This was a re-activation for me. If you are looking for all the details on how to get there and other useful info, you can find the original trip-report with the necessary details right here. This post has only a few specifics from today’s activation.

Waking up this morning,  I was not sure whether I saw fog or smoke when I looked out of the window. However, my nose was clear about what was going on – it was definitely smoke… coming from a large wild-fire (Hewlett fire) just a few miles north of here. It has been burning for the last six days and consumed over 7300 acres (~30 square km) in the Poudre Canyon, one of my main access routes to SOTA summits. Checking the Web confirmed that Co14 was closed between Ted’s Place and Rist Canyon due to the fire. I was planning to activate Mount McConnel, an easy hike of ~4,2 mi (6,8 km) and 2110 ft (643 m) ASL, about 10 miles up the Canyon from the fire. The road closure forced me to take an alternate route through Rist Canyon to get to the trail head. The early morning drive along the small and winding road was very enjoyable and I reached the trail-head ahead of schedule. The bridge over the Poudre River to Mountain Park Campground (where the TH ls located) was still closed for the season – so I parked the car on the downhill side of the road on a small gravel strip and started my hike. The temperatures were perfect, low 60s with a light breeze. Wildflowers started to come out everywhere and I quickly found my rhythm heading up the trail.  Hanging out with my own thoughts, I almost stepped on a large male Dusky Grouse who panicked and flapped nervously into the trees. He almost gave me a heart-attack, but I was glad it was just a grouse and nothing more predatory. Shortly after that incident we had another encounter. This time it was a little more civilized and relaxed, at a safe distance. He displayed his square tail but did not allow me to take a good picture – too bad. By the time I reached the summit, it was partly cloudy and with all the particles in the air from the raging fire not too far from here, the views were not as good as I had experienced last time.  I used the top of a tree (growing below the cliff) to attach and tune my antenna for 17m. My first contact was with Kriss/KA1GJU/AM who was en route to San Francisco. He was just about 50 miles east of me at 36’000 ft (~11’000 m) and was kind enough to use his unique position and 400 W radio to drum-up some more contacts – thanks a bunch Kriss. 17m was not very productive so I re-tuned to 20m and worked most of my regular chasers. By the time I could not copy any more chasers, more clouds already moved in and the winds picked-up too. A sign to pack up and head down.

Thanks for all the contacts and spots.

Update: Sadly, since then Mount McConnel has now been consumed by the Highpark fire as well. As of yesterday, two more SOTA summits are within the burn area.

Some video impressions:
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azvG7_AnVAk

Please post comments or questions through YouTube.

!! WARNING !! There are old mountaineers, and bold mountaineers... there are no old-bold mountaineers. Hiking and mountain climbing are potentially hazardous activities particularly in Colorado with its extreme elevations. I am not accepting responsibility for any death or injury resulting from activations based on my trip reports. Proper training, experience, and personal capability assessment is required - enjoy!

Written by: k0mos on May 19, 2012.on April 7, 2014.