1,821′

5 DECEMBER 2020 W6/CT-228

Santa Ana winds had been blowing all week triggering a red flag warning and that kept me near home. The winds died down Saturday morning and I decided t make a run for a local summit out near Westlake. It was 53º F in my driveway in Topanga when I left home about 5:15 AM. At the bottom of Topanga Canyon at Cheney Road it was 32º F – a 21º canyon inversion of the temperature gradient.

The hike is a very pleasant 1.1 miles up a well graded road that has reverted to a single track trail. There was nobody around on the way up – a good thing as the Covid Pandemic is getting worse. I only saw four people on the entire three hour excursion.

I was treated to a spectacular sunrise on the summit. At first I thought it might be hard to make the four qualifying contacts on 2m FM, but soon people woke up and I made contact with Glassel Park (Brian WA6JFK). I was a bit surprised when Jon K6LDQ made it 59 through Malibu Canyon from Torrance. My furthest contact was with W6TED in Carmel Valley near Del Mar in San Diego over the Santa Monica Mountains. I had three summit-to-summit contacts all with nearby Bodle Peak – 2,450 W6/SC-237.