W6/SC-352 – Mount Helix

Kel and I made a completely random trip down to San Diego to eat seafood, drink beers, and visit some summits. Before checking into our room in Point Loma, we headed east on Mission Valley Freeway, exiting on Fuerte Drive. From there, the GPS guided us to the top. We parked on the side of the road and walked around the amphitheater before finding the very top. I brought my Yaesu 817 to work high bands with a short antenna. I don’t think there would be a good spot for a full length EFHW without getting in the way, but maybe I didn’t explore the area enough. A security guard was curious what I was doing and after explaining, concluded I wasn’t a threat haha. After 30 minutes or so, I packed everything down and we headed back to the coast.

https://sotl.as/summits/W6/SC-352

Date:17/11/2023 |  Summit:W6/SC-352 (Mount Helix) 

TimeCallsignBandModeNotes
22:50W9SSN18MHzCWS53N R55N
22:51AE7AP18MHzCWS58N R55N
22:53N4KGY18MHzCWS51N R55N
22:577N1FRE18MHzCWS51N R45N
23:00JH1MXV18MHzCWS22N R41N
23:10W0JSL21MHzCWS58N R51N
23:11W5GDW21MHzCWS58N R54N
23:12JH1MXV21MHzCWS55N R52N
23:15WW7D21MHzCWS57N R54N
23:17JA1VVH21MHzCWS55N R52N

W6/CT-082 – Bare Mountain

Kel and I started this trip from Mill Creek Summit at the intersection of Pacifico Mountain Road (3N17) and Angels Forest Highway. From there we took a Subaru all the way down Pacifico Mountain Road, past Alder saddle to Little Rock Canyon Road and stopped at a locked gate. I was surprised to see several hunting groups here meeting up to head out of the forest after a long night. It’s deer season, but the hunters I spoke to said they didn’t see any deer this year.

No time was wasted after arriving at the trailhead so we quickly started hiking down 5N04 to a fire break that runs up to Bare Mountain. This is on the left side of the forest road by a water culvert. See the attached .gpx for more details. The hike is steep with several false summits. There is no tree cover or shade of any type so the name of this summit is appropriate. For me, hiking this in the summer would be uncomfortable. At the top, I worked 40m, 30m, and 2m, with 4 S2S QSOs. The return trip was the same as the accent. I don’t know why it took me so long to visit this mountain; I really enjoyed everything about it and will be back next year to activate again.

https://sotl.as/summits/W6/CT-082

Total distance: 5.16 mi
Max elevation: 6475 ft
Total climbing: 1837 ft
Total time: 04:05:51
Download file: W6_CT_082.gpx

Date:10/11/2023 |  Summit:W6/CT-082 (Bare Mountain) 

TimeCallsignBandModeNotes
21:00KD7DTS144MHzFMS22 R45 S2S W6/CT-266
21:01NT6E144MHzFMS44 R59
21:02KI6SLA144MHzFMS55 R55
21:18NN7O7MHzCWS58N R53N
21:19KF6HI7MHzCWS57N R57N
21:20K6EL7MHzCWS55N R57N S2S W6/NC-423
21:21WB6POT7MHzCWS57N R599
21:31N7EDK10MHzCWS32N R54N
21:32AI6XG10MHzCWS57N R58N
21:36WU7H10MHzCWS21N R55N S2S W7W/WH-194
21:37WW7D10MHzCWS21N R51N S2S W7W/WH-194
21:38K7MAS10MHzCWS52N R55N
21:40WA7JTM10MHzCWS57N R57N
21:41KN6DMO10MHzCWS57N R56N
21:51KN6KS144MHzFMS59 R59

W6/CT-080 – Buck Point

I read that 1N34 was open for deer hunting season which means there is access to Buck Point. I started out by driving out from Los Angeles to the 15, getting off on Sierra Avenue, then continuing straight until Lytle Creek road. From here, there is a forest gate on the left which might be open. When we got there, it looked closed from the road, but upon further inspection, it was unlocked and slightly ajar – so perhaps wind blew it closed, or a hunter closed it to keep others out? Either way, my wife pushed it open and we drove through.

It’s a long way up a forest road, which gets narrower and rockier the further you travel. There are several switchbacks and not very many opportunities for two way traffic. About three quarters of the way there is a large commercial communications site. This is where the nice part of the forest road ends. You need to continue further down the road which is overgrown, rocky, and sorta steep. You will not make this in a 2wd car. I would be very uncomfortable in a 2wd high clearance vehicle. Your paint will get pinstriped from the woody brush.

