Cottonwoods in upper Sespe Canyon on the way home.
23 OCTOBER 2021 W6/SC-005
This trip took a lot longer than I planned. I left Topanga at about 4 AM in a thick drizzle. As I slowly made my way through Calabasas, Agoura and Thousand Oaks it became a steady rain. This slowed me down a bit and it took me two and a half hours to reach the trail head. It was sunny and clear and a bit breezy when I left the car. Deer season was in full swing and there were lots of hunters camped at the Pine Mountain campground. I was a bit worried about being mistaken for a deer as I started out, but I hoped my bright orange Jackite pole would flag me as not very tasty eating. Turns out I had nothing to worry about. The early morning crowd of hunters — and I saw quite a few — seemed to be quite skilled. I only heard 4 rifle reports all day. More Robert De Niro than John Cazale 🙂
I last climbed Haddock Mountain May 15th, 1996 with Cassie KG6MZR and Chauncey the dog. This time it seemed a lot farther than I remember it. There is about 1,000′ of elevation loss on the way out. Of course this translates to a thousand feet of gain on the return and this always seems disproportionately hard. It seems like the return from climbing a mountain should be all downhill. The total hike is a little over eight miles and has 2,500′ of elevation gain. I got there much later than I anticipated and wandered around over a few false summits. The actual summit has a pretty big summit block
As I was setting up, I heard KN6IUF on Mount Baden-Powell so I hastily snagged a juicy summit-to-summit to start. Conditions were decent and I managed to work Christian F4WBN in France for the first time in a while. Thank you all chasers!
KG6MZS 