Aztec Peak Radio Repeater
Lt. Tim Scott
asked for assistance to get three technicians and equipment up to Aztec Peak to repair the repeater at the lookout
tower. The tower is over 7600 feet and snowed in; no vehicles had been able to get there.
Tuesday, December
27, Lt. Scott followed me as I used the GCSO's
two-and-a-half ton truck to tow their Snow Cat to the ADOT
yard at Parker Creek on highway 288. We left the truck and
trailer at a secure area in the ADOT yard and returned to
the Payson yard. We loaded the TRSAR Arctic Cat on its
trailer to prepare it for transport Wednesday.
Wednesday morning
at 0600 we hooked the quad to Lt. Scott’s truck and headed
to Workman Creek. At the ADOT yard I picked up the truck
and trailer, and we headed on up to Workman Creek (FR487).
SR-288 has some
quite steep sections, and at times the truck’s maximum speed
was 10 to 12 mph in low gear. At FR-487 the dirt road was
reasonably clear, so Lt. Scott went in to see if he could
find a good place to unload our vehicles. It turned out he
did not get very far before ice and snow stopped him. In
order to get turned around in a fairly narrow spot, he had
to unload the quad and physically push the trailer sideways
to back up without jackknifing the trailer.
When he got back
to the start of the road, we unloaded the Snow Cat and
loaded both vehicles with gear. The three technicians came
up from Globe. For some reason they put most of their
equipment in the quad. It had two big batteries, a
generator, a big roll of coax cable, three large tool boxes,
and two ice chests loaded in back. They put a chain saw in
the Snow Cat. Lt. Scott led the way in the Snow Cat, and I
followed in the quad with one passenger.
About one mile in
we came to our first tree across the road. In all, we cut
through six trees and pushed logs off to the side. The
remainder of trip was fine. The elevation at SR-288 is 5520
ft, and the tower is at 7684 ft. The tracked quad is the
perfect vehicle for this snow, which I’m guessing was two-
to four-feet in depth.
The technicians
were able to fix the repeater in about three hours. They
never could get the generator to run, but managed without
it. The return trip was uneventful. There are a couple of
very sharp turns on this road, and I thought the Snow Cat
might have a problem with them. I wasn’t aware that it
steers both front and rear axles at the same time. The
Arctic Cat has a very good turning radius, so the curves
were no problem for either of us.
Loading the Snow
Cat on the trailer is somewhat spooky. The trailer needs to
be quite level, as the Snow Cat has steel treads and the
trailer bed is steel. Wet snowy treads would be just as
happy sliding sideways as Lt. Scott backed it onto the
trailer. Going back down SR-288 is very steep, and I
stopped twice to let brakes cool.
We got back to the Payson
yard at about 2000 hours. This was a good test of the quad’s
capability, and it is remarkable.
JJ Logan TR512
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