Lake Cachuma from the highest point in the Santa Ynez Mountains
5 MARCH 2022 W6/CC-036
After activating Brush Peak my brother and I put Whitedog in 4wd and drove the rough 9.39 mile dirt road between Brush and Santa Ynez. I do not recommend this rough road for passenger vehicles. Here is our account of Brush Peak
The pavement on West Camino Ceilo ends at Brush Peak and resumes at the observatory a little to the west of Santa Ynez Peak. Passenger cars may want to do these two summits separately, approaching each summit from the paved roads on either side.
When we arrived at the summit of Santa Ynez — the highest point in the Santa Ynez Mountains, everything was coated with a layer of ice. The radio towers where especially coated with huge chunks that were crashing down precariously on the ground below. We didn’t even get out of the truck on the summit.
Fortunately there is a nice level spot in the activation zone just under the summit that was free of falling icebergs.
I curtailed the activation because the icy wind was pretty cold and we had had a long day. My brother the electrical engineer is moderately interested in amateur radio and SOTA, but that interest has limits that I thought not best tested on this long day. I did get one QSO from Japan, but frightfully few in California. I would not want to try this activation as a technician with only UHF/VHF privileges.
KG6MZS 
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