling hooks, snagging the line like crazy.

I got a couple of summit to summit contacts in Arizona and Georgia along with a lot of the same people that have been following me all week, getting chaser points.

My egress out of the area was a little easier (see my track).  I went down the east side around the aspen thicket and found a few game trails and eventually some overgrown jeep trails.  I decided to make a loop through the crow poison area looking for raspberry bushes.  I didn’t find anything but burned out areas.  Entire hills were covered with aspen however.  I’m guessing the shade might make it easier for new pines to grow.  I didn’t see the road that curves around to the old CCC camp.  I’ll have to take a drive up that way tomorrow and look for berries.

Today’s Contacts

W7A/AP-015 - Timber Top (Alpine Area)

Association:   USA - Arizona Region:   Apache County Lat / Long / Height:   33.7958°N   -109.1231°W   2847m / 9340ft Locator:   DM53kt Show » Points / Activations:   10 points,  activated 13 times Latest Activation:   2018-07-26 by KB7CWV 1.6 mi hike IAF 33.80557, -109.15467

Summit	Date	Time (UTC)	Call Sign	Band	Mode
W7A/AP-015	09/08/18	1600	K6FW	14MHz	SSB
W7A/AP-015	09/08/18	1608	W5BOS	14MHz	SSB
W7A/AP-015	09/08/18	1609	N0EMU	14MHz	SSB
W7A/AP-015	09/08/18	1610	WA2USA	14MHz	SSB
W7A/AP-015	09/08/18	1610	KC0PBR	14MHz	SSB
W7A/AP-015	09/08/18	1611	N4EX	14MHz	SSB
W7A/AP-015	09/08/18	1611	KI6EAB	14MHz	SSB
W7A/AP-015	09/08/18	1612	W0MNA	14MHz	SSB
W7A/AP-015	09/08/18	1613	W0ERI	14MHz	SSB
W7A/AP-015	09/08/18	1613	KB7XL	14MHz	SSB
W7A/AP-015	09/08/18	1614	K6MW	14MHz	SSB
W7A/AP-015	09/08/18	1614	K6EL	14MHz	SSB
W7A/AP-015	09/08/18	1615	N3NNU	14MHz	SSB
W7A/AP-015	09/08/18	1616	NG6R	14MHz	SSB
W7A/AP-015	09/08/18	1617	N8BB	14MHz	SSB
W7A/AP-015	09/08/18	1617	KD0MQO	14MHz	SSB
W7A/AP-015	09/08/18	1618	W2SE	14MHz	SSB
W7A/AP-015	09/08/18	1619	AA1VX	14MHz	SSB
W7A/AP-015	09/08/18	1620	N6DNM	14MHz	SSB
W7A/AP-015	09/08/18	1621	WB0KIU	14MHz	SSB
W7A/AP-015	09/08/18	1622	VA6FUN	14MHz	SSB
W7A/AP-015	09/08/18	1623	KI4TN	14MHz	SSB
W7A/AP-015	09/08/18	1623	K1LIZ	14MHz	SSB
W7A/AP-015	09/08/18	1630	N3NNU	7MHz	SSB
W7A/AP-015	09/08/18	1634	W7RV	7MHz	SSB
W7A/AP-015	09/08/18	1635	W7RDB/P	7MHz	SSB
W7A/AP-015	09/08/18	1636	N7SP	7MHz	SSB

Loadout for today:

●      Gregory Zulu 40 backpack

●      CHA MPAS with spike and additional MIL mast

●      Yaesu FT-891D HF Radio at 100 watts

●   30’ of coax feed line

●      Yaesu FT-2DR HT

●      Slim Jim dual band antenna for my HT.

●      3 L of water (8 lb)

●      SOTA Dog (her feet are sore so she didn’t go)

●      iPhone with All Trails, MotionX GPS and sota goat

●      MFJ-939Y auto antenna tuner for 891

●      Trekking poles

●      Jetboil MicroMo cooking system

●     Packtenna.

●   Extra LiFePO Battery

73,

N1CLC

Christian Claborne