I woke up in the back of my truck after a long night of camping shenanigans. E. was up making coffee and was on the fence about doing another hike after climbing Dome Mountain the previous day. I was too honestly. E. headed home and I said, “screw it, I’m basically already there”. I think that extra bit of motivation came from the fact that nobody had ever activated this summit before – I would be the first!

It took an hour to drive dirt roads which lead into a wilderness area. Near the summit there was a small area to park off the road. I left the truck and started slowly hiking up the hill. It’s about two miles round trip with 1,000′ of elevation gain, so pretty steep. There was several areas of loose talus and scree which required careful movements. I slipped multiple times on this one so maybe I wasn’t careful enough haha.

The top is a sharp ridge with enough space to put up a dipole or EFHW antenna. There is a register from 2012 which had more entries than Dome Mountain. Worked 15m and 17m on the new KH1. When I went to connect it to my 20m, 30m, and 40m EFHW antenna it had high SWR on all bands and I couldn’t figure out why; luckily I had a backup radio for 40m.

I headed down the same way I went up, sliding on the scree made for a quick decent. Once at the truck I back tracked to HWY 395, but made a few stops to explore some mining ruins and various other desert curiosities. By the time I got to the paved road it was dark. Perfect timing!

https://sotl.as/summits/W6/ND-228

Download file: Grass_Valley_Wilderness_HP.gpx

Date:18/02/2024 |  Summit:W6/ND-228 (Grass Valley Wilderness HP) 

Time	Callsign	Band	Mode	Notes
22:32	7N1FRE	21MHz	CW	S51N R31N
22:34	JA1VVH	21MHz	CW	S51N R51N
22:35	WU7H	21MHz	CW	S56N R54N
22:37	K7MAS	21MHz	CW	S599 R55N
22:38	NN7M	21MHz	CW	S55N R53N
22:41	NT2A	21MHz	CW	S52N R42N
22:44	KF9D	21MHz	CW	S57N R53N
23:02	K2JB	18MHz	CW	S51N R21N
23:07	AD0WB	18MHz	CW	S58N R55N
23:08	W6TDX	18MHz	CW	S58N R57N
23:09	WW7D	18MHz	CW	S58N R57N
23:10	NA7ET	18MHz	CW	S57N R599
23:30	WB6POT	7MHz	CW	S57N R5NN
23:31	W6LEN	7MHz	CW	S58N R599
23:32	KN6OMN	7MHz	CW	S58N R599
23:33	WA7JTM	7MHz	CW	S58N R55N
23:34	KN6DMO	7MHz	CW	S57N R57N
23:36	NT6E	7MHz	CW	S58N R57N

So, this hike was kinda special in the since that the summit has never been activated before. Additionally, after 250 SOTA activations under my belt, I’ve never gotten a first activation. Since I was camping and hiking around in the area, bagging this peak was a priority.

My hiking partner E. drove up from Los Angeles very early in the morning to meet me at the place I was camping near Fremont Mountain. From there, we got in the truck and headed over to the trailhead, which was clearly marked with a hiking register. From here we traveled a bit west to check out some petroglyphs, then east to get back on an old jeep trail which got us closer to the bottom of Dome.

Hiking up past the jeep trail was steep, with loose rocks and several false summits. I stopped several times to rest and enjoy the views as we ascended from the desert floor. It was windy and cool. At the summit, I used my new Elecraft KH1 with the telescoping whip for the first time ever on the 15m band, then to 17m.

Relentless cold wind was getting to me and E. We signed the summit register which was placed in 1979 and started the trek down. Caution needed to be used going down as rocks were quite loose. Once down the steep part we jumped back on the old jeep road and headed back to the trailhead. Along the way I think we found the steam well which I’ve seen on maps. Unfortunately, there was no longer any steam that we could find.

https://sotl.as/summits/W6/ND-196

Download file: Dome_Mountain.gpx

Date:17/02/2024 |  Summit:W6/ND-196 (Dome Mountain) 

Time	Callsign	Band	Mode	Notes
20:23	W0MNA	21MHz	CW	S55N R33N
20:24	W0ERI	21MHz	CW	S55N R33N
20:25	KF9D	21MHz	CW	S57N R53N
20:30	WB8BHN	21MHz	CW	S571 31N
20:33	NT2A	21MHz	CW	S57N R22N
20:34	N4LAG	21MHz	CW	S57N R53N
20:42	K7ATN	18MHz	CW	S52N R52N
20:45	K7SO	18MHz	CW	S52N R52N
20:46	K7EFW	18MHz	CW	S52N R52N