Dustin Morrow
Basic Member
Posts:471
 | | 23 Jan 2010 08:49 PM |
| Five years ago I was on a run with a group of folks up to the top of Mt. Defiance outside of Hood River. It was a spectacular trip and amazing views from the top. I recall the run being mostly straight forward until you approched the summit and then it became very technical. Some of the guys at the Fire Department live up in Hood River and know the area pretty well. They have suggested that the top may still be a tad bit snowy, but I am going to hook up with them and go scout the area. I will be doing it most likely in the next three weeks and will probably take the RZR in lieu of the RRC so we can get into as many areas as possible. I will do what I can to get some GPS points laid down. Question- Does anyone have any experience in this area? Suggested routes to the top? I know you can access it from the Hood River side or slide down into it from Mt. Hood. Once I have the details and the logisitics of the run established, I will get them posted. Should be a good day run for the folks around the Portland/SW Washington area. Dustin |
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Craig Spaeth
Basic Member
Posts:443
| | 23 Jan 2010 09:56 PM |
| I don't have any real input on the route, but if you need any help I am just out in White Salmon just across the river. I would love to help out with some scouting. I am fairly new to the off roading thing but am slowly gaining more experience. Let me know if I can help out. the other Craig |
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Dustin Morrow
Basic Member
Posts:471
| | 24 Jan 2010 09:21 AM |
| Sounds great Craig. I will shoot you a message when we have the scouting date secured. Dustin |
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Justin Hall
Basic Member
Posts:208
| | 24 Jan 2010 10:05 AM |
| Sounds fun! If timing worked out I would also be interested in the trip.
Justin |
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Craig Spaeth
Basic Member
Posts:443
| | 24 Jan 2010 01:38 PM |
| I have a friend that is involved in doing a trails inventory in this area. They are talking about actually designating some places 4x4 trails. It is a really slow process but I will look and see if I can find the booklet and see if includes the mt. Defiance area. We see Mt. Defiance out of our front window and it has a decent amount of snow on it now.
the other Craig |
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Ben Bailey
Veteran Member
Posts:2562
| | 24 Jan 2010 01:38 PM |
| I'd like to see what's up with that. Where is this place on Google Earth? Lat/Long?
BTW, I tried to get up to three corners rock last June and was stopped by snow. I was also in the Mt. Hood area and Sun River during spring break last year - 10 inches of snow in just those three days. So, there may not be snow up there now, but chances are there will be well into spring. |
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Dustin Morrow
Basic Member
Posts:471
| | 24 Jan 2010 03:14 PM |
| Ben, Kingsley Reservoir (a known coordinate) is at the base of Mt. Defiance. It can be found at N 45.64012 and W -121.67341. It is in the Hood River County Topo Map section. I know there will be snow at the top, but a couple guys at the FD said that trails up in that area are cleaning up pretty quickly so I want to check it out for myself. It may be March or later before we could make it to the top, but who knows. When you talk about three corners rock, you are not talking in Skamania County are you? Funny you mention Sun River... spent the first 15 years of my life in that place, my parents helped put that place together. Long story...different thread some day. Craig, Any info you have on those trails would be great and if you can see Defiance across the river, you may have the best intel of us all. Dustin |
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Chris Silva
New Member
Posts:45
| | 24 Jan 2010 08:41 PM |
| No info on the trails, but let me know when you are going. Had so much fun on the last trip that we want to do it again.
Chris |
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Dustin Morrow
Basic Member
Posts:471
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Ben Bailey
Veteran Member
Posts:2562
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Dustin Morrow
Basic Member
Posts:471
| | 09 Mar 2010 06:44 PM |
| Here is a KML file for Google Earth for my next planned run up at Defiance . I am working with Craig on the conditions up there... kind of nice he can see it right out his front window. Once I have the dates nailed I will move this conversation over to activity planning and on the event schedule. This low snow is not helping, but it should not last long. Dustin |
 Attachment: mt_defiance_final.gpx
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Dustin Morrow
Basic Member
Posts:471
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Ben Bailey
Veteran Member
Posts:2562
| | 21 May 2010 11:03 AM |
| I can't get either of your files to open in Google Earth, but they should, so I don't know what's wrong.
