Terrific view of the big San Gabriel Mountains over their namesake valley. Baldy or Mount San Antonio is in the background.
13 JANUARY 2024 W6/CT-180
Two Stars – a nice summit. I’d do it again. Recommended.
Elevation:
3,045′
Route:
Good trail and access road
Hike Distance:
4 miles round trip
Elevation Gain:
700′
Navigation:
Tricky
Steepness:
Extremely steep
Vehicle:
Passenger car
Road:
Paved
Cell Coverage:
Just below the summit Verizon
Hike basics
Despite the heavy RF environment due to a massive, unlovely communications complex, I give this one two stars due to the interesting hike up and unusual view. You can do it from a trailhead off Hidden Springs Drive that is a bit longer with more elevation gain, or you can do what I did and go from the Box Springs Mountain Reserve trailhead at the end of Pigeon Pass Road.
The park opens at 7am I got there just at 7 and was the first car there. As I drove up Pigeon Pass Road I spotted a warning sign that had the picture of a donkey on it. Weird, I thought.
As I started hiking the sun came up and started to warm the hillsides after a chilly winter night, I head the sound of braying! Sure enough herds of wild donkeys were everywhere. Cassie KG6MZR had a saddle mule – Kentucky Darla – for years and would’ve loved this. I took the Springs Trail shortcut and I got pretty close to three of these creatures. I suggest if you want to seem them you plan on being there early as I saw very few on the way down.
This summit has an interesting location that sports fine views of not only San Jacinto and San Gorgonio, but novel views of Palomar, Santiago and the San Gabriel Mountains.
Stations reported hearing me on 2m but I heard nobody due to my FT-5D’s receiver getting totally de-sensed by the RF environment. Others have suggested setting up on the south side to avoid this problem. I tried several spots down the mountain with no joy. Likewise with cell reception. I had to use my Garmin InReach Mini’s Iridium satellite network to put up spots. HF was not a problem.
The station with San Gorgonio in the background.Park greeterLocals near Box Spring.Santiago and Modjeska Peaks to the west.The summit with Palomar Mountain in the background.
The tall skinny rock on the left is called The Bong (aka 2001) by rock climbers.
15 DECEMBER 2023 W6/CT-097
Three stars – Highly recommended.
Elevation:
5,738′
Route:
Trail
Hike Distance:
3.7 miles round trip
Elevation Gain:
875′
Navigation:
Easy to lose the trail over rocks
Steepness:
Steep
Vehicle:
Passenger car
Road:
Paved road
Cell Coverage:
Good (Verizon)
Hike basics
My last trip up to The Pinnacles was on May 5th, 1995. It snowed lightly that day and there was an earthquake the next day in Yucca Valley. This turns out to be a very nice hike to a very interesting summit. The trail is steep in places and can be tough to follow where it dodges the boulders strewn across the route. The trail is threaded through these areas and while most roads lead to Rome, some are easier than others. A few venture off into easy third class climbing.
This time my brother Mark and I had a chamber-of-commerce day for our hike. Cool, clear and calm. We got a late start due to the long drive from Topanga Canyon, but still made it to the summit in time to have some fun with the radio and fly Chester the Drone. Here is a short video that includes a 360º panorama from 100m above the summit:
I gave this summit three stars because I found it it an interesting and surprisingly enjoyable hike. It was a long day door-to-door from home, so it might be better as a weekend hike with Mount Marie Louise and others.
This sign isn’t kidding. The last half mile of this route is steep!
4 NOVEMBER 2023 W6/CT-271
Two Stars – a nice summit. I’d do it again. Recommended.
Elevation:
3,094′
Route:
Fire road and motorcycle track
Hike Distance:
3.5 miles round trip
Elevation Gain:
550′ in and 100′ on the return
Navigation:
Easy
Steepness:
Extremely steep at the end
Vehicle:
Passenger car
Road:
Good dirt road
Cell Coverage:
Good (Verizon) APRS Excellent
Hike basics
It continually amazes me that considering all the time I have spent in my life traipsing across the mountains Southern California, I still manage to stumble upon obscure corners of this state that I have never seen. My brother Mark and I set out on this pleasant Saturday morning to try our hand at what I call Burn Benchmark #2. I think of the higher, more oft visited W6/CT-136 Burn Benchmark as Burn BM #1.
We took Rush Canyon Road (5N13.1 ) off Sierra Highway and headed up toward Rowher Flats OHV area. The parking area is about a mile and a half up this road where the Vasquez Truck Trail (locked gate) joins Rush Canyon Road. This is the trailhead for the popular Texas Canyon rock climbing area. There is ample parking.
