N1CLC: 2019-02-24 Guatay In The Snow

Today’s trip is a hike to Guatay Mtn to activate “W6/CC-025 - Guatay Mountain”. About a year ago, on Oscars Sunday, I went up there with my daughter so it's appropriate that I repeat it today, Oscars Sunday. There is one key difference on today’s hike, snow. I got to the trailhead at about 830 and the ground was pretty frozen. The trail was fully covered with snow all the way to the summit. It was fun to be out there playing in the snow, doing some hiking, and enjoying the sunshine and snow covered vistas, something that I don’t see often in SoCal. There had been hikers on the trail most likely yesterday and quite a few today so I wasn’t having to break trail. In places it looked to be about six inches of snow.

It wasn’t that cold although I packed extra layers just in case. I brought Sulu, the SOTA trail dog today. I think this is the first hike for her in the snow. It didn’t seem to bother her but it took a while before she realized she could eat snow. The trail was about 2 inches deep on the packed part. As I got into the incline, I decided to put on my Microspikes. I had tried the Yaktraks on Cuyamaca and found that they really weren’t designed for hiking as they were coming off pretty easy as I hiked in the area. Microspikes are 100% better than the Yaktraks, never coming off and providing superb traction. I did figure out a way to slide into a gully as I was straddling it on the way up, so extra traction only goes so far. On an icy single track trail near a ledge, they would be a real help. Since it was still cold, the snow hadn’t started to melt yet. One thing that I didn’t count on is that the trek was taking twice as long in the snow. It was definitely more difficult. I ran into a fit trail runner and he mentioned the same thing. Sliding around at times also added to the fun, and work.

My biggest issue was fitness. My last hike was two weeks ago and not that hard. After I got over my cold, I caught my wife’s funky flu. The first day or two were tough but the darn thing lingered for a week. This, combined with rains, meant I wasn’t riding my bike eather. So for me, I’m starting all over in the fitness department. :) Today’s trek will help in that department. I’ll be logging 5.8 miles and over 1,700 feet of elevation gain to the log.

I was surprised at how many people were out hiking Guatay in the snow. It was a beautiful day and I figure that after all the rains, people were wanting to get out and get some fresh air.

Once setup, the dog took a nap and the contacts came easy. The propagation into Houston, Pennsylvania, and Kansas was really good. All of those contacts gave me “5/9”, which is pretty much perfect signal.. They weren’t just being nice either, their signal was blasting onto the mountain with as well. Other than that, I didn’t have any big distance contacts like my last hike. I summited late morning so I didn’t expect great DX.

A couple of other notes about DMR (Digital Mobile Radio) on the the trip; On the way up the mountain, I talked to a guy in France on my DMR radio. In this case I was using a DMR repeater from my HT that is networked world-wide. I wanted to try the “SOTA” talkgroup and see what it was all about so I announced myself to see if there was any activity. When I did, a guy in France came back to me. We had a quick chat about what SOTA summit I was heading to. It was night time in France, and given the conditions we didn’t expect to be able to connect to each other from my mountain using SSB (quite possibly CW in the future though). This SOTA talk group (973) could be a useful way for SOTA chasers and activators to coordinate contacting each other via HF. It was a fun surprise. (More about DMR HERE).

Before I packed up I wrestled up a few guys from the “San Diego Hangouts” talkgroup to see if they wanted to try a DMR direct contact with to test their range and equipment. In this case, it’s radio to radio or as we say “simplex” and qualifies as a contact for SOTA. I talked to WA6KIN in South Bay and KC2GNV (Brian) and AI6CX (Steve) both located in the North Park area. Brian lowered power on his HT to 1 watt to do a little testing and he was still coming in with great quality.

Overall I really like this hike. I hiked 5.8 miles and it had 1,709 feet of elevation gain. It gave me the workout that I needed (and then some), and I was able to test out the microspikes. The trek hides quite a few false summits on the way up so just when you think you are on your last push up to the summit, you get there only to find another. :)

Contacts

Own Callsign	Date	Time	Summit	Band	Mode	Station Worked	Notes
N1CLC	24/Feb/2019	19:21	W6/CC-025	14MHz	SSB	K6MXA
N1CLC	24/Feb/2019	19:25	W6/CC-025	14MHz	SSB	N4EX
N1CLC	24/Feb/2019	19:26	W6/CC-025	14MHz	SSB	W5ODS
N1CLC	24/Feb/2019	19:26	W6/CC-025	14MHz	SSB	AE7AP
N1CLC	24/Feb/2019	19:26	W6/CC-025	14MHz	SSB	K0LAF
N1CLC	24/Feb/2019	19:28	W6/CC-025	14MHz	SSB	N5ZC
N1CLC	24/Feb/2019	19:28	W6/CC-025	14MHz	SSB	K3TCU
N1CLC	24/Feb/2019	19:29	W6/CC-025	14MHz	SSB	W4CCH
N1CLC	24/Feb/2019	19:29	W6/CC-025	14MHz	SSB	N5CKE
N1CLC	24/Feb/2019	19:30	W6/CC-025	14MHz	SSB	K7WYV
N1CLC	24/Feb/2019	19:31	W6/CC-025	14MHz	SSB	KD1CT
N1CLC	24/Feb/2019	19:31	W6/CC-025	14MHz	SSB	N1AW
N1CLC	24/Feb/2019	19:32	W6/CC-025	14MHz	SSB	KE0LXT
N1CLC	24/Feb/2019	19:32	W6/CC-025	14MHz	SSB	W2SE
N1CLC	24/Feb/2019	19:33	W6/CC-025	14MHz	SSB	VE7KPM
N1CLC	24/Feb/2019	19:34	W6/CC-025	14MHz	SSB	W0MNA
N1CLC	24/Feb/2019	19:34	W6/CC-025	14MHz	SSB	W0ERI
N1CLC	24/Feb/2019	19:36	W6/CC-025	14MHz	SSB	KI7SHD
N1CLC	24/Feb/2019	19:36	W6/CC-025	7MHz	SSB	KM6EVZ
N1CLC	24/Feb/2019	19:41	W6/CC-025	7MHz	SSB	WB7ULD
N1CLC	24/Feb/2019	19:42	W6/CC-025	7MHz	SSB	K8TE
N1CLC	24/Feb/2019	19:42	W6/CC-025	7MHz	SSB	K6MXA
N1CLC	24/Feb/2019	19:44	W6/CC-025	7MHz	SSB	KH2TJ
N1CLC	24/Feb/2019	19:47	W6/CC-025	433MHz	DV	WA6KIN
N1CLC	24/Feb/2019	19:55	W6/CC-025	433MHz	DV	KC2GNV
N1CLC	24/Feb/2019	19:56	W6/CC-025	433MHz	DV	AI6CX

W6/CC-025 - Guatay Mountain

Association:	USA
Region:	Coastal Ranges
Lat / Long / Height:	32.8437°N -116.5744°W 1489m / 4885ft
Locator:	DM12ru Show »
Points / Activations:	4 points, activated 6 times
Latest Activation:	2017-01-04 by KD7WPJ IAF 32.83964, -116.54205