A dual Activation weekend trip with my friend Tim Nair, KG7EJT, and Dexter the SOTA Dog. This report covers mountain number 1, Navaho Peak, activated on Saturday May 30, 2015. The weather was very nice, company great and success on both peaks made for a memorable, if strenuous outing. The Greater Teanaway River Basin and surrounding mountains offer more than 15 SOTA Summits, and are a favorite of area of Tim and me.
The overall trip was somewhat grueling, involving more than 13.5 miles travel and approximately 6,125 feet elevation gain (including some up and down sections). Measuring distance was difficult as more than half of the estimated distance was off trail travel on steep sections of bushwhacking and climbing on scree, gravel, sand and friable rock. The second Activation of the weekend, Three Brothers West (first SOTA Activation), was done on Sunday, May 31, 2015. That activation will be the subject of a separate report.
Access to Navaho Peak is described in many sources. Amongst them is: http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/navaho-peak and http://www.summitpost.org/navaho-peak/509421. It involves travel primarily up the Stafford Creek Trail, off North Fork Teanaway River. Trailhead is at 3,057 feet. At between 3.30 and 3.50 miles on the Stafford Creek Trail, elevation approximately 4,800 feet, we started cross country travel approximately north. Taking the path of least resistance, and gaining approximately 1,600 feet in less than a mile, we eventually intersected the County Line "Tail" at 6,400 feet elevation. This is a barely discernable trail connecting the high country between Kittitas Country and Chelan County. Turning right (SE), we worked our way to a low point in the SE ridge of Navaho Peak at approximately 6,500 feet. There we dropped our overnight gear, and with gratefully lighter packs, headed up to the summit of Navaho Peak, along the SE Ridge. Soon we were at the summit, stunned by the sight of many hikers coming up the "standard" route, including 4 mountain bikers who had ridden and carried their bikes to the summit, and were planning to walk / ride down.
Tim, KG7EJT, worked 2M FM and soon had a pile up going. I worked 40M SSB, and 18 MHz, including a DX contact in Baja Mexico. It was almost 4:00 PM when we broke down the equipment and headed to "Dead Elk Pass" to pick up our other equipment left behind, and move it all to base camp. Our camp was approximately 200 feet below Dead Elk Pass, on a nice bench with running water, beautiful views and a full frontal view of the next day's objective, Three Brothers West.
All together a great first day, complete with a Mountain House Spaghetti with Meat Sauce freeze dried dinner. With the the promise of another Activation to follow, we called it quits, and sacked out at 9:00 PM.
Thank you to my contacts: W7LQV; K7EAJ; KA7GEV; VE7GBO; KB7JWD; XE2CQ.