Near our target, we parked the truck in an small clearing where the topo map lines of the summit seemed gentle, slathered on some sunscreen and attempted to find any kind of trail that would lead us to the top. I had read this was overgrown, so I brought some garden clippers to help maintain the trail. This effort was abandoned after 30 minutes of fighting through dense vegetation and making no gain in elevation. We turned around and went back to the truck to come up with another plan.

Leaving the truck we continued down the forest road on foot to a gps location AJ6KZ said was the trailhead in his write up about Buck Point. (34.21503, -117.53971). From the road, there was no obvious trail or carins in sight, but I shimmied myself up the steep embankment and scrambled up a field of loose rocks anyways. Kel followed. From here I saw a carin, then two, then areas where there was an obvious trail, which was very overgrown to the point it wasn’t visible in some places. We moved slowly, using garden clippers to open the trail back up for others after us.

Finally making it to the top, there is a seismic monitoring station, powered by a small solar array with a microwave data back-haul. There wasn’t enough room at the top to stretch out 40M worth or antenna, so I only worked 30m, 20m CW, 2m FM for the locals. After exhausting the chasers we headed back down which took no time at all. The sketchiest bit was the last 10 feet or to get back to the forest road.

Walking back to the truck I talked with Kel about how I wish I had worn long pants, as I was badly scraped and bleeding from all the thorny plants up there. Later that night I started getting blisters on my legs which erupted in yellow goo the following days – so in addition to the thorny plants guarding the summit, I also got into something poisonous even though I didn’t notice any poodle dog bush. Maybe it was something else? Either way, the effort was totally worth it, however, I don’t see myself making this trip again.

https://sotl.as/summits/W6/CT-080

Total distance: 1.68 mi
Max elevation: 6433 ft
Total climbing: 691 ft
Total time: 03:23:39
Download file: Buck_Point.gpx

Date:02/11/2023 |  Summit:W6/CT-080 (Buck Point) 

TimeCallsignBandModeNotes
20:59N6XZN144MHzFMS59 R59
21:00K6NOV144MHzFMS55 R59
21:01KK6JM144MHzFMS54 R59
21:11N7EDK10MHzCWS22N R33N
21:13K6HPX10MHzCWS57N R56N
21:13WB6POT10MHzCWS57N R55N
21:15WU7H10MHzCWS52N R43N
21:21KN6TMT144MHzFMS59 R59
21:23WW7D14MHzCWS55N R52N
21:24W0MNA14MHzCWS56N R55N
21:25KT5X14MHzCWS51N R33N
21:26W0ERI14MHzCWS56N R55N
21:27K7TCU14MHzCWS55N R55N
21:28K7ATN14MHzCWS31N R55N
21:28W6TDX14MHzCWS55N R55N
21:30WB7BWZ14MHzCWS55N R57N
21:31KX0Y14MHzCWS55N R55N
Gate
The forest road
More forest road
This is where we attempted to start the accent – no way through.
This is close to the road – note the steepness. I think that’s Cucamonga Peak – W6/CT-006 in the background. I believe you can take the forest road – 1N34 – to a trailhead which should take you up there as an alternative to Ice house Canyon.
Kel scrambling
The top. Not much here.
Scrambling down.

W6/ND-285 – 3951

This was our second summit of the day, having just come from Mesa Benchmark. While most of the trails in the area are in pretty good shape, driving the trail to the bottom of this summit was pretty rough in some places. I was happy to have 4L in two spots, although, I sure you could just “send it” and it would have been fine. I’m assuming there is a better way than the path I took.

The hike starts out pretty steep, tapering off to a flat ridge before one last final climb to the top. It’s around 1/2 mile one way, but a tad over 500′ of elevation gain. I setup my broken antenna which only works on 20M and started calling CQ. Made several S2S contacts to Washington State and Colorado which is always a treat.