This route follows the Vasquez Truck Trail for a little more than a half mild before taking off to the left up the “Hell of a Hill” motorcycle trail. Take careful note of that name.
The hike takes you past a great view of Elephant Rock in the Texas Canyon rock climbing area. We saw several groups of climbers on belay.
The hike is a very enjoyable, seldom traveled route right up until the last quarter mile or so. At this point the route ascends the aforementioned “Hell of a Hill.” My older brother and I grew up hiking steep firebreaks in the Santa Monica Mountains, so this hill didn’t particularly phase us. Be forewarned that your mileage may vary. I found that my trekking poles came in handy, especially on the descent on my 67-year-old-knees.
Radio conditions weren’t great but I did have a lot of fun working 5 bands.
Looking east at the station and the San Gabriel Mountains. Photo by Mark Fitzgerald.My brother Mark and the Packtenna.Looking west on the way up at Elephant Rock in the Texas Canyon rock climbing area.We passed this ominous warning at the bottom of the last hill.Mark heading down “Hell of a Hill.”Looking southwest over Santa Clarita, Newhall Pass and Saddle Peak in the Santa Monica Mountain faintly visible through the pass.
Looking west toward the San Gabriel Mountains over what is left of summit 7,940′
21 OCTOBER 2023 W6/CT-060
No stars – This is a one-off summit. I am unlikely to return. Not recommended..
Elevation:
Something less than 7,940′
Route:
Mining road
Hike Distance:
2.2 miles round trip.
Elevation Gain:
350′
Navigation:
Tricky because of the changing topography
Steepness:
Gentle on the route below
Vehicle:
Passenger car
Road:
Good dirt road
Cell Coverage:
Good (Verizon) APRS Excellent
Hike basics
There is very little to recommend this summit in my opinion. The OMYA Sentinel Quarry has decimated the summit to the point that it probably no longer meets the SOTA criteria for prominence. It looks like the north side of the quarry is now higher. About the only thing I can say is get this one now in case it gets de-certified later.
I followed the track posted on SOTLas by KX6I and the “short climb up a rockpile” is now a treacherous scramble up very loose powdered quartz. I spent 15 minutes or so carving out semi-stable steps to make the ridge. I don’t recommend this.
My route down follows a road that is a much better route. Who knows how long this will last given all the earth-moving up there.
I did have an enjoyable time on the radio despite all this and had my first-ever chase from down under!
The unlovely landscape of “Strip Mine” SummitThe StationLooking North across the OMYA Sentinel Quarry to what I suspect is now the higher “summit.” The old route comes up the cliff in the foreground.
A partial eclipse of the sun is projected through a pinhole in my logbook’s cover. The spiral spine also creates a series of suns.
14 OCTOBER 2023 W6/CT-093
One star – Nothing special but I’d do it again.
Elevation:
5,778′
Route:
Drive-up if the gates are open
Hike Distance:
5.5 miles round trip if the gates are closed
Elevation Gain:
1,500′ – 1,000′ in and 500′ on the return
Navigation:
Easy
Steepness:
Well graded forest service road
Vehicle:
Passenger car
Road:
Good dirt road
Cell Coverage:
Good (Verizon) APRS Excellent
Hike basics
This activation proved to be more of a drive and much less of a hike than I expected. I left my home on Topanga at 5 AM expecting to get to the gate at 34° 41.4986′ N, 118° 33.2767′ W on forest service road 7N23 early. The suggested route for this is taking Lake Hughes Road out of Castaic. As I made my way up this road in the dark, I encountered a ROAD CLOSED sign in the middle of the road. I drove past it for a few miles and found no obstructions but decided I didn’t want to get turned around 20 miles up the road so I headed back down to Castaic.
From there I headed into Santa Clarita and wheeled up San Francisquito Canyon Road. I actually could’ve saved myself a lot of time, miles and gas but jumping over on forest service road 5N04. I could’ve saved even more time, miles and gas if I had just continued as it turns out I discovered on the way back that Lake Hughes Road was, in fact, OPEN!
At this point I had no idea if Pine Canyon Road would be open to Bushnell Summit and forest service road 7N23 or if the gate would be open when I got there. I was already forming backup plans in my mind.
It turns out not only was the gate open at Bushnell Summit, but the gate at 7N23A was also open, so this was a drive up.
There we a lot of deer hunters parked along the road but I heard very few reports from any firearms. The early morning guys all tend to be “one shot” kind of guys. The afternoon crowd is a little more trigger happy.
On the summit is a large FAA radar facility. I remembered from my last time on this summit on August 15, 1985 that there was a spot on the north side that was below a rock berm shielded from the radar. Since this was still in the activation zone, I set up there.
