Monte Largo

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Looking southwest at the station on the summit.

25 FEBRUARY 2023 W5N/SI-014

Three stars – Highly recommended.
Elevation:7,710′
Route: Use trail
Hike Distance: 2.6 miles round trip
Elevation Gain: 675′
Navigation: A bit tricky
Steepness: Moderate
Vehicle: Passenger car
Road: Paved
Cell Coverage: None (Verizon), APRS Excellent
Hike basics

Due to heavy snowfall in New Mexico I limited my activations on this trip to some of the lower summits. Monte Largo was on my list to do as a complete and because of Fred KT5X’s glowing reports. As usual, there were a few flies in my SOTA ointment for this one. First, while I checked out the map the day before, I failed to load the detailed map into my Gaia GPS on my phone. This usually isn’t a problem if there is cell service but for some reason I had no cell service on this entire trip until I rebooted my phone in Albuquerque on the way back. I’m not sure if there actually was no cell service as reported above, or if it was just an iPhone glitch. So this meant that I had to negotiate the confusing approach through the neighbourhood from memory. This proved to be rather trying as this part of Sandia Park is a checker board maze of cul de sacs.

Then there was the matter of the hiking route itself. There is a pretty well established use trail to the summit, but I took a wrong turn (again due to not having the map downloaded) and ended up doing cross-country route.

On the way down I saw the actual use trail but didn’t take it just in case it led to some other completely different trailhead. The devil you know and all that. It was all good, however, it just made the whole thing a little more challenging. A good lesson in old-school route finding.

The activation was quite enjoyable and the wind eased enough for Chester the drone to fly. here is a short video of the summit:

Here’s the station looking south.

Here are my SOTA summit ratings

Here are some cool links to Summits on the Air (SOTA)

KG6MZS Summit Index by Year

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Published by wringmaster

I'm a graphic artist in the movie business. When I was a kid I got interested in astronomy. When it would get too cloudy to observe the heavens, my buddy and I would sit at the VFO of his Hallicrafters S 38c like safe crackers trying to coax faraway signals out of that humble radio. My love of astronomy and radio survive to this day fifty+ years later.

3 thoughts on “Monte Largo”

  1. Might be looking to hike this one soon on a trip down to Sandia Park. Any issues in access due to private property at all? Thanks for the pointers, and cool footage! – W0RTA

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    1. Hi Josh, I talked to the guy at the end of the road and he was quite friendly. The trail seems to be an established public access route with only one easy fence to cross. No signage of private property or the like when I did it. According to my Gaia private property map overlay, the trail crosses the Gabriel Living Trust property at the end of Dalton Trail briefly and then is on the giant Campbell Farmimg Corp. land. My attitude in these circumstances is to proceed quietly and with consideration, pick up any trash I find, leave gates as I find them and comply with any requests I may encounter along the way by owners. It’s a really nice hike. Good luck!

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