I’m not sure why I didn’t activate Onyx Peak earlier. I’ve driven by it several times, and even activated W6/CT-041just to the west. This would be an easy summit to mountain bike. It’s a bit under 6 miles round trip, but less than 1000′ of elevation gain on a maintained fire road. Kel and I parked at the locked gate off CA 38 and hiked up Pipes Canyon Road to the summit, which hosts several large communication installations – including a few amateur repeaters. Once there I was able to check into the Coffee Talk net on a 2M repeater in Yucca Valley while setting up my MTR4B with an EFHW antenna. I then heard several other SOTA ops hiking up to San Gorgonio. No S2S with them though. Worked 40m, 30m, and 20m CW. Talked to another hiker who was interested in amateur radio and explained the SOTA program. We hiked down the way we came, but considered a cross-country route down to make it a loop. Overall, easy summit, easy hike.

https://sotl.as/summits/W6/CT-044

Date:24/08/2024 |  Summit:W6/CT-044 (Onyx Peak) 

This was the third and last SOTA activation over a weekend trip to Anza-Borrego. It was later in the day and I needed to pick up my bike-packing pals in a few hours not too far from this summit so I had to make it a quick one. I parked the Jeep off the main road to the mine ruins, just before an area where the road was washed out, then hiked. I followed an old service road that went to the top of the mine ruins, then a sketchy scramble up a steep embankment to continue on. I’m glad I had some tracks to follow, as there are several ridges one could follow that dead-end; one could get somewhat lost up there. After a spirited walk to the top, I signed the register and waited for 00:00 UTC to start my activation. I stretched out my EFHW antenna and connected it to an MTR4B, first working 40M, then 20M. I got a text from the bike packing group with an ETA for their pickup so I packed up and headed down the hill the same way I came. The sketchy part was worse coming down, but overall it was a pretty easy hike, and perhaps my favorite of the weekend. After picking up the bike packing group, we went to Agua Caliente County Park for a dip in their excellent hot spring pool.

https://sotl.as/summits/W6/SD-396

Date:10/03/2024 |  Summit:W6/SD-396 (Mine Benchmark) 

Chariot Mountain was the second of two summits I completed while camping at Cuyamaca Rancho State Park with the So. Cal SOTA group. Before the event N6MTB published a route from camp to the summit of Chariot. At that point my mind was made up, this is what I was going to do. After a quick breakfast, I jumped on the bike and headed up the mountain.

The ride was awesome, starting with some single track right at the camp, then into more single track through a meadow, to a fire road, to more single track through another meadow. Oh, weather was perfect too! Near the end of the fun stuff there is a big downhill over a fire road which leads to the bottom of Chariot. This wasn’t going to be fun climbing up! Once at the bottom, I realized there isn’t a trail up to the top! The summit is also guarded by thick pokey bushes. I stashed my bike, gathered my stuff and started the painful bushwhack to the top.

Since I didn’t have a backpack, I was hand carrying everything I couldn’t fit onto my pockets. Unfortunately, my Yaesu HT was clipped to my pocket and disappeared somewhere in the brush. I was never going to find it. After attempting to backtrack my exact route for 15 minutes or so, I heard a radios squelch crack open – Ara was on a summit, and I was able to locate my radio about 30 feet away from where I was standing. I would have never found it otherwise!

I now had to backtrack through the brush again. My skin was starting to feel ‘raw’ from all the scratches. I wasn’t having a good time. Fortunately, the higher you go, the thinner the brush, and near the top, there isn’t any brush! Once on the actual summit, I signed the register and pulled out my KH1 with the whip. Worked 15, 17, and 20M, then 2M FM. After exhausting all the chasers I started my decent through the brush once again.

Back at the road it took me a minute to find my bike and pack all my stuff up for the ride back to camp. That big uphill wasn’t so bad and before I knew it I was back riding through the various meadows on single track. I chose not to take the exact route back, which was rad because I ran into Bill and Drew on the main road and rode with them back to camp on a different trail. What a rad day!

https://sotl.as/summits/W6/SD-074

Date:27/04/2024 |  Summit:W6/SD-074 (Chariot Mountain) 

Cuyamaca Peak is one of two summits I completed while camping at Cuyamaca Rancho State Park with the So. Cal SOTA group. I rode my mountain bike up the steep paved road from the campground and ended up operating in a gravel parking area near the tower facility. There was thick fog, with water accumulating on the infrastructure above. Whenever the wind blew, it would feel like it was raining, and perhaps it was a bit. It was starting to get late by the time I got up there, so I worked 20M CW, then 2M FM which got me most of the camping group in 3 minutes. I took a different way down to make a loop out of the ride, but I think I would go up this way next time as it was a nicer experience.

https://sotl.as/summits/W6/CC-014

Date:27/04/2024 |  Summit:W6/CC-014 (Cuyamaca Peak)