When the moon was at maximum coverage of the sun (about 70%) it became noticeably much cooler and dimmer. I thought I might be wearing my sunglasses at one point and was surprised to find that they were my normal reading glasses!
Radio conditions were excellent – especially on 10m where I worked Aleksander in Slovenia, Mike in Germany and, of course, Chris in France. I had 5 summit-to-summit contacts and even got Lorene W6LOR and Mike K6STR in Wyoming.
The stationthe sun at maxima. It was noticeably dimmer and much cooler. Not the interesting diffraction spikes.Lovely shot west on this nice eclipse morning to Cobblestone Mountain.Looking east toward the San Gabriel Mountains.Looking southwest across the Santa Monica Mountains.
Devil’s Slide Trail up from Humber Park is a lot of up, but it is cool and mostly shaded in the early morning.
16 SEPTEMBER 2023 W6/CT-007
Three stars – Highly recommended.
Elevation:
8,770′
Route:
Trail
Hike Distance:
9 miles round trip
Elevation Gain:
2,350′
Navigation:
Easy
Steepness:
Well graded trail
Vehicle:
Passenger car
Road:
Paved road
Cell Coverage:
In and out (Verizon) APRS Excellent
Hike basics
As I approached Mountain Goat status I started picking summits that are nostalgic for me – summits that I had done in my high school years. In the case of Tahquitz Lookout three of my friends had loaded up Gary Ottenger’s white ’55 Bel Aire with lo-tech, high weight backpacking gear and driven up to Idyllwild late one full moon night in August 1972.
We camped up in Taquitz Meadow and climbed both Tahquitz Peak and Red Tahquitz. The fire lookout on Tahquitz was manned by very cool ranger. We spent most of the day up there with the clouds dancing around the lookout tower. He served us wine and cheese and played classical music on a FM radio. Can you imagine that happening today? The poor guy would be in jail.
He issued us all “Squirrel Cards” – cards handed out proclaiming that we had successfully climbed an official forest service fire loookout.
On this trip I was delayed on the 90 at 4:30am by a police closure of the entire freeway for almost an hour. I still managed to get to the Idyllwild Ranger Station just off SR 243 at 54270 Pine Crest Road just before it opened. There I filled out my wilderness permit at the after-hours kiosk.
Important note: a wilderness permit is required for this hike and the quota is filled up fast on summer weekends. There were rangers checking for permits a mile or so up the trail.
The hike up Devil’s Slide Trail is a lovely walk that affords tremendous views of Lily (Tahquitz) Rock and Suicide Rock across Fern Valley. These are highly traveled rock climbing destinations. I’ve done dozens of routes on these excellent hunks of granite back in my rock climbing days. I could spot climbers on some of the more exposed routes on this trip.
I played leap-frog with an energetic young couple all the way up and when I met them on the summit I asked them if they had gotten their Squirrel Cards. They hadn’t, so I escorted the pair up into the lookout tower and asked Ranger B. May if they still bestowed Squirrel Cards on fire lookout ascenders. He was somewhat bemused that anybody over the age of 12 would request them, but dutifully issued us entrance into “The Ancient and Honorable Order of the Squirrel. :-). The young couple were tickled by the experience.
50 one years later I am issued my second Squirrel Card from the Taquitz fire lookout.
Even with the permit requirement there was a steady stream of hikers visiting the lookout. I fielded a lot of questions and handed out a lot of my SOTA cards to interested hikers.
Conditions weren’t the best but I made 21 contacts with 8 summit-to-summit QSOs
The lookoutNo table and chair on this pared-down hike. So “rock-butt” it was from the summit shack.Suicide Rock with Santiago Peak just peeking out in the distance.The formidable “Lily” or Tahquitz Rock’s north sideThe tremendous view west to Santiago and the San Gabriel Mountains.Looking southSuicide Rock with a route I did several times back in the day on The Weeping Wall. Santiago Peak in the distance.
A spectacular view of the Whitney Crest from the high point of the Alabama Hills
22 SEPTEMBER 2023 W6/SS-636
Two Stars – a nice summit. I’d do it again. Recommended.
Elevation:
5,413′
Route:
Cross country
Hike Distance:
.8 miles round trip
Elevation Gain:
500′
Navigation:
A bit tricky
Steepness:
Moderate
Vehicle:
Passenger car
Road:
Good dirt road
Cell Coverage:
Spotty (Verizon) Didn’t check APRS
Hike basics
I got into Lone Pine a day early to get ready for the big Mountain Goat backpack out of the Cottonwood Lakes trailhead. With 995 points racked up, I could afford to do a 4 pointer and still save the big day for the big mountains. In all my 60+ years of coming up Highway 395 I had never explored the Alabama Hills.
