Mt. Pinos

I decided to take the car and see how good it faired on the dirt roads. The first activation of the day was W6/CC-002(Mt Pinos) I got there just as the sun was coming up and started the two mile hike to the summit.

Starting up the Trail

Almost there. just around the towers.

Overall the hike wasn’t bad as I had shed some weight before heading out. Once I got there I didn’t setup where the signage is but on a higher point about 200 feet away.

Made it… 2 miles.

Where I setup

Here you can see where I was operating at

All in all this was a good activation as I got 15 contacts and one summit to summit.

Frazier Mountain

Next we have W6/CC-003 Frazier Mountain SOTA. Now being that I was driving my car this drive was nuts. The wife just had the RAV4 washed so taking that was out of the question.

After a lot of dust and near misses with other trucks(hunting season) I made it.

The beat up Benz

I love fire watch towers… too bad this one is in shambles

Wall

What a mess!

Activation

Shortly after a park ranger showed up and asked what I was doing. I told him “radio” and he thought I was there to work on the tower. Not quite. Once informed him what I was doing he asked if I was going to take my antenna with me. I assured him all would be gone when he came back.

Antenna and the Ranger

Radio and gear

All in all another successful activation. 11 Contacts on this one. I also had to laugh because I forgot to turn my amp on and was QRP the whole activation.

As a side note there is Verizon service at both sites for spotting. Mt. Pinos is barely there but it’s there.