Today’s hike took me to San Mateo Peak (W6/CT-268 - Elsinore Mountains (HP)). My primary objective was Santiago Peak but the gate was closed a few miles into it. I meant to call the forest service about access yesterday and I forgot. If I would get within 5 miles of the peak, I could do that one and Trabuco Peak since I was coming up the north side. Unfortunately I was 10 miles away when I got to the gate and I’m not doing a 20+ mile hike..
(Click on pictures for larger)

I had marked the starting point San Mateo that was pretty close but had to use the alternate starting point as the other (closer) trailhead was behind a gated community. The alternate trail (charted HERE) wasn’t far and the out and back should be 4.5 miles if you don’t screwup. As you can see from my track HERE, I added an additional mile by not paying attention. On the way up, I was enjoying scenery, and thinking about the recent mountain lion sighting in the area I was in as well as enjoying the nice trail. When I decided to look at my chart on my phone, I noticed I missed the turn by about a half mile. On my return from the peak, I ran into a couple of ladies riding their horses and I just assumed they were riding back to the trailhead so I followed them... then I realized they were heading back to the community a couple miles south so that was another little detour. Today’s navigation failures conspired to get me to hike 5.7 miles. No big one.

It rained this week so they had closed the road to Santiago but the good news was that the trails were nice and soft. With the rains coming through, things should start greening up too.

The hike was pretty easy. The last mile was a pretty good uphill climb but not bad. My friend Adam (K6ARK) was on Orosco Peak not too far from my house as I made my way up to my summit. I wanted to do that when he went... Oh well, we can do it sometime next year. I didn’t summit soon enough to catch him for a summit-to-summit comm but I did catch a couple of other guys I know. I heard Jerry, (KJ6HQD) talking with Kevin (W6RIP) on my HT. They were both on different summits. I contacted both of them and bagged some summit-to-summit points. When adam got home, he called me on HF right after I posted going to 40 meters.

I talked to a few other hams in the valley on my HT so I activated the mountain without setting up for HF. I setup anyway and got another 15 contacts from around the US. I went over to the 17 meter band to see if I could work any south american stations. A guy in Aruba did hear me but he had to jump off the radio before I could get his call sign.

Along the trail, there were small pedestals with dinosaurs on them. Not sure what that was all about but you know you are on the right path if you pass this guy to the right.

It was a nice hike, nice cool weather, and soft ground.

Too funny dude. I was watching my friend Kevin's video (W6RIP) and then heard myself calling out to him from this peak. We had a quick QSO then you hear someone right after call me. Go to time 7:00 on this video.

W6/CT-268 - Elsinore Mountains (HP)

Association:	USA
Region:	Transverse Ranges
Lat / Long / Height:	33.6134°N -117.38°W 1095m / 3591ft
Locator:	DM13ho Show »
Points / Activations:	2 points, activated 4 times
Latest Activation:	2016-11-25 by N6BSC