My pal organized a camping trip at Little Harbor on Catalina Island, off the coast of Los Angeles. To get there, we took the ferry from San Pedro to Two Harbors, then hiked the Trans Catalina Trail to our reserved campground. The hike was a little over 6 miles one way, with the summit somewhere roughly in the middle. At the top, a single pavilion with a picnic table stands. I setup my KH1 here with an EFHW and worked 15, 17, and 20M CW. Bands felt kinda dead but ended up with 11 contacts. Made an 2 FM QSOs – one back to the mainland, and another to a guy on his boat on the east side of the island. I kinda assumed 2M would work better here? Once the activation was done I continued on to Little Harbor for the weekend. I never really liked Catalina because I’ve only ever been to Avalon, but this trip changed my views. I’m now looking forward to activation more summits on the island.
I’m not sure why I didn’t activate Onyx Peak earlier. I’ve driven by it several times, and even activated W6/CT-041just to the west. This would be an easy summit to mountain bike. It’s a bit under 6 miles round trip, but less than 1000′ of elevation gain on a maintained fire road. Kel and I parked at the locked gate off CA 38 and hiked up Pipes Canyon Road to the summit, which hosts several large communication installations – including a few amateur repeaters. Once there I was able to check into the Coffee Talk net on a 2M repeater in Yucca Valley while setting up my MTR4B with an EFHW antenna. I then heard several other SOTA ops hiking up to San Gorgonio. No S2S with them though. Worked 40m, 30m, and 20m CW. Talked to another hiker who was interested in amateur radio and explained the SOTA program. We hiked down the way we came, but considered a cross-country route down to make it a loop. Overall, easy summit, easy hike.
Arctic Point is near Big Bear, CA on the north side of the Holcomb Valley. I took the truck as far as I could on Hepburn Mine Road until I got to 3N10, John Bull trail, which is listed as a black diamond, most difficult. Once you see it you will know why. From there I hiked 1.5ish miles to the top, including some cross country. The summit is rock which requires a short scramble to the the benchmark. I used a EFHW antenna stretched across the rock to my KH1 for the activation. Worked several bands until the KH1 started overheating and stopped transmitting. I was getting pretty warm myself so I packed up and headed back to the truck.
I started my trip up Gold Mountain from 3N16/ Holcomb Valley Road and parked the truck near Gold Mountain Road and hiked 1.5 miles to a large clearing. From there, a short cross country hike gets you to the actual summit. The top is small and rocky, so I used the KH1 internal whip over a full size antenna. Worked 10 stations across 15, 17, and 20M, then headed back down the way I came.
Black Hill is a easy 1 point summit in Morro Bay with beautiful views of the ocean. You can drive most of the way to the top, free parking at the trailhead. After that it’s an easy walk to the summit on a well traveled dirt path. I brought along a KH1 and used the internal whip antenna. There is room for a full sized antenna, but the area is kinda small and a popular place to visit, so I didn’t want wires everywhere. Worked 15M, 17M and 20M and quickly logged 7 stations, including two S2S.
Kel and I hiked up to this summit on the way up to Morro Bay. Down by the trailhead the temperature was a nice, cool 75F with a calm ocean breeze. This abruptly changed as we ascended. Inland temperatures around 100F were blowing over the ridge the trail follows. There is little shade and I was uncomfortably hot. Quite a bit of poison oak along the trail. A communications site is at the top with a few trees offering much appreciated shade and a view of the ocean. I used the KH1 and worked 15m, 17m, and 20m on the internal whip. Didn’t get a ton of QSOs but enough for a valid activation.
Whale Peak is in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, so this counts as POTA in addition to a SOTA activation if that’s your thing. You should probably be in a high clearance vehicle to get to the trailhead. Once there, the actual trail wasn’t obvious. You need to scramble up some granite boulders, at which point a well defined trail becomes visible. If I recall, there are two places where the trail kinda disappears, so bring a GPS with a map loaded.
The summit is beautiful, with Pinion Pines, Cholla, Creosote, and other desert plants. Once at the top I worked 20m and 40m CW. Attempted to use my new KH1, but ended up using a MTR 4b. Cold wind was starting to pickup, so I headed back down the hill and drove to a secret camping spot for the night. If you’re in the area, don’t skip this one.
This is a pretty straight forward hike up to East Butte, about 1.5 miles and 750 feet of elevation gain. The summit is located in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, so this activation counts as POTA too if that’s your thing. I completed this summit in early March, which felt like a perfect time to be out in the desert. Lots of Ocotillo, Creosote, and even some Desert Lily. There is a register placed at the top.
This was the third and last SOTA activation over a weekend trip to Anza-Borrego. It was later in the day and I needed to pick up my bike-packing pals in a few hours not too far from this summit so I had to make it a quick one. I parked the Jeep off the main road to the mine ruins, just before an area where the road was washed out, then hiked. I followed an old service road that went to the top of the mine ruins, then a sketchy scramble up a steep embankment to continue on. I’m glad I had some tracks to follow, as there are several ridges one could follow that dead-end; one could get somewhat lost up there. After a spirited walk to the top, I signed the register and waited for 00:00 UTC to start my activation. I stretched out my EFHW antenna and connected it to an MTR4B, first working 40M, then 20M. I got a text from the bike packing group with an ETA for their pickup so I packed up and headed down the hill the same way I came. The sketchy part was worse coming down, but overall it was a pretty easy hike, and perhaps my favorite of the weekend. After picking up the bike packing group, we went to Agua Caliente County Park for a dip in their excellent hot spring pool.
Chariot Mountain was the second of two summits I completed while camping at Cuyamaca Rancho State Park with the So. Cal SOTA group. Before the event N6MTB published a route from camp to the summit of Chariot. At that point my mind was made up, this is what I was going to do. After a quick breakfast, I jumped on the bike and headed up the mountain.
The ride was awesome, starting with some single track right at the camp, then into more single track through a meadow, to a fire road, to more single track through another meadow. Oh, weather was perfect too! Near the end of the fun stuff there is a big downhill over a fire road which leads to the bottom of Chariot. This wasn’t going to be fun climbing up! Once at the bottom, I realized there isn’t a trail up to the top! The summit is also guarded by thick pokey bushes. I stashed my bike, gathered my stuff and started the painful bushwhack to the top.
Since I didn’t have a backpack, I was hand carrying everything I couldn’t fit onto my pockets. Unfortunately, my Yaesu HT was clipped to my pocket and disappeared somewhere in the brush. I was never going to find it. After attempting to backtrack my exact route for 15 minutes or so, I heard a radios squelch crack open – Ara was on a summit, and I was able to locate my radio about 30 feet away from where I was standing. I would have never found it otherwise!
I now had to backtrack through the brush again. My skin was starting to feel ‘raw’ from all the scratches. I wasn’t having a good time. Fortunately, the higher you go, the thinner the brush, and near the top, there isn’t any brush! Once on the actual summit, I signed the register and pulled out my KH1 with the whip. Worked 15, 17, and 20M, then 2M FM. After exhausting all the chasers I started my decent through the brush once again.
Back at the road it took me a minute to find my bike and pack all my stuff up for the ride back to camp. That big uphill wasn’t so bad and before I knew it I was back riding through the various meadows on single track. I chose not to take the exact route back, which was rad because I ran into Bill and Drew on the main road and rode with them back to camp on a different trail. What a rad day!