After exhausting the chasers and packing up everything, we headed down the hill the way we came, then headed back to our camp.

https://sotl.as/summits/W6/ND-285

Total distance: 0.99 mi
Max elevation: 3950 ft
Total climbing: 551 ft
Total time: 01:39:48
Download file: W6-ND-285.gpx

Date:07/10/2023 |  Summit:W6/ND-285 (3951)

TimeCallsignBandModeNotes
20:01KM6FXK144MHzFMS59 R59
20:12KI7DAD14MHzCWS55N R599
20:14W7UM14MHzCWS55N R55N S2S W0C/FR-085
20:14F4WBN14MHzCWS54N R599
20:15N7CHN14MHzCWS53N R54N
20:17WU7D14MHzCWS57N R57N S2S W7W/CW-065
20:18WW7D14MHzCWS57N R57N S2S W7W/CW-065
20:19KX0R14MHzCWS57N R55N S2S W0C/FR-174
20:21KT0A14MHzCWS55N R56N S2S W0D/BB-024
20:22K7AMM14MHzCWS57N R52N
20:22N7EDK14MHzCWS55N R599
20:23NM5SXM14MHzCWS57N R55N
20:24AC7MA14MHzCWS57N R55N
20:25N7SE14MHzCWS52N R53N
Summit crew
View from the top, our camp way out in the distance on the dry lake bed.

W6/ND-268 (Mesa Benchmark)

Kel, E.Bun, R. and I woke up in the morning on the dry lake bed. Hoping to beat some of the desert heat, we quickly ate a light breakfast and headed over to Mesa Benchmark. Distance is deceiving – We could easily see this one from where we were camped, however it took about 45 minutes to actually get there over the rough desert terrain.

I parked the truck in an area which had been used for shooting, close to the gentlest contours on a topo map and started heading up. There is no trail I could find. After about 20 minutes or so, there is a class 3 section which will take some care to navigate. Once past this section, it’s mostly flat, like a …..mesa!

At the top, we signed the register. I setup my EFHW driven by a Mountain Topper radio. I was getting extremely high SWR on 40, and 30 meters, so I was limited to 20M. Turns out my antenna was broken somewhere. Made one QSO with Buck down at the camp on 2M FM.

We decided to take a different roue on the way down. This involved a sketchy class 3 hike down to the desert floor, with a lot of potential for someone to get hurt. Thankfully, we all made it down without injury. Overall, this was a perfect morning hike! If you use my .gpx track, don’t go down the way we did!

https://sotl.as/summits/W6/ND-268

Total distance: 1.19 mi
Max elevation: 4131 ft
Total climbing: 646 ft
Total time: 02:02:58
Download file: W6-ND-268.gpx

Date:07/10/2023 |  Summit:W6/ND-268 (Mesa Benchmark) 

TimeCallsignBandModeNotes
16:46KM6FXK144MHzFMS56 R59
17:01WB7BWZ14MHzCWS55N R55N
17:03K6MW14MHzCWS51N R55N
17:04N7CHN14MHzCWS55N R54N
17:05AK5SD14MHzCWS33N R42N S2S W5O/OU-018
17:07KX0R14MHzCWS44N R44N S2S W0C/FR-174
17:10AI5DD14MHzCWS51N R52N
Morning hike crew
That bump is the final climb to the top
Class 3 up
Benchmark
Heading down – This was sketchy, for me.

W6/ND-284 – Opal Mountain

This was the second summit of the day, having just come from a short activation of Waterman Hills. By surprise, my wife and I ran into our pal Buck on the corner of Copper Canyon Road and Irwin Road. He had come up from San Diego to camp with us, however I didn’t expect him to arrive to early. That being said, I invited him to hike up to Opal Mountain with us. On the way to the trailhead we stopped in various locations to look at petroglyphs, Indian circles, and possible places to camp in the future. A bit over an hour through the desert trails, we got to the start. The hike up is pretty steep and rocky, but short. I didn’t find a summit register or a benchmark. Worked 20M CW and headed down pretty quickly. Back at the truck we drank some beers and headed over to a dry lake where we were meeting other friends to camp.

https://sotl.as/summits/W6/ND-284

Total distance: 0.78 mi
Max elevation: 3939 ft
Total climbing: 461 ft
Total time: 01:41:24
Download file: W6-ND-284.gpx

Date:06/10/2023 |  Summit:W6/ND-284 (Opal Mountain)

