ADK46erNow Test Day 2

There’s no reason to climb Hurricane or Cascade if there’s still issues with the compass bearings, so first stop was to return to The Meadows.

Now you can take note of the check marks next to the various peaks (see Day 1) – Awesome! On target! All’s right with the world – or at least the bit of the world I’m looking at.

How exactly do I get to the Hurricane Mountain trailhead? Planned, but not researched since it isn’t one of the high peaks. I hadn’t bothered to look up where the trailhead was. So, Google maps… which took me, as I was to find out later to the East trailhead on Hurricane Mountain road. Dirt road, lesser used of the three trails, one of which I drove right past (on 9N) to get to this one. Once I looked up the trails I found the trail I took described thus “This trail starts at the end of Hurricane Mountain Lane and climbs 1,700 feet over 2.7 miles to the summit. The final section is quite steep.” Yeah, “steep”. That “steepness” was over the last 2.0 miles. The first 0.7 lures you in with a flat hike and then relentlessly climbs and climbs and climbs. Oh, wait, I enjoy this right? That’s why I created this app.

Sorry, got sidetracked there… 

Since this wasn’t a high peak I was still using it for it’s great views to the west over the high peaks and to test out the peak identifications and compass bearings. That’s right, back on track now.

Surprises: 

• Gorgeous weather, 
• Mid to upper 60s. Low 60s at the summit,
• Great clear views all around. Seriously spectacular.
• The fire tower at the summit is open to the public!

Test Results: 

• Compass bearings working awesome even on peaks I didn’t plan on ID-ing (see Phelps Mountain image below). The clouds in the screen shots below look ominous, but really it was a nice day.
• Climbed the tower (with very shaky knees. Fighting my fear of heights) to find laminated labeled panoramas of the surrounding high peaks posted on the four walls of the open cabin at the top. it’s like they put this here just for my testing! It was the perfect way to test the 360 view – you can see the surrounding peaks, then the labeled peaks in the tower and then the app’s identification. I didn’t know this would work out so well. The whole situation was designed to test the app!
• Rather than scribbling the test results on paper, this time I took screen shots to compare to the tables (below)
• GPS worked.
• Great cell reception on this summit so the app’s weather forecast feature also worked.
• Feeling very positive about the testing at this point. If my legs hold out I should be able to run a full test of the app on Cascade.

Note to Self:

• I’ve got two pairs of hiking boots. One has great grip and tread and the other, not so much. Wet, muddy climb. Wound up on my backside once on the way up and once on the way down. Next time… bring the other pair of boots.