Got my call sign, so I will attempt to get an antenna this weekend so I can have it for the trip! Dustin, you have a radio, right? So who else will be Ham on this trip?
Also, I'm going to put together a photo lesson of sorts for anyone who is interested. |
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Brett Curry
Basic Member
Posts:199
| | 21 May 2010 12:31 PM |
| Looks like I will be meeting you guys on Monday morning. I'll have my radio with me. I'll keep checking so we can work out a simplex frequency. By the way I'm KF7HHB
Looking forward to the photo lesson as well. |
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Craig Miller
Posts:11803
| | 21 May 2010 01:08 PM |
| If someone is going who has used a repeater before, maybe you guys could set it up and give that a go too.
I hope this doesn't sound patronizing, cause I don't mean it to. I just wish someone would have told me this when I first got my radio to help me be more comfortable.
So, to hail someone... if I (K7NAV) was trying to hail Todd (K2RVR) then you just dial in the frequency (simplex), press the button and say "K2RVR, K7NAV" (Them, then you). Then just start gabbing. No need to sound like the military, a trucker, or a dispatcher unless it helps. Just identify yourself every so often and leave small breaks between the talking so someone can interject if there's an emergency. When you are done, sign off by saying "K7NAV clear". That way, other people know the frequency is clear if they were waiting to use it. No black helicopters are going to swoop in and get you if you don't say the perfect thing. :)
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Ben Bailey
Veteran Member
Posts:2562
| | 21 May 2010 01:22 PM |
| I was looking forward to the black heli's!
Thanks, Craig, I was wondering about this stuff because I had gotten used to talking on the radio in the aircraft, and there is a real natural way of talking in the aircraft, even though it is very formal -- so I went and listened to some repeaters online and found that it is much less formal in Ham talk, but still with the same basic idea.
I was hoping we could trade photo lessons for repeater lessons while on the trail. I think my radio makes it easy by automatically listening, then switching to the other frequency when the transmit button is pushed, but it will be fun to try it for real.
Is there a repeater in SW Washington that you can listen to that we could attempt to contact, especially from the top of the hill? |
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Craig Miller
Posts:11803
| | 21 May 2010 01:24 PM |
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http://www.artscipub.com/repeaters/states/Washington.asp http://www.levinecentral.com/repeaters/google_mapping.php Or search for "Washington State Repeaters" in Google. :-) |
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Ben Bailey
Veteran Member
Posts:2562
| | 21 May 2010 01:45 PM |
| Yeah, but (and I'm too new at this to know) how will I know which one to decide to reach? |
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Dustin Morrow
Basic Member
Posts:471
| | 21 May 2010 04:21 PM |
| Ben, Not you, something is wrong with that file. I will post a new file iin the "activity planning" thread for this event. Will be just a bit. Dustin |
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Craig Miller
Posts:11803
| | 21 May 2010 04:31 PM |
| Posted By Ben Bailey on 05/21/2010 1:45 PM
Yeah, but (and I'm too new at this to know) how will I know which one to decide to reach?[/quote]
You just pick one that is close to where you are going to be, and agree to use it with the other people on the trip. Works great when people are driving from different locations and meeting up at one central spot. Much better than cell phones since the whole group can hear what's going on.
Todd, Ed, and I used the Mt Hood repeater during one trip to Bend and had coverage from Bend to Portland... as in, Todd was in Portland and Ed and I were in Bend. Todd was having issues on the drive over and reached us via the repeater. Did a similar thing on the way to Hells Canyon where the cell phone wasn't working at all. You won't really know which repeater is best until you are in the location where you want to use the repeater. You can only make a good guess as to which one you'll have line of site too. With the repeater on top of a mountain, you have a pretty good shot at reaching it though. Note that you'll also have to read up on PL tones, and frequency offsets before you can use a repeater. Craig |
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