TimeCallsignBandModeNotes
23:13K7AMM14MHzCWS55N R55N
23:13WW7D14MHzCWS57N R57N
23:14N7CNH14MHzCWS53N R52N
23:17AK5SD14MHzCWS44N R31N S2S W5A/CS-020
23:18N4LAG14MHzCWS56N R42N
23:20W5ODS14MHzCWS57N R57N
23:20K2LT14MHzCWS22N R22N
23:21WU7H14MHzCWS58N R55N
23:22N7EDK14MHzCWS51N R55N
23:23W7SKH14MHzCWS33N R55N
23:23KE5AKL14MHzCWS57N R55N
23:24W7CBR14MHzCWS22N R33N
23:25N4GO14MHzCWS55N R32N
23:26AK7U14MHzCWS57N R53N
Buck putting on socks, Opal in the background.
Kel is way ahead of Buck and myself
Views at the top
An attempt to capture the grade of the hill with the camera

W6/SD-481 – Waterman Hills

This is a easy summit to access, but hard to operate as there is tons of RF noise. In addition, there isn’t much room on the actual summit to stretch out a wire. This limited me to 20M, my shortest antenna. The noise was so high that after I got 4 contacts I signed QRT and headed to another summit in the area.

Date:06/10/2023 |  Summit:W6/SD-481 (Waterman Hills)

TimeCallsignBandModeNotes
19:47WU7H14MHzCWS51N R55N
19:48NW7E14MHzCWS51N R55N
19:49W6JP14MHzCWS55N R55N
19:50K5DEZ14MHzCWS42N R56N

W6/CT-207 – Semi Peak

It was a wet winter and all the plants were very happy. While this summit is only worth 1 SOTA point, it’s totally worth hiking for the views alone. I hiked this with Jeff C. on a Friday to avoid weekend crowds. We ended up doing the “secret passage” route by following the tracks posted by N6ARA. Worked 20, 30, 40M CW at the summit. This is a beautiful hike and I hope to visit this place again in the future.

https://sotl.as/summits/W6/CT-207

Total distance: 6.8 mi
Max elevation: 2464 ft
Total climbing: 2255 ft
Total time: 05:21:27
Download file: Semi_Peak_W6_CT_207.gpx

Date:17/03/2023 |  Summit:W6/CT-207 (Simi Peak) 

TimeCallsignBandModeNotes
22:36WB6POT7MHzCWS55N R55N
22:39KN6PHZ7MHzCWS56N R56N
22:45N7EDK10MHzCWS51N R55N
22:46K6QCB10MHzCWS57N R58N
22:47N4LAG10MHzCWS57N R55N
22:48NT6E10MHzCWS57N R57N
22:49K6HPX10MHzCWS58N R55N
22:50NU7A10MHzCWS54N R33N
22:55KE5AKL10MHzCWS51N R22N
22:57KF7SP10MHzCWS55N R55N
22:59NS3C10MHzCWS52N R53N
23:033A7AON14MHzCWS53N R55N
23:04N4MJ14MHzCWS45N R43N
23:05W0MNA14MHzCWS33N R33N
23:06W4KRN14MHzCW52N R44N
23:07W0ERI14MHzCWS33N R33N
23:13KE5AKL14MHzCWS52N R55N

W6/CC-008 – Alamo Mountain

I’ve had Alamo Mountain on my radar for awhile but never thought I could get up there without lugging the moto on my van out to the OHV area, then, ride up to the side of the mountain, hike up, activate, hike down, moto back to the van, load up and head home. It felt like a lot of effort for 6 points. Well, last year my wife bought a Subaru Crosstrek and ended up putting a suspension lift in along with 30″ tires. To tackle this summit, her and I ended up driving through Gorman OHV area (free, no need to pay for access if just passing through) on Gold Hill Road. Here the pavement ends and turns into 8N01 which leads to a loop around Alamo Mountain. At the intersection we made a left and stopped at the back side of the summit. Here we grilled some burgers before the hike, ate, then headed up.

