Looking across the Encantada at Fortynine Hill. An Encantada, or “enchanted place,” are fossil lakes found in the deep American southwest and Baja California in the coniferous zones.
6 JUNE 2021 W7A/CS-023
Cassie and I spent a few days in Flagstaff, Arizona and thought about activating Elden Mountain and Bill Williams Mountain but settled on Fortynine Hill off an old, disused section of Route 66 that is now called Brannigan Park Road.
The hike we did up initially followed the fence line at the border of the public and private land, but upon returning, the jeep track that is just to the west of the cattle guard that marks the boundary of public and private lands is a better route. This leads up to a saddle between Fortynine Hill and the bump off to the west. From there follow the use/game trail up the ridge to the summit.
The hike is .8 miles and about 500′ of elevation gain. It gets a little steep in places if you can’t find the use trail, which is hard to follow as the thick forest of lodgepole pines makes getting your bearings tough.
Band conditions were poor. I only made 7 contacts all on 20m. Cell service from Verizon is excellent, as I would expect because this summit is just above I-40. We heard a lot of freight trains along the parallel path.
KG6MZS 