Mt. Emma had been on my radar for awhile, but the lower elevation and lack of shade pushed this down my list until cooler months arrived. My wife and I wanted to get out of the house, so this was a perfect spontaneous activity on a cool November day. Start on Mt. Emma road – there is a small parking area directly across from the trailhead, and a small sign lets you know you’re at the right place. At first the trail winds through chaparral up the first hill. After about 10 minutes of hiking, you will discover the trail was replaced with a recent fire break, most likely in response to the Bobcat Fire. Follow the fire break all the way up to the summit. It’s quite steep, my GPS reported a 15% ~ 30% grade. At the top, I found the summit marker, but no benchmark. Maybe it was destroyed by a land clearing machine? I also observed red fire retardant on the ground, the kind dropped form aircraft. Interestingly, it appeared that this was dropped before the land was cleared. I setup a long wire antenna into my Yaesu 817, self spotted via APRS. Made a few contacts on 20M, tried 17M with no luck, then moved to 40M and made several more with one summit to summit. I look forward to activating this again in a years time to see how the plants recover. Maybe I should plant a native tree up there?

https://sotl.as/summits/W6/CT-029

Download file: Mt.Emma.GPX

Date:20/11/2020 | Summit:W6/CT-029 (Mount Emma)

Time	Callsign	Band	Mode	Notes
21:05	W0MNA	14MHz	SSB	55 59
21:06	AC1Z	14MHz	SSB	22 55
21:07	KD8KDB	14MHz	SSB	22 55
21:08	WB7BWZ	14MHz	SSB	53 59
21:09	W5ODS	14MHz	SSB	55 59
21:44	NG6R	7MHz	SSB	55 59
21:44	W7USA	7MHz	SSB	55 59
21:45	K6RIN	7MHz	SSB	33 59
21:46	N0RSR	7MHz	SSB	59 59
21:48	K6LDQ	7MHz	SSB	54 59
21:49	NQ7R	7MHz	SSB	55 55
21:50	W6DT	7MHz	SSB	44 45 S2S W6/SN-049
21:51	KL7HM	7MHz	SSB	33 59
21:53	K6YK	7MHz	SSB	55 59
21:55	WB7ULD	7MHz	SSB	51 55

Iron Mountain is one of those summits in Southern California which hasn’t been activated too many times, and for a good reason. It’s a long hike, or in my case, a long, hard bicycle ride. I started at Dillon Divide full of energy ready to tackle the summit around 11am, but quickly found this bike ride to be laborious, not because of the distance or the uphill grade, but because the road was covered in rocks ranging in size from a softball, to large marbles. Trying to put any kind of effort into the rear wheel resulted in a tire without traction. In the worst spots on the trail, the front wheel was bobbing around left and right, looking for traction as well! Needless to say, I had to push the bike up most of the way.

Fallen trees and rock slides along the way made this hike with a bike more difficult. After a few hours of climbing over fallen trees, through deep gravel – wanting to give up and turn around, I made it to the bottom of the summit. Of course, I didn’t do any research on how to actually get to the top so I spent some time looking at contour maps to find the least steep route. This turned out to be an old fire break, which was quite over grown and not really visible. At the top, the benchmark was easy to find. I signed the summit log, which was last signed in May.

Daylight was running out quickly, so I setup my station as fast as I could and made enough HF contacts to qualify the summit, switching over to VHF for additional contacts while breaking down the long wire antenna. As the sun started to dip below the horizon, I started the hike down to my bike, which I left near the road up. It was twilight, but the bike I was riding has a dynamo front wheel that generates light. Going downhill was somewhat easier than going up. You see, I’m riding a bike with somewhat skinny tires and brakes that don’t work well at all. This trip would have been better on a different bike! About a quarter of the way down, it was pitch black. Ten miles plus endless switchbacks and large rock dodging, in addition to severely cramped hands and not enough light required laser focused concentration, but I made it down safely, with all my gear – tired, beat up, cold and hungry. All in all, this was pretty tough and I can’t wait to do it again.

https://sotl.as/summits/W6/CT-024

Download file: Iron Mountain.GPX

Date:14/11/2020 | Summit:W6/CT-024 (Iron Mountain)

Time	Callsign	Band	Mode	Notes
00:04	KB7JJG	7MHz	SSB	59 52
00:05	NW7E	7MHz	SSB	59 53
00:06	N0RSR	7MHz	SSB	55 55
00:18	NE6R	14MHz	SSB	59 59
00:25	KN6LBJ	144MHz	FM
00:26	WB2WIK	144MHz	FM
00:27	KK6TLN	144MHz	FM
00:28	W1SAV	144MHz	FM
00:28	KI6PMD	144MHz	FM
00:31	KK6TDU	433MHz	FM

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UPDATE! May 31st, 2021

Forest road 3N17 is open, so I decided to activate Iron Mountain again, but from from the other direction; Mount Gleason area. I drove my SOTA mobile about as far as I was comfortable, ending up just to the side of Lightning Point campground. You could drive another mile or so down the narrow dirt road until you reach a locked gate. From here, you hike down to the summit! I think this is a first for me. The trail is mostly exposed, so bring extra water.

