Lost

What a good day for an activation. At first I thought the wind was going to be an issue but it died down at sunrise which is when I started my hike. I parked at the trailhead just up the road from Redbox. Once I set off I realized I was in for a doozy of a trail. This was basically what I considered a goat hike as goats would have faired a lot better than me on this once. Narrow trails and steep dropoffs made for an interesting hike. Did I mention a have a fear of heights? Yeah so that didn’t help.

MT Disappointment – Wrong Mountain

The Summit and Activation

At some point I made a left instead of right and ended up at Mt. Disappointment. So I had to backtrack.
Once I finally made it to the top of San Gabriel, it took about about 1.5 hours. I setup for 40 meters, but decided to call on 146.520 instead just to see if the local guys where up and about. First I got KM6CEM which I could barely make out. He spotted me though. Then there was KI6UCN, KK6QMS and NG6R. Thanks fellas, always nice to count on the locals for my initial four.

The setup – San Gabriel Peak

The I tried 40 meters, which netted W7RV and K6HPX. It was good to hear W7RV again, he is the only reason I fire up 40 meters. Also forgot to turn on my amp this time so that could have been an issue.

What a view!

Met a guy named Joe on the summit. He was just out hiking. We decided to head down together as safety is better in numbers. He was a tall guy so my short legs had trouble keeping up.
Almost to the parking area a man stopped me, he saw my HT. His call was K7MAS. The funny thing was he was heading to the same summit I just activated. Talk about a popular Peak.

I will say this. The peak was getting crowded and there isn’t a very large footprint to have all the gear and antenna setup for that sort of thing. So I made it a quick activation.

Mt. Wilson

Verizon Cell Service = None