Lane Mountain is an easy drive up summit, although, I would recommend a high clearance vehicle as the road up can be kinda rough. In the sprit of SOTA, I didn’t drive up all the way, but parked just below the top and hiked up. At the top is a communications site with several microwaves. You can walk around the fence housing the facility for great views of the surrounding areas. Once there, I immediately heard a couple friends I was camping with on 2M; it was nice to get them in the log. Worked 40, 30 and 20M. After exhausting chasers, I packed up and headed home to Los Angeles.

https://sotl.as/summits/W6/ND-238

Date:07/05/2023 |  Summit:W6/ND-238 (Lane Mountain) 

A few times a year I camp with a group on a dry lakebed near the edge of Fort Irwin, and while I was aware of opportunities for SOTA in the area, I never activated – until Wells Benchmark. This summit is easy to find, located right off Copper City Road In addition, the hike up was easy, only taking 20 minutes or so. What made this activation difficult for me was the wind, which was extremely strong and relentless. I was able to get my antenna up and thankfully nothing got destroyed. Worked 40, 30, and 20M but didn’t make a ton of QSOs. I hiked down basically the same way. Back at the truck, I had a light breakfast and made my way over to an unactivated summit which turned out to be just on the other side of the Fort Irwin boundary fence, thus, no access.

https://sotl.as/summits/W6/ND-289

Date:06/05/2023 |  Summit:W6/ND-289 (Wells Benchmark) 

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

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

This was my second summit of the day, having just come from Sierra Pelona. You can read about that summit here. I’m kinda glad I didn’t ride a mountain bike over to this summit like I had original planned, as there is some steep elevation to tackle on the way out. That being said, I think there are a few other ways up here that might be a bit easier on a bike than the was I took the moto. The top was easy to find, I looked around for a benchmark, but couldn’t find one. I did find a register going back to 2008 which I didn’t expect to see. I used the pile of rocks to support my antenna mast. I worked 40M, 30M ,and 20M with 4 S2S. Thanks! While I didn’t really notice at the time, where I was setup was almost directly on a moto trail. A group of bikers stopped for a minute to take in the great views, and luckily my antenna didn’t get snagged on anything. Wanting to explore the area bit more, I packed up and headed out after working all the chasers.

https://sotl.as/summits/W6/CT-118

Date:28/01/2023 | Summit:W6/CT-118 (Mount McDill)

Last summer I installed a new rear tire on my dual sport moto, rode it around the block once, parked it in the back yard, then promptly forgot about it over the wet winter. I’ve wanted to visit Sierra Pelona and Mt. McDill for some time, with the idea to take the mountain bike up there on a cool winter day. Well, the moto was in the back yard all sad, full of spiders, chain rusted, and had a dead battery. What better way to wake the bike up for the next season than a 100 mile round trip SOTA activation? After hosing the bike off, evicting the spiders, installing a new battery and applying copious amounts of gear oil on the chain, the ole’ DRZ was ready to go. I left my house in Echo Park and headed up Hwy 2, made a left on Angeles Forest Highway, over to Acton and up the road to Sierra Pelona. The road up was somewhat steep, but paved, which caught me by surprise. I was under the impression you needed a truck or something to get up there. At the top there is a radio installation, including a AT&T long lines tower. This isn’t where the summit is though, it’s further along the ridge, and the road isn’t paved at this point. I think a regular car would still be fine. At the summit, I looked around for a benchmark, but couldn’t find one. I setup my EFHW antenna and started working the bands, 40M, 30M, and 20M + 5 S2S. After exhausting the chasers, I packed up my gear and headed over to Mt. McDill a few miles away.

https://sotl.as/summits/W6/CT-116

Date:27/01/2023 | Summit:W6/CT-116 (Sierra Pelona)

I enjoy seeing whats in others amateur radio field kits, and how they are packed. Here is a quick walk through of mine.

This is a pretty long hike for 4 SOTA points, but since the Lowel Life crew rebuilt the Condor Peak Trail, Esther and I wanted to check it out. Most of the trail felt pretty flat (it’s not), with multiple switchbacks and a waterfall. The last mile or so was a bit more difficult but that might have just been me being fatigued. Getting to the actual summit required some scrambling, but nothing too bad. At the top I worked 40M and 30M, then hopped on 2M to work local chasers. Worried about running out of daylight, we headed back down after about an hour. I hoped to activate Fox Benchmark on this same trip, but there just wasn’t enough time. By the time we got back to the car it was dark. Perfect timing.

https://sotl.as/summits/W6/CT-027

Date:18/11/2022 | Summit:W6/CT-027 (Condor Peak

I hiked this in December 2022 with Esther and 4 months later at the time of this writing I’ve forgotten most of the details of the activation, as such, no real report. I do recall rain in the forecast, however there was just heavy fog which made scorched trees from the Bobcat fire look eerie.. Overall, there is a bunch of elevation gain on this hike which made it challenging. We looped back through Mt. Waterman where I activated at 23:50 and 00:01 to give local chasers on FM points. Photos and .gpx below.

https://sotl.as/summits/W6/CT-064

Date:01/12/2022 | Summit:W6/CT-064 (East Twin Peaks)

I had always overlooked this summit because it’s kinda far away from my house, the hike isn’t very long, and it’s not worth many points. Having just activated Sandstone Peak earlier in the day, it made sense to hike up to Triunfo Lookout before heading home. At the trailhead is a gate with a small sign telling visitors they are entering a national park. I immediately noticed the unique biodiversity on this trail on the way up to the summit. At the top, a concrete structure which I believe is from a fire lookout tower built in the 1930’s remains. Worked 40, 30 and 20M with one DX station in Japan.

https://sotl.as/summits/W6/SC-219

Date:06/01/2023 | Summit:W6/SC-219 (Triunfo Lookout)

This was my second activation of the day, having hiked W6/CT-041 earlier. I was starving from a light breakfast so I stopped at a small diner in Angelus Oaks for a late lunch burger. From the diner, I took a small dirt road behind the post office as far as I could in my small commuter car, parked and started hiking to the summit. It had just rained, so there was quite a few large water puddles. If it was drier I could have just driven to the use trail that leads to the summit. The trail is pretty obvious, just steep. At the top there was a small rattle snake curled up right where I wanted to setup. The snake was there first so I put the antenna a bit further down the hill, but well within the activation zone. The clock just passed 00:00, and I was loosing daylight so I worked through the bands quickly, with a few S2S and a Japanese DX station. I rushed to tear the station down and hiked down the hill. I git back to the car right before the last light of the day. Perfect timing!

https://sotl.as/summits/W6/CT-076

Date:14/10/2022 | Summit:W6/CT-076 (Constance Peak)