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

Download file: W6-ND-285.gpx

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

Time	Callsign	Band	Mode	Notes
20:01	KM6FXK	144MHz	FM	S59 R59
20:12	KI7DAD	14MHz	CW	S55N R599
20:14	W7UM	14MHz	CW	S55N R55N S2S W0C/FR-085
20:14	F4WBN	14MHz	CW	S54N R599
20:15	N7CHN	14MHz	CW	S53N R54N
20:17	WU7D	14MHz	CW	S57N R57N S2S W7W/CW-065
20:18	WW7D	14MHz	CW	S57N R57N S2S W7W/CW-065
20:19	KX0R	14MHz	CW	S57N R55N S2S W0C/FR-174
20:21	KT0A	14MHz	CW	S55N R56N S2S W0D/BB-024
20:22	K7AMM	14MHz	CW	S57N R52N
20:22	N7EDK	14MHz	CW	S55N R599
20:23	NM5SXM	14MHz	CW	S57N R55N
20:24	AC7MA	14MHz	CW	S57N R55N
20:25	N7SE	14MHz	CW	S52N R53N

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

Download file: W6-ND-268.gpx

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

Time	Callsign	Band	Mode	Notes
16:46	KM6FXK	144MHz	FM	S56 R59
17:01	WB7BWZ	14MHz	CW	S55N R55N
17:03	K6MW	14MHz	CW	S51N R55N
17:04	N7CHN	14MHz	CW	S55N R54N
17:05	AK5SD	14MHz	CW	S33N R42N S2S W5O/OU-018
17:07	KX0R	14MHz	CW	S44N R44N S2S W0C/FR-174
17:10	AI5DD	14MHz	CW	S51N R52N

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

Download file: W6-ND-284.gpx

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

Time	Callsign	Band	Mode	Notes
23:13	K7AMM	14MHz	CW	S55N R55N
23:13	WW7D	14MHz	CW	S57N R57N
23:14	N7CNH	14MHz	CW	S53N R52N
23:17	AK5SD	14MHz	CW	S44N R31N S2S W5A/CS-020
23:18	N4LAG	14MHz	CW	S56N R42N
23:20	W5ODS	14MHz	CW	S57N R57N
23:20	K2LT	14MHz	CW	S22N R22N
23:21	WU7H	14MHz	CW	S58N R55N
23:22	N7EDK	14MHz	CW	S51N R55N
23:23	W7SKH	14MHz	CW	S33N R55N
23:23	KE5AKL	14MHz	CW	S57N R55N
23:24	W7CBR	14MHz	CW	S22N R33N
23:25	N4GO	14MHz	CW	S55N R32N
23:26	AK7U	14MHz	CW	S57N R53N