There is no actual trail up, so this was kinda a bushwhack the entire way through knee high flora. This means there was a ton of spikey and pokey things getting stuck in our socks – so much that I think the socks I wore on this hike might be ruined – otherwise a beautiful day. Throughout the hike I was worried about snakes, but I didn’t see any. Worked 20M, 30M, and 40M CW, two 2s2 QSOs. Signed the logbook and headed down the hill. Back at the car we completed the loop around Alamo. There are a few more SOTA summits which start around this area, so hopefully I can return soon to activate them.

https://sotl.as/summits/W6/CC-008

Total distance: 2.28 mi
Max elevation: 7297 ft
Total climbing: 1385 ft
Total time: 02:37:35
Download file: Alamo_AG6N.gpx

Date:25/08/2023 |  Summit:W6/CC-008 (Alamo Mountain) 

TimeCallsignBandModeNotes
20:07K6HPX7MHzCWS58N R54N
20:08WB6POT7MHzCWS57N R57N
20:09WC6J7MHzCWS52N R52N S2S W6/NS-210
20:10NW7E7MHzCWS55N R55N
20:12W9SSN7MHzCWS53N R53N
20:13KD7DUG7MHzCWS55N R57N
20:14NT6E7MHzCWS57N R53N
20:15W6JP7MHzCWS57N R53N
20:21K6EL10MHzCWS42N R57N S2S W6/NC-423
20:22N6WT10MHzCWS57N R57N
20:23NU7Y10MHzCWS58N R56N
20:23W6TDX10MHzCWS57N R56N
20:25WU7H10MHzCWS31N R32N
20:27WW7D10MHzCWS31N R31N
20:28N6PKT10MHzCWS55N R55N
20:28K6YK10MHzCWS55N R55N
20:30KH2TJ10MHzCWS51N R55N
20:31KB7HH10MHzCWS55N R55N
20:33W2NC10MHzCWS55N R33N
20:36N7EDK10MHzCWS31N R53N
20:43F4WBN14MHzCWS31N R5NN
20:43W5ODS14MHzCWS55N R55N
20:44KF9D14MHzCWS55N R33N
20:47K7EVM14MHzCWS51N R54N
20:48K0LAF14MHzCWS32N R22N
20:51NA7EE14MHzCWS55N R55N

W6/CT-151 – Frankish Peak

Mike – KN6EZE started with SOTA around the same time as I did, so when we were both close to earning goat status- 1,000 points, we decided to do it together. Originally we were going to snowshoe up to Sunset Peak, however, that morning an avalanche blocked the road to the trailhead which forced us to quickly change plans. Had we been any earlier to Sunset Peak, we might have been stuck in Mount Baldy Village until the snow was cleared.

Nearby, Frankish Peak would satisfy the points needed for both of us to make goat status. This was a summit I’ve never climbed, in addition I already made a contact here so it would be a complete for me as well. The hike starts out on a narrow use trail that leads to a fire road, then another use trail which is quite steep, perhaps more of a climb to a ridge line. Here, there was plenty of snow accumulation which made the hike even more enjoyable.

At the top we spread out. I setup a 40M EFHW and Mike setup a 2M j-pole. After I exhausted all chaser on 40M Mike and I switched stations. Mike used a uSDX in SSB mode which made me want to get one of these inexpensive little radios. He then switched it to CW while I worked 2M FM. After reminiscing on the summit of all the adventures and summits before, we hiked back to the car the same way we came up. Traffic was terrible so we went to a restaurant and got a well deserved meal and a beer while things settled down on the highways.

https://sotl.as/summits/W6/CT-151

Total distance: 4.51 mi
Max elevation: 4247 ft
Total climbing: 2447 ft
Total time: 06:09:26
Download file: Frankish_Peak.gpx

Date:03/03/2023 |  Summit:W6/CT-151 (Frankish Peak) |  Callsign:AG6N 

TimeCallsignBandModeNotes
21:07K6KMH7MHzCWS58N R57N
21:08N4LAG7MHzCWS57N R55N
21:09KX6I7MHzCWS55N R57N S2S W6/SC-146
21:10K6EL7MHzCWS44N R55N S2S W6/NC-423
21:11K6YK7MHzCWS56N R55N
21:12KF6HI7MHzCWS57N R55N
21:13KE6MT7MHzCWS42N R53N
21:14K6TUY7MHzCWS57N R58N
21:17NT6E7MHzCWS58N R57N
21:20KD7DTS7MHzCWS57N R599 S2S W6/CC-056
21:49KD7DTS144MHzFMS56 R57
21:52N6XZN144MHzFMS59 R59
21:53KK6TDU144MHzFMS59 R59
21:55WA2KDL144MHzFMS55 R59
21:56KD7WPJ144MHzFMS58 R58
21:58KM6QPV144MHzFMS59 R59
22:00KN6FNY144MHzFMS57 R57
22:03KI6SLA144MHzFMS59 R59
22:09K6NOV144MHzFMS33 R55