Many of the roads in the area were closed due to damage inflicted by tropical storm Hilary last month. This included Whitney Portal Road through the Alabama Hills. I took a very circuitous route around south on Tuttle Creek Road back to Whitney Portal road only to discover that Movie Road was closed at the Mobius Trailhead.
Not being in any hurry I drove up and around on Hogback Road to the other end of Movie Road only to find it closed there too.
Not being in any real hurry and not really minding a longer hike I parked there and walked several miles to the spot where I otherwise would’ve parked Whitedog. It turns out people were driving around the “Road Closed” signs, but the added miles didn’t really bother me. The way I did it was 4 miles round trip and 650 feet of elevation gain. I had time to kill before my 3pm check in time in Lone Pine.
Going up from Movie Road I took a fairly direct route from the saddle to the north of the summit. This got me into some genuine 3rd class bouldering. Not the easiest thing with trekking poles and a 25 pound pack. I found an easier way down around the east side that I would suggest for those not wishing to tangle with the boulders.
As you can see from the photograph above, the view of the biggest part of the Sierra Crest is worth the price of admission alone. If the hike was a bit more interesting I’d give this one three stars.
The activation was short and sweet with 4 summit-to-summit contacts and the usual suspects 😉
The Station looking south toward the revitalized Owens LakeLooking a little north of east across a lush section of the Owens Valley to New York Butte and the Inyo Mountains.South to Owens Lake
Dab me up, Mr. Smith! Here is the latest W6 Mountain Goat to join the herd. Mt. Langley in the background. Photo by Bill Smith.
25 SEPTEMBER 2023 W6/SS-085
Three stars – Highly recommended.
Elevation:
12,900′
Route:
Trail and Cross country
Hike Distance:
20 miles round trip
Elevation Gain:
2,875′
Navigation:
Easy
Steepness:
Moderate
Vehicle:
Passenger car
Road:
Paved road
Cell Coverage:
None
Hike basics
The odyssey that was our trip to Cirque Peak was much like my quest for SOTA Mountain Goat in general: breathtakingly beautiful and oddly fluky, exhausting and invigorating, full of ups and downs and twists and turns.
Back in August of 1974 and fresh out of high school my friends Allan Gardner, Jon Fredland and I drove up the perilous Cottonwood Lakes Road late one Friday night after work in Los Angeles. We backpacked to Long Lake on Saturday, and then on Sunday climbed both Cirque and Langley, walked out and drove back to the LA area to be back on the job Monday morning.
This time I met another old climbing buddy from back in the day, Bill Smith and his friend Al Martinsen at the Cottonwood Lakes walk-in campground. Bill’s son Andrew had gotten a notion to climb all the 14,000′ peaks in California and wanted to start with Mount Langley. Since Bill doesn’t get to see Andrew much these days because he is busy teaching, he planned this trip since our scheme to do the John Muir Trail had to be postponed because of all the snow in the high passes so late in this unusual year.
We had a tremendous evening around the campfire with Andrew holding court and regaling us with hilarious stories about the antics his students in a middle school near Sacramento. The kids are very lucky to have him.
Unfortunately Andrew was still suffering the effects of a wisdom tooth extraction. His dentist had suggested he not travel above 5,000′ – much less 14,000.’ Discretion being the better part of valor, Andrew made the hard call and bagged it. Bill was proud of him.
So it was only the three of us the next day that started out – Bill, Al and I. I got up before dawn and drove nine miles back down Cottonwood Lakes Road to catch this astounding view of Owens Lake at sunrise:
When I first came up 395 with my family in the early 1960’s Owens Lake was completely dry. This year’s massive snowpack and then Tropical Storm Hilary have revitalized this lake.
The six mile backpack from the Cottonwood Lakes Trailhead to Long Lake goes up a modest 1,500 feet or so. We managed to snag the exact same campsite at Long Lake that I had stayed at 50 years ago! While it was pretty cold at night – there was ice along the stream in the morning – there were no mosquitos and the daytime temperatures were damn near perfect for hiking.
Bill and Al in our camp at Long Lake on the dawn of the day of our ascent. That is Cirque Peak in the background.
The trail up to New Army pass is similarly gentle grade. The route to Cirque leaves the trail at that point and follows the namesake cirque around to the summit over boulders of various sizes. Traveling over and around these boulders varies from very easy to maddeningly more difficult than I remembered from 50 years ago. This is where we ran into a bit of trouble.
