2018-02-24 San Marcos Mountain

Today’s summit is San Marcos Mountain (W6/SC-331 - San Marcos Mountains (HP)) to activate a new area.  The weather was cool, slight breeze and lots of sun.  I wanted to do something new and north of me rather than east.  My plan was to take the road up to the radio tower that was near the summit and then take what looked like a trail across the ridge to the activation point.  When I created my maps in Alltrails.com, I also created an alternate path.  Alltrails is turning out to be a real winner given I have now figured out how to drop in custom routes and waypoints to create custom maps to be downloaded to my phone app where there aren’t any published routes.

Things don’t always turn out the way you think though when going into a new area.  As I headed up the road to the tower, I came to a locked gate and posted keep out.  Bummer.  I turned around and walked back down the road about a quarter mile and saw what looked like a trail that would help me intersect my alternate trail.  It turned out to be a very nice mountain bike trail, fully maintained.  There was a lot of switchback cut in and without this, it would have been impossible given the very thick chaparral. 

I ended up passing my intersection thinking there would be a trail on the other side.  I could see a US flag at the top so I knew pretty much where I needed to go.  I found a false trail and turned back to intersect the trail I had marked on the map from satellite imagery.  From there it was an easy summit except for a section that I had to scramble up.  It was a bit washed out and it was made more difficult given I left my poles in the car. Click to enlarge the map to the right or go HERE.

Setup was easy and someone left a old sleeping bag up there so I had a comfy operating position.  I started playing with the digital signal processing for noise and it is amazing how well it works.  At some points it sounds like FM.  The radio is known for it’s excellent receiving filters and I can see why.  I had another summit to summit.  Another hiker was on Viejas Mountain, about 30 to 40 miles from me. I took my time, took in the view of the ocean and then packed up.

The trip back was straightforward, and a lot shorter than the trip up given I knew right where to go.  The initial descent was very hard without poles.  I enjoyed this hike.  It was on dirt rather than rock and the area was pleasant.  

Contacts

Date	Time	Call
2018-02-24	23:10	NW7E
2018-02-24	23:10	N4EX
2018-02-24	23:10	NS7P
2018-02-24	23:10	WD4CFN
2018-02-24	23:10	KD7RCJ
2018-02-24	23:10	K6YOA
2018-02-24	23:10	WB5USB
2018-02-24	23:10	N7FX
2018-02-24	23:10	K0HNC
2018-02-24	23:10	K6QCB
2018-02-24	23:10	K7IOC
2018-02-24	23:10	KI7AQY
2018-02-24	7:27	K6ABM

Loadout for today:

●      CHA MPAS with spike and additional MIL mast

●      Yaesu FT-891D HF Radio at 100 watts

●      Yaesu FT-2DR HT

●      Slim Jim dual band antenna for my HT.

●      DDT Ops Anti-Venom field pack with food

●      3 L of water (8 lb)

●      SOTA Dog

●      iPhone with All Trails, MotionX GPS and sota goat

●      Hiking poles

●      Jetboil MicroMo cooking system

REFERENCE

●      My Typical SOTA Loadout

●      For more info on SOTA, rules, etc, go to the homepage HERE.

●      Ham Terminology
●      SOTA Specific Links

73s,

-- Chris Claborne, N!CLC