I spent the weekend camping in the area and planned 4 or 5 summits to hike while I was out there. It took me some time to actually leave the house, so by the time I got to the desert it was much later than I would have liked. As such, I started my SOTA day with the easiest one – Government Peak. This is basically a drive up, however, I took many wrong turns on the maze of roads. Recent rains washed out a chunk of one such road and my rear tire fell into the resulting hole, and with an open differential the tire just spun. I needed 4wd to get out. Not far from where I got stuck, I stopped the truck and hiked the remainder of the road up. You could drive straight to the top, but I was in the vehicle for a few hours already and wanted to stretch out a bit.

The top is a narrow ridge with a few communication equipment shelters and some towers. I couldn’t locate a benchmark, but perhaps it was behind a fence. I stretched out an EFHW antenna and leaned my mast on an unused utility pole to support the wire. Worked 7m and 14m CW; didn’t bother with 2m FM on this one. Wanting to get one more summit in before it got dark, I packed up the equipment and headed to the paved road. This would be a good one to do in the summer as you get 3 extra bonus points and the risk of environmental exposure can be reduced by driving to the top.

https://sotl.as/summits/W6/ND-224

Date:16/02/2024 |  Summit:W6/ND-224 (Government Peak)

This was the second summit E and I climbed for the 2024 So.Cal Winter SOTA Fest. We parked the truck in a small box canyon and scrambled up a wash to a ridge line, at which point it became a class 2 hike, eventually leveling out flat again. The top is large and flat, so plenty of room for antennas. Worked 40M and 2M only as it was pretty windy and the temperature was dropping quickly as the day was coming to an end. We scrambled down a different way which was kinda sketchy. I recommend the ridge route over just going straight down. Back at the truck we headed over to the camp to meet the others crawling around the hills in the area. The weather forecast predicted the temps in the low 30’s with strong wind. E and I noped out of that situation, got a hotel room in Barstow, and had a nice dinner at a pretty good Mexican restaurant.

https://sotl.as/summits/W6/SD-087

Date:12/01/2024 |  Summit:W6/SD-087 (4590) 

Spy Mountain is right next to Giant Rock – the largest freestanding boulder in North America and, perhaps, the largest free standing boulder in the world. Or, at least it was before a big chunk broke off in 2000. It was a sacred place for Native Americans back in the day and has some interesting history which is more recent that revolves around aviation, UFOs and other conspiracy theories.

I parked the truck in a super sandy area by a rocky ravine that leads to the top, maybe an eighth of the way around Spy. You probably want 4wd here or park out by the trail before hitting the sand. Heading up to Spy was slow, as it was boulder hopping all the way up. Recent rains created puddles between rocks some areas, and I was surprised to find some rather large desert sage bushes and various blooming plants along the way. At the very top it was pretty windy. I found the summit register, signed it, then setup my antennas and tucked behind some rocks to operate 7m, 10m, and 20m. On the way down I tried a different line to make it some kinda loop, but you can loop so much in a ravine.

https://sotl.as/summits/W6/SD-220

Date:26/01/2024 |  Summit:W6/SD-220 (Spy Mountain)