Granite Benchmark is a summit I’ve wanted to visit for awhile but couldn’t get to with my tiny commuter car as the trail head is down a long fire road. Sadly, the clutch in the car was going out and the replacement cost exceeded the value of the vehicle. In addition to the clutch, it needed a bunch of other work so it made sense to sell the car and buy something else. I ended up with a 1st gen Toyota Tacoma 4×4, manual everything. So far, it’s a rad truck.

From Bouquet Canyon road, I turned on the forbidden Leona Divide fire road and headed to the trailhead, where there was a large clearing and plenty of room to park and not get in anyone’s way. The hike it’s self it pretty easy; It follows a power transmission line service road around a mile and a half one way, and maybe 700~800′ of elevation gain. Close to the summit, you cross under the lines and follow a short use trail to the top. On this particular day , it was extremely windy. I had a difficult time getting my wire antenna up. In addition, my mast broke twice. Worked 40M, 30M, and 20M CW. No S2S from this peak. After packing up and heading back to the truck, I continued my way down Leona Divide to activate Burn Benchmark, one I’ve previously activated before via mountain bike. You can read about that here.

https://sotl.as/summits/W6/CT-132

Download file: W6_ct_132.gpx

Date:06/04/2023 |  Summit:W6/CT-132 (Granite Benchmark)

Time	Callsign	Band	Mode	Notes
19:13	KF6HI	7MHz	CW	S52N R52N
19:15	KN6RDC	7MHz	CW	S55N R599
19:17	NT6E	7MHz	CW	S58N R53N
19:17	KN6OMN	7MHz	CW	S57N R55N
19:19	AI6XG	7MHz	CW	S56N R44N
19:22	WU7H	7MHz	CW	S22N R22N
19:23	K6HPX	7MHz	CW	S33N R51N
19:35	W6TDX	10MHz	CW	S44N R44N
19:37	K5DEZ	10MHz	CW	S42N R42N
19:40	N9KW	10MHz	CW	S22N R339
19:47	N7EDK	14MHz	CW	S33N R33N
19:47	WW7D	14MHz	CW	S52N R53N
19:49	W6STR	14MHz	CW	S51N R57N
19:52	W0JSR	14MHz	CW	S45N R31N
19:53	W5BOS	14MHz	CW	S45N R33N
19:55	KG5ES	14MHz	CW	S42N R55N
19:56	NW7E	14MHz	CW	S33N R55N
19:59	N7BYD	14MHz	CW	S44N R44N
20:00	W5ODS	14MHz	CW	S45N R55N