As we approached the summit Bill and I found ourselves amidst some large boulders and suggested to Al the he might have an easier time contouring around lower to the south. When Bill and I emerged over the top of this boulder field we no longer could see Al, so we began to call out to him. No reply.
We called and called, still no reply. I began to get worried, imagining all kinds of terrible fates that might’ve befallen Big Al. The wind was blowing fairly briskly and the lower contour had enough of a drop off that our voices might be going over Al’s head. Bill and I are big guys with big voices so we decided to yell out in unison.
Finally we spotted Al and saw that he was well below us. We got his attention (whew!) and at that point Bill decided to go back down with Al. They were done. Bill said he knew I was experienced enough to be able to solo down. Like me, he had done Cirque and Langley as a teenager and had no problem turning around so close to the summit.
Here is a screenshot of my track up (red) and track down (green). Where they diverge near the summit is where we avoided the boulder field and the going was much easier. The red arrow points to where we spotted Al and got his attention after he contoured too low around the boulders.
I continued on the short distance to the summit an arrived shortly after 2 PM – much later than I expected. This might’ve been a blessing in disguise as both Lorene W6LOR and Jon NT6E told me there had been a solar storm that had made 20m and 40m pretty miserable earlier.
Some people call it “activating a SOTA summit.” I like to call it “What Did I Forget This Time?” 🙂 In this case I had left my nice SOTABeams carbon fiber mast back at Whitedog, so I had to MacGiver my trekking poles into a makeshift mast.
This makeshit mast wasn’t pretty but it got the wire off the ground anyway.
I started out on 20m and quickly got Darryl WW7D and Josh WU7H up in Washington, but my reports from those guys were poor. I was surprisingly hoarse from all the yelling I had done earlier. Next I was called by super chaser Chris F4WBN, but he could barely hear me and gave me an uncharacteristic 41.
After those three – nada on 20m. I started to wonder if Goat was not to be on this quirky day.
I switched to 15m and Chris came back with a better report: 52. I don’t know if that counted for Goat being the same station, albeit on a different band.
It all became moot when the surprising next call came immediately on the heels of Chris’ call: LW2DO Horacio in Argentina! Wow! Five QSOs on three continents! I was ecstatic! I had joined the Herd!
After that the bands improved and the calls came easily. I wanted to stay and enjoy the opening and get as many of my SOTA friends in my Goat Log as I could, but I gave myself a 3pm cutoff. I did hold out until I got my #1 chaser, Jon – the former K6LDQ and current NT6E – on his astounding 163 chase on my 211 activations.
THANK YOU EACH AND EVERY CHASER FOR MAKING ME A SOTA MOUNTAIN GOAT! I could not have done it without you.
The StationThat’s Long Lake – base camp – just off the summit block.“Big Al” Martinsen and Bill “Charles Atlas” Smith in New Army Pass on the way up with Mount Langley in the background..Here’s an angle on the tallest mountain in the lower 48, Mount Whitney, that most people don’t get to see.Looking northeast out over the Cottonwood LakesThe Kaweahs up to the northwest were swallowed by smoke from a distant fire.
A cloud dance in front of San Bernardino Mt. morning after a very unusual winter-type storm in Southern California
3 SEPTEMBER 2023 W6/CT-090
Two Stars – a nice summit. I’d do it again. Recommended.
Elevation:
7,470′
Route:
Cross country
Hike Distance:
1 mile round trip
Elevation Gain:
500′
Navigation:
Easy
Steepness:
Moderate to steep at the end
Vehicle:
Passenger car with decent clearance
Road:
Dirt road
Cell Coverage:
Good (Verizon), excellent APRS
Hike basics
We’d had a very unusual winter-type storm the day before I set out to these two easy San Bernardino Peaks. The forest service road 1N12 was rutted from that and from Tropical Storm Hilary a few weeks earlier. Normally, I’d say that an unqualified passenger car could do this, but there were some ruts and rocks on the otherwise good road. Forest service road 1N12 leaves Highway 38 right behind the Post Office in Angeles Oaks.
From the saddle at 34° 7.4744′ N, 116° 59.9909′ W – follow the firebreak up to the south. This firebreak has been pitted with a lot of whoopde-dos to discourage the off-road crowd and this makes this steep firebreak a little tedious to hike.
I first hiked this inauspicious HPS summit on March 22, 1997. It is a pleasant walk through the pines with a decent view on a clear day. It was cloudy on this day and the cumulus clouds did graceful dance around the summit. Thomas Hunting Grounds Road was in good shape with only one spot that I could easily drive around. This was after the freak tropical storm Hillary that dumped a record number of inches on southern California in late August. In 1997 I drove my Volvo sedan to the trailhead.
KG6MZS 
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