I just walked in the door… my stomach hurts, I have no appetite and my body hurts all over.
8.8 miles round trip, with close to 2900 feet of elevation gain for the whole trip with a 40 pound pack. My body got pushed to its limits… and managed to hold together long enough to make it back to the car.
It was just over 9 hours of hiking and when I finally got back to the car and stopped… a few people in the parking lot asked if I was ok… I said yeah sure im ok why do you ask… “Your entire body is steaming”… I had gone so hard, when I finally came to a rest my entire body was steaming like a hot cup of coffee on a cold morning…
Was it worth pushing myself to the brink?
When I spotted myself on 20m HF, and a pileup formed waiting to make contact with me… I knew it was worth every second of the pain.
Ill eventually digest some footage and pictures and see if I can throw together a movie for youtube… but as of right now, My body is too stiff to move, and my brain is too shot to think.
It was an amazing day! Thank you everyone for watching and working me.
In reply to K2FR:
Yeah the conditions were great today ! And what a beautiful day it was, I could not have asked for better.
I had so much fun on Berlin Mountain (W2/EH-001), I had to force myself to pack up and head down. I’d been at it long enough
In Scotland, referring to someone as ‘steaming’ means something quite different. Glad you had fun, Andy! As luck would have it, Jean VE2JCW and I got a ride back down the mountain courtesy of a caretaker who had come up to check on the burgler alarm which one of the hikers set off.
We both has super fun. We hiked up 7km and 2100ft of elevation gain in about 3 hours and then set up two stations at the summit. There were frozen lakes and snow at the top of the mountain. I operated mostly on 40m and Jean operated mostly on 20m. We made some fantastic QSOs including several summit-to-summit contacts, many memorable QSOs.
Right now I am enjoying a 2005 vintage Quebec ice wine and a smoked salmon as a reward for the activation and then I will go for a massage!! Yeah this is the way to unwind after a fun SOTA day on the mountain.
I’ll post our video and pictures in a week or so once I have edited them.
