Well it happened, the Goathiker got me. I spent the weekend doing (trying?) a VHF contest from Decorah Peak. At 1175', it isn't a big hill (we didn't even have to hike it, Doc hauled us 90% of the way in the Gator), but it was a valuable learning experience. Doc (property owner) and I were renamed 'Rooster and Peanut' respectively. I guess that makes Tom the 'old goat'.
I got to meet the real 'old goat'(WG0AT) in Dayton this year, he is quite a guy and I hope I can climb 14K mountains at that age. He is also not very big, probably 120#s soak'n wet, thus he needs some other way to get gear up the hill. Introduce Rooster and Peanut the pack goats. I think it's just neat.
Our biggest problem was power. It was cloudy, the sun was not giving a nice full charge on the solar panel (7W) and I hadn't charged my gelcells before the 'expedition'(Doh!). I played Mr Scott and got Tom enough power to keep going at high power (10W?) I think a lighter weight battery pack is in order. Peanut here will become a stubborn goat with more than 40AHs of batteries to haul. I have the W4RT pack in the 817 and it held up 'til the morning. Granted I was using .5W and wasn't on the whole time, but, it showed me that it and another external would last me a long time. The solar would probably keep things going pretty well, even if I turned up the power.
I look forward to the next trip...eagerly awaiting.