Bertha Peak

David N6AN enjoying a lovely view of Big Bear Lake and the San Bernardino Peak Ridge to the south.

17 JUNE 2023 W6/CT-054

Elevation:	7,470′
Route:	Cross country
Hike Distance:	1 mile round trip
Elevation Gain:	520′
Navigation:	Easy
Steepness:	Moderate
Vehicle:	Passenger car
Road:	Dirt road
Cell Coverage:	Excellent (Verizon), excellent APRS

The day before this trip I heard David N6AN on Cerro Negro Benchmark and I asked him if he wanted to join me on this little adventure. We had been up nearby Silver Peak a few weeks before and scoped out the approach road (Polique Canyon Road), so we knew it was open. David called me back and we were on.

I last hiked up this mountain in April of 1997 with my late great mountain climbing dog, Chauncey Gardener. I believe I did the northwest ridge from Forest Service Road 2N94Y that time. This time we took the more standard route up the access road to the repeater site on the summit.

This time we took our time on this pleasant walk and chatted about a wide variety of things. David is good company.

The summit had a lot of visitors this warm sunny Saturday. Maybe as many as 20 people or so at a given time. I handed out quite a few of my pre-printed SOTA cards to people who expressed an interest. Unfortunately I set up a little too close to David and we had to spread out a bit and get end-to-end to get David out of my near field.

The propagation spirits prevailed especially on 15m where I managed a QSO with Germany and Esther and Ian in Northern Ireland – GI0AZA and GI0AZB. It was all-in-all and very fun day out.