Snow Run - Super Bowl Sunday

[marcfj60]

Steve, I'll call you this evening when I get back. If you don't hear from me, then send out the cavalry. I plan to stop in at the visitor center in Grants this morning and pick up some maps. I don't plan to go to Mt. Taylor, but rather check out some of the roads at the south end of the Zuni mountains and maybe head over to the lava flows. I've already gotten someone to cover for my usual Sunday morning commitment, gotten the food in the truck, packed, kids are ready. I'm not doing all that and then watching a football game instead. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[pappy]

It looks like Marc and I will be doing our best to have a good time in spite of the wind and potential weather. Once we get close to Grants I'll be on the San Mateo MegaLink.

 

[Beowulf]

Dr. Ali diagnosed a starter issue...

I have starter contacts and plunger in my spares box so ring me up if you need them. I'm in the garage all day so try both my cell and the home phone or just drive over and pick up what you need.

-Mike-

 

[alia176]

Looks like Mike and I were able to ping Jon on the Ham radio around 11am.

Very cool.

I'm waiting for one of the geeks in the club to come up with a base station!

 

[pappy]

Looks like Mike and I were able to ping Jon on the Ham radio around 11am.

Very cool.

Way cool. Mike and I actually talked several times. I was between 15-30 miles south of Grants talking to the San Mateo MegaLink repeater, which talked to the Sandia repeater, which is what Mike and Ash were talking too.

Google Earth Track

A few pics in a bit after I resize them ... and maybe catch some of the game.

 

[pappy]

... and maybe catch some of the game.

Or not.

 

[evanz80]

Looks like fun guys!

Who's that in the silver Runner - is that our buddy Matt we haven't seen in a while?

 

[juane]

Looks like a long day for you guys. Through the Chain of Craters area, nice.
Guess you missed the lava tubes.
Any four wheeling?
Oh yeah, what about that 2 pm wind gust of 40 mph?
juane

 

[pappy]

We had a breeze at best. No real wind. Not really cold. Snowed on us for about 5 hours. Marc was sort of stuck at one point. We did find some nice deep snow, though most of it was shallow.

 

[marcfj60]

We decided to head SW from I-40 along hwy 53 until just after the Visitor center that's on the NW side of the monument. Right after we crossed the continental divide, we headed south on County Rd 42 and went down by the Big Tubes area.
The snow was coming down pretty good starting about 11 am and kept up until we got to lower elevations about 5. The snow started at about 7,500 ft. At one point, Jon's GPS reported ~7,900 ft when we stop to turn around, fix a broken wire and let Matt's puppies play a little.
The snow on the ground ranged from non-existent in the sunny areas to over 12" in the shade. We had a few points at which the snow or a hill or combination of both gave some of us a little grief.
The wind the entire time we were in the higher elevations was probably no more than about 5 mph. Just enough to make the snow blow into your window or rear hatch whenever you opened it. .
The biggest challenges we faced were the 'hidden' frozen puddles in ruts that didn't show themselves until you were busting through the 5" thickl top layer and getting into a mud bog. Also, the large BLM map of the entire area pretty much sucked. It didn't have numbers on it once we were off the paved roads. We got lucky when we got to a dead end and there were some maps in box on an information sign.
We mostly stayed on County Rd 42 all the way from hwy 53 south to Hwy 117.
Then north on 117, through the "Narrows" and a brief stop at a natural arch for photos and a toilet break.
It was a very nice day with good weather and plenty of snow. I'll get a few pics up a little later.

 

[SteveLCetc]

Interesting how the weather can be different even in an East-West running canyon instead of a North-South running canyon. This doesn't show gusts, but it's in town. I suspect it would have been an entirely different picture up on the mountain.

 

[marcfj60]

Here's a few pictures.

 

[marcfj60]

And a few more.

 

[Beowulf]

Way cool. Mike and I actually talked several times. I was between 15-30 miles south of Grants talking to the San Mateo MegaLink repeater, which talked to the Sandia repeater, which is what Mike and Ash were talking too.

Jon's radio was working very well using that repeater. I am showing that it is at 9,300 ft, ENE of Grants, which I guess is on Mt Taylor but I'm not sure. The MegaLink (ML) system was pretty quiet today, probably because of the Super Bowl, so we were able to keep in touch several times during the day. My truck was in my garage and has the little 18" antenna but communication was exceptionally clear.

At the start of the day, I reached Jon on simplex (car-to-car) while he was traveling West on I40 at 9-mile hill. We lost contact after he crested and went down the other side but we reestablished contact a while later on the ML repeater system. Ali tweaked his radio a little and was quickly up on the Sandia ML repeater with a pretty good signal. There is a Cedro Peak ML repeater on 147.44 (Simplex, 100 PLL) that I think might work better on the East side of the Sandias. We'll have to give that a try on our next test.

-Mike-

 

[marcfj60]

Going south sounded like a better idea to us than up into Mt. Taylor with the predicted weather and wind. Plus, the closed road going to Mt. Taylor was confirmed by an employee at the tri-agency visitor center just south of I-40 at exit 85. I'll bet the weather would have been a lot worse on the mountain, even if the sledding might have been better. We didn't stop to sled until we'd gotten to flatter ground at lunch. The hilly stuff was just after turning off 53, where Jon and I both encountered some difficult routes. I was breaking trail for a while when we turned off Cty Rd 42 until I got stuck. Jon went around me and took the lead so the snow was packed down for me.

 

[alia176]

I've got the simplest radio but yet don't know much about it!

What radio did John end up with BTW?


And why is the hood up with tools on the battery? Field adjustments?

 

[pappy]

Both you and Ash did quite well from the Sandia ML repeater. Ash was very clear at times, and you were scratchy transmitting from inside the garage. I was transmitting at 10watts. The ML is quite the system. While parked at the Rio Puerco off-ramp I was able to hear the San Mateo ML repeater, but my attempts to contact it were hampered by having the wrong PL tone programed into the radio. Fixed that at Grants and I was in business.

That picture under my hood shows a broken wire coming off the aux battery to the isolator. The aux battery runs the CB, 2M, and dash outlets, among other things. It appeared the battery jiggled just enough to break the ring terminal on the isolator.

 

[marcfj60]

The positive lead from his auxiliary battery had an eye terminal on it that broke off. He lost most of his non-factory electronic accesories until he stripped the remnants of the terminal off and just squished the bare wires between two washers on the component it was supposed to be attached to. Look at the end of the red wire sticking up.

 

[sirenmoses]

Looks like you had a good time. Thanx for the pix...

 

[pappy]

What radio did John [sic] end up with BTW?

Yaesu FT-2800, pumped into a Comet CA-2X4SR. I had the antenna on the bumper most of the time to keep it out of the trees, but did move it to the roof rack which did help receive better.

I don't know if you guys were on at the time, but there was a roll-over accident reported on 550 between Cuba and Bloomfield. There was absolutely no radio traffic for about half-hour after the emergency was transmitted.