Kel, E.Bun, R. and I woke up in the morning on the dry lake bed. Hoping to beat some of the desert heat, we quickly ate a light breakfast and headed over to Mesa Benchmark. Distance is deceiving – We could easily see this one from where we were camped, however it took about 45 minutes to actually get there over the rough desert terrain.
I parked the truck in an area which had been used for shooting, close to the gentlest contours on a topo map and started heading up. There is no trail I could find. After about 20 minutes or so, there is a class 3 section which will take some care to navigate. Once past this section, it’s mostly flat, like a …..mesa!
At the top, we signed the register. I setup my EFHW driven by a Mountain Topper radio. I was getting extremely high SWR on 40, and 30 meters, so I was limited to 20M. Turns out my antenna was broken somewhere. Made one QSO with Buck down at the camp on 2M FM.
We decided to take a different roue on the way down. This involved a sketchy class 3 hike down to the desert floor, with a lot of potential for someone to get hurt. Thankfully, we all made it down without injury. Overall, this was a perfect morning hike! If you use my .gpx track, don’t go down the way we did!
https://sotl.as/summits/W6/ND-268
Max elevation: 4131 ft
Total climbing: 646 ft
Total time: 02:02:58
Date:07/10/2023 | Summit:W6/ND-268 (Mesa Benchmark)
| Time | Callsign | Band | Mode | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16:46 | KM6FXK | 144MHz | FM | S56 R59 |
| 17:01 | WB7BWZ | 14MHz | CW | S55N R55N |
| 17:03 | K6MW | 14MHz | CW | S51N R55N |
| 17:04 | N7CHN | 14MHz | CW | S55N R54N |
| 17:05 | AK5SD | 14MHz | CW | S33N R42N S2S W5O/OU-018 |
| 17:07 | KX0R | 14MHz | CW | S44N R44N S2S W0C/FR-174 |
| 17:10 | AI5DD | 14MHz | CW | S51N R52N |
