My wife and I were itching to get out of the house, so I suggested a day trip up to Frazier to check out some of the easy summits in the area. At the time, there was a heat wave throughout Southern California, so I wasn’t in the mood to do much hiking! We started out by heading up to Frazier Mountain, W6/CC-003, a drive up. The first half of the road was paved, but after a few miles the road splits at a campground and turns to dirt. I attempted to pilot my Fiat 500 carefully down the dirt, but quickly found this wasn’t the best idea with minimal ground clearance and low profile tires. We turned around and headed to Mt. Pinos. Getting there is easy on the paved road, which ends at a large parking area at several trail heads. The hike up is beautiful, through a tree canopy which eventually opens up to meadows of wildflowers. Made several contacts on 20, 40 and 2 meters, including three summit to summits.
https://sotl.as/summits/W6/CC-002
Max elevation: 8854 ft
Total climbing: 925 ft
Total time: 02:57:52
Date:14/08/2020 | Summit:W6/CC-002 (Mount Pinos)
| Time | Callsign | Band | Mode | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20:08 | KC9TZM | 144MHz | FM | 59 59 – Trucker |
| 20:21 | KA7GPP | 14MHz | SSB | 52 52 S2S W7W/CH-223 |
| 20:24 | WW7D | 14MHz | SSB | 59 55 |
| 20:26 | W0MNA | 14MHz | SSB | 45 44 |
| 20:27 | W0ERI | 14MHz | SSB | 45 44 |
| 20:30 | W6PZA | 14MHz | SSB | 45 33 S2S W70/CE-059 |
| 20:34 | NS7P | 14MHz | SSB | 55 55 |
| 20:42 | N6DNM | 7MHz | SSB | 55 55 |
| 20:43 | K6EL | 7MHz | SSB | 56 55 S2S W6/NC-298 |
| 20:45 | AG7TX | 7MHz | SSB | 55 56 |
| 20:46 | K6HPX | 7MHz | SSB | 59 51 |
| 20:49 | K6LDQ | 7MHz | SSB | 33 33 |
Update – December 5th, 2022. The following was borrowed from firetower.org without any kind of permission at all.
http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/ca/mount-pinos-aws-site/
Description
Forest fire detection was occurring as early as 1927 according to newspaper reports. It is unknown if any structure was built prior to WWII.
The Mount Pinos structure was a dual purpose site, used for enemy aircraft spotting and fire detection. A standard AWS post structure with a ground cabin and cupola were constructed in 1942/43.
The US Forest Service built, provisioned and staffed these posts. The US Army reimbursed the US Forest Service for all costs. Operators were expected to report all aircraft activities and report all fires and smokes to USFS dispatch. Aircraft information was then relayed to the Army.
Fire detection may have continued after WWII. Building removal date is unknown.
