2017-12-31 SOTA Exp. to W6/SC-365 - 1109

I’ve just deployed this BLOG site yesterday and am trying to load all my past expeditions in to catch up but I promised someone that I would update the BLOG with my location today, I can’t remember the call sign that I promised, but here you go.

I summited W6/SC-365 - 1109.  It has no name but let’s call it hill 1109.  It’s about 3 to 5 mi west of Black Mtn. and I think the peak is about 1,100. 

2017-12-27 SOTA checkoff of Cowles Mountain

Today’s hike (12/27/2017)is to check off W6/SC-335 - Cowles Mountain from my SOTA list.  It was a warm day and I got kind of a late start. The place was packed with people.  I was advised to avoid this during the weekend but I’m not retired so my options are limited.

It was an interesting view from the top but the thing I remember the most are the crowds.  The hike was easy but pretty verticle in places.  Poles would have been handy.  Because there were so many people and not a lot of room at the top, I opted for VHF contacts only from my HT.  If I had my CHA MPAS, I would have taken that instead and done some work on HF.

2017-12-24 Iron Mountain

Today’s hike was to W6/SC-214 - Iron Mountain to check it off my SOTA list.  This is a low difficulty but hiking poles would have been handy.  It’s dry desert landscape  and a pretty good climb up.  A lot of rocky areas that you need to push up on but nothing really that difficult.  It’s also a long one at 5.6 miles round trip. One thing to note were the number of people that were interested in what I was doing.  I explained it was geeky and they didn’t think so, they thought it was cool.

There weren’t many people up on top so I setup the dipole and worked a a guy in Maryland, New Mexico, and Victoria BC.  The descent was quick and easy and once the dog could smell or see the parking area in the distance she really picked up the pace.  I thought I ran out of water so I was very interested to get off the mountain and to the nearest store to get some fluids. 

2017-12-22 SOTA on Poser Mountain

Today’s summit was supposed to be on Chiquito Peak but after failing to find a public accessible route, I went to my alternate, Poser Mountain.  The mountain is aptly named as I felt like a poser once I got to the peak.