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Bolan Peak Fire Lookout
This past weekend (July 22-24, 2011) I had the pleasure of taking my oldest son into the Siskiyou mountains of Southern Oregon and Northern California for some father/son time. We stayed in an old fire tower atop Bolan Peak nestled around 6200 ft amongst a handful of craggy peaks reaching around 7500 feet. The weather was perfect as we finally experienced summer like temperatures that had eluded us since last September. We knew this past winter produced heavy snows, but were still amazed and delighted to see large snow drifts and plenty of shady area snow pack, both quite unusual this late in the season at our elevation. Understandably, we spent our first morning hiking the ridge line south of the lookout tower sliding down the snow shoots and scurrying through the snow tunnels all while enjoying the views of distant peaks and stunning wildflowers.
Since we could drive to the fire lookout we made a list of luxury items to bring such as a portable DVD player, cell phone, electric fan (4 sided glass rooms get very hot in summer even at elevation), laptop and a radio. All these devices require power so we brought several portable power units including a Tekkeon MP3450 lightweight lithium battery, a UPG 12V 18Ah sealed lead acid battery, SUNLINQ 25 watt flexible solar panel, several different small wattage DC to AC inverters and DC to DC converters, and various accessories to hook everything up.
We were very impressed with the power output of the SUNLINQ panel. Its rated output is 1.5A (1500mAh) in peak sun. The CIGS cell technology is capable of producing power in low light situations where mono-crystalline and polycrystalline cells cannot. This ability to absorb a wider solar light spectrum and its incredibly flexible and lightweight design makes it perfect for outdoor enthusiasts who cannot always be in optimal solar conditions. The video below shows a clip from one test we performed around 7:30 pm July 22, 2011 using a DC electric fan connected directly to the panel via a cigarette lighter adapter. The sun was within an hour of setting and we had enough power to run the fan even though two squares were facing upwards and not towards the sun (it was windy and I had to hold the panel down with a lead weight, see picture). Even so, the current output was still around 50% of total possible output at midday.
25 Watt Flexible SUNLINQ Solar Panel
This 25W SUNLINQ comes with a five piece accessory kit and can be connected directly to the Tekkeon mobile battery packs. In low light situations you can still harness the power of the sun by connecting the Sun Booster Solar Adapter between any solar panel producing less than 25W and the Tekkeon MyPowerALL battery products. The small DC socket AC adapter, Tekkeon Battery, SUNLINQ 25W and applicable accessories weighed less than 5 lbs. As we all know, when packing it in, weight matters! Especially when you are climbing or hiking on 14,000+ foot Mt. Shasta seen below in the distance looking west from the Bolan Lake lookout tower.