Download file: IronMountain2.gpx

I’ve been looking for more summits which are accessible by dual sport motorcycle, and the western edge of the Angeles National Forest seems to have a few from what I can gather via internet research. I just need to ride around the area and see how accessible they are. This summit is just off BPL Road, which I believe, is private. However, the roads are in the forest, which is open. It shouldn’t be an issue to use the land so off I went. Near the summit, I parked the moto off the side of the road and followed the ridge line up to the top. An inverted triangle post was used to hold a QRP Guys end fed tuner, with 41′ of wire stretched out to a collapsible fishing pole. I worked 20M, 40M, and 2M. One summit to summit contact on FM. There are a few more 2 and 4 point summits in the area, which I hope to activate soon.

https://sotl.as/summits/W6/CT-144

Download file: W6:CT-144.GPX

Date:23/10/2020 | Summit:W6/CT-144 (4460)

Time	Callsign	Band	Mode	Notes
20:20	NOWAE	14MHz	SSB	59 55
20:21	WW7D	14MHz	SSB	59 57
20:22	N0MNA	14MHz	SSB	55 44
20:24	W0ERI	14MHz	SSB	55 44
20:25	KG6MZS	14MHz	SSB	57 43
20:27	WU7H	14MHz	SSB	59 58
20:43	N6NKT	7MHz	SSB	59 33
20:44	W7RV	7MHz	SSB	20:44
20:46	K6LDQ	7MHz	SSB	55 33
20:53	KA6VVD	144MHz	FM
21:06	KN6CQX	144MHz	FM	S2S W6/CT-004

I’ve read that the road to Mt. Pacifico was closed to traffic, which made me want to cycle up to the top and enjoy the views with little interaction with others. This wasn’t the case. At the time of writing this, the road is open, all the way to the top, and the campground was occupied. Most traffic and the campers seemed to be hunting something, maybe birds? It’s not a very nice hike up the fire road, so if I’d known the road was open I probably would have ridden my DRZ dual sport motorcycle to the summit. (You can also hike the PCT to the summit, which I might do next time!) I made the trip with T. and E., my cycling pals. Of course, we got to the trailhead at the hottest time of the day. The fire road up doesn’t supply any shade, which made the ascent much harder in the blaring sun. After about 5 miles of climbing, you will see a sign directing you to the summit. This road offers some well needed shade, but not much. At the top, my standard HF station was setup at a picnic table. APRS packets were getting to an iGate for self spotting. In all, we spent two hours on the summit with contacts made on 10M, 20M, 40M and 2M. The thrilling ride down took a fraction of the time it took to get up. The downhill made cycling all the way up worth it!

https://sotl.as/summits/W6/CT-015

Download file: Pacifico.GPX

Date:17/10/2020 | Summit:W6/CT-015 (Pacifico Mountain)

Time	Callsign	Band	Mode	Notes
21:38	N0WAE	14MHz	SSB	59 55
21:41	WD8KDB	14MHz	SSB	59 55
22:02	N6DNM	7MHz	SSB	55 52
22:22	KF6QBS	28MHz	SSB	59 55
22:26	KM6MZS	144MHz	FM
22:28	KE6ZGR	144MHz	FM
22:43	K7JSG	14MHz	SSB	59 55 POTA K3288
22:49	AE7AP	14MHz	SSB	55 25
23:05	KF6HI	7MHz	SSB	59 55
23:07	N5DIM	7MHz	SSB	52 55
23:08	NW7E	7MHz	SSB	55 53
23:10	K7IMA	7MHz	SSB	22 22 S2S W7W-LC115
23:11	NS7P	7MHz	SSB	55 44
23:11	W7RV	7MHz	SSB	59 57
23:11	N0RSR	7MHz	SSB	59 44
23:13	NQ7R	7MHz	SSB	44 32
23:16	W7FAS	7MHz	SSB	23:16
23:38	KW6ACK	144MHz	FM
23:40	K6KWI	144MHz	FM
23:41	KI6RF	144MHz	FM
23:43	KM6CEM	144MHz	FM