Well last weekend was a bust for hiking as we had a pretty heavy snowfall. I planned to make up for it this weekend with two summits. I laid out my tracks in All Trails and was packed and ready. I knew it was going to be cold, so I was layered accordingly and I also carried my new alcohol stove with some Starbucks instant coffee. I headed out and came to Woody Gap just above Suches to find a decent amount of snow. On the Suches side of the gap the snow was much heavier. I headed down Gaddistown road to FS 348. I went back in about 4 miles to the trail head. This trail is only about a half mile up to the summit, but there is about 700′ elevation gain heading up to this one. Snow was 6 to 8″ deep in spots making for slick and slow going. The snow was indeed pretty on the mountainside. The summit lived up to its name with temps in the 20’s it was definitely frozen! I eventually made it to the top. I quickly changed into dry top layers and hung up my sweaty clothes to dry. I got the antenna in place fairly quickly and set the radio up. Before getting a spot I decided to make a cup of hot coffee. I must say this is a luxury on the trail that I enjoyed very much. I had some new warm layers and hat that kept me toasty at the top. There was not as much snow on the top of the mountain as there had been coming up the side. I made 22 contacts and had a summit to summit contact with my pal Ryan WG4I. I even got up enough nerve to do a summit to summit contact on CW (Morse Code) with Mike Cartmill AC0PR. Mike was on 20 meters in Utah and I could barely hear him, but made the contact. That was quite a thrill. I packed up and headed back to the truck I didn’t know if I had it in me to do another summit, but decided to give it a go. The next summit was going to involve some bushwhacking late in the day, so I needed to get going.
Here are the really cool pictures of Frozen Knob
KC4WZB 