We enjoyed a warm but windy day on Tikaboo. The conditions were more or less perfect for the climb with the wind keeping us cool and for a bunch of 50 year olds in decaying physical state we surprised ourselves by doing the climb up in 1hr 45min. The visibility was not great but OK, trouble is that nothing interesting was seen apart from the Janet 737s and the Beechs although weather advisories were in effect regarding the gusty wind which presumably kept bee-sized UAVs, giant reverse-engineered alien spacecraft and clapped out Russian jets on the ground.

Callsign of the month for the Janets was Amber and for the based traffic, Chevy. Chevy 25 and Chevy 27 were heard departing and assumed to be base choppers due to the 'exercise caution' type ATC clearance from the Tower; I couldn't find the associated UHF freq on the scanner to confirm. Anyhow, we amused ourselves with a BBQ and by erecting a large flag. Although there was a little concern that raising anything other than the Stars and Stripes may violate some law, nobody paid us the slightest bit of attention.

Apart from a pair of A-10s way off in the distance the only item of interest was a F-16 that passed overhead at 0700 as we were halfway up Tikaboo. We left the summit at around 1530 and once back down resorted to juvenile behaviour, beer, balloons, rockets and birthday cake.

The picnic spot at the summit seemed to have received much TLC in the 2 years since we last visited. Thanks to all involved in the construction work and supply of optical gear!

Piggymossum