N1CLC: A White Mountain 4-Pack & the 100th Summit

I decided to make my July 4 weekend a tad longer and head up to the white mountains of AZ where I have my mountain villa. Of course the trip is going to include som summits on the air. If it didn’t you’d be reading about the trip on throboflife.com. It’s a 10 hour drive from San Diego and I got in late at night on the 3rd. When I got up the next morning and looked out the window to see the gentle breeze causing the aspen leaves to flicker, it was well worth it right there.... Done, complete, satisfaction.

Today is the Fourth of July. My in-laws were planning a bar-b-que in the next town over so I spent the morning planning my attack on some SOTA summits. There is a bonanza of SOTA summits in what I call the Greens Peak area (see map here). The area is about an hour’s drive from my villa so it should be fun. I did activate Green. s last year but I really wanted to hit a few of the others. I brought up alltrails.com on my laptop and went to work charting the peaks and prepping my assault plans. (click on picture for larger)

Charting complete, I went into Springerville for the BBQ and good conversation with my in-laws. On the drive over, it looked like there was a fire burning to the east. As I crested the hill overlooking Springerville and a better view to the east, it looked like my planned area of operation was in flames. Hmmm, all that time plotting a course to the many summits over there may have been a waste of time but we’ll see. I asked around and there was a fire caused by a lightning strike on Whiting Knoll, one of my destinations, as well as some control burn.

After the BBQ, and everyone had left, I decided to do a little recon and SOTA. There are a couple of peaks north of the smoke filled area on old volcanos and I decided to hike one of them to get a better view, and yes, kick off the SOTA activation weekend.

Cerro Montoso W7A/AP-031

Cerro Montoso is a fairly short but very steep hike. I drove about half way up to the point where my Hylander would have high centered if I had gone any further. In addition, I could see tracks where four-wheel-drive vehicles had to stop. My AWD did kick in a few times mainly because the dirt is so loose. The rest of the hike is very steep, as it’s a direct path to the top and it was about 80F. Since it was my first day, hiking from sea level, going up to a 8,338’ peak was a bit difficult.

Once on the top, I find that there are two massive towers up there. I decided to hike over to the area away from all of the RF sheds hoping for less interference from AC units and general power line interference. The area couldn’t have been more than 10 lower than the high point and it had a great view. Yup, the planned area of operation was shrouded in smoke. Hmmm. Tomorrow is Friday so I’ll check in at the Ranger station and see what is closed off. I have several options that are outside my primary area of operation if I can’t get into the greens peak area.

Setup was easy and there was a slight wind from the southwest at 10mph cooling me down. I brought a light weight antenna tuner given the issue I had during the last expedition. The tuner is a LDG Z100+. It works but I don’t like it nearly as much as the MFJ-939Y auto antenna tuner for 891. The LDG antenna tuning involves a lot of futzing around whereas the 939 is linked into the radio allowing a single button tune operation. The downside of the MFJ unit is that I think it weighs 1.5 lbs more. I was able to log 24 contacts once I was on the air. I don’t think there were any SOTA activators out so no chasing for me.. It was pretty late in the day and I decided to get back to the villa before dusk to setup a wire for HF that I wanted to test.

I got the antenna up, had some beef stew and a glass of wine on my front porch.

St. Peters Dome W7A/AP-006

After breakfast I headed out around 7AM for my primary area of operation by Green’s peak. As I crested flat top I didn’t see any smoke... good news. Stopping at the Ranger station, I was told that there was a lightning caused fire that is out but they are doing control burn in the area. That’s good news. I might still be able to get back there and activate one or two of the peaks with a couple more south of the affected area as alternates.

The drive up to St. Peters Dome is magnificent. The area has been getting a lot of moisture this year and was green and lush. This is the beginning of the monsoon season and it’s normally not this green but this year, it was a whole different story. The best part was no roadblocks... It’s open and no smoke!

After parking I notice some clouds building to the east so I was a bit concerned about possible thunderstorms, which is not something I want when I have my lightning rod / antenna in the air. Because of the clouds, it kept the direct sun off of me and delivered mild temp... I followed the road up to a certain point and then, given the way the terrain presented itself, I started my ascent in an east sloping climb. There is a ravine that I had planned to pass and go up the east side but this ascent would take me right into it so I stayed west of it and took more of a direct attack (see my track & chart). The bushwhack was easy through the forest and a pure joy to be in. I kept stopping to take pictures and enjoy the view. For some reason the horse flies were in full force and I made a mental note to pick up some bug spray that doubles as sunscreen. So far, this is the most beautiful hike of the year. I’m surrounded by lush green grass, healthy ponderosa and other pines, aspen and oak trees.

Once on top I found a nice operating position and setup. I made 23 contacts, 4 of them summit-to-summit contacts.

Most descents off the mountain back to the car are a little onerous. The excitement is gone and you just want to get back to the car. That was not the case this time. It was such a beautiful hike I didn’t mind it at all. Once I loaded up, I headed for Whiting Knoll for summit #2. If that wasn’t available, I would continue west to hit a couple of others. I ran into a road block at Whiting Knoll where they were doing controlled burn. The deputy said that the entire area was closed off and I didn’t have a way to get to the other peaks so I turned around. I could still do Green’s Peak but I’ll save that for another day. My new plan was to hit a peak on the outer end of the planned area of operation and then work in another summit on the way home.

Cooley Mountain - W7A/AE-042

I headed out to what looked like an easy “drive up” to a mountain by Honda. On the way, I stopped at a roadside eatery in McNary and got an Indian Taco.... Oh man was that good. The Indian Taco is a round piece of fried bread about the size of a plate, covered in beans, hamburger, lettuce, and if you ask, green chili. Heaven. OK, I’m glad the next summit is a “drive up” because I’m too full to hike right now.

Once on the summit I could see why there was a road up there, it was home to a huge number of antennas and my mortal enemy, RFI. I setup the radio and when I turned it on it was set to a CW frequency that I was using for a summit-to-summit. It turns out that there was a different operator calling CQ on the frequency from another summit. What luck!!! I quickly plugged in my paddles and called him using morse code. First contact complete!

When I turned the radio to SSB mode, the signal strength meter that almost maxed out with other RF from something up on the mountain, S9. This meant that it would be impossible to hear any other operator over the noise. Just imagine being able to talk to a friend across an empty stadium with your voice, but then fill the stadium with crazy World Cup fans and it’s impossible. I moved to a spot that I figured would be far enough away... It wasn’t it was actually worse. I moved again down the hill. Still no better. I went further down the road to where I figured I was at the edge of the activation zone. By this time I was extremely agitated. One other strange tidbit. There were thousands of lady bugs all around me and if I pulled anything green out, they covered it. They don't hurt anything but it was just odd.

Lucky for me, the noise level was between S3 and 5. I was able to squeak out a few contacts but no summit-to-summits. A lot of summit operators are running 5 watts of power so I’m not going to hear them over the noise. An operator in my slack group, AA6XA wanted to contact me but he couldn’t hear me. We switched to CW and got the contact... We’ve done this twice now. It really shows the power of CW and why so many SOTA operators take the time to learn Morse code.

This was probably the most frustrating activation I’ve done since Poser Mountain back in 2017. After all the time I had spent trying different locations and adapting to the physical conditions I had burned up too much time to get another peak in unless I wanted to arrive back at the villa way past dark... and my spirit was broken. Given that we have a spotless sun, I did fare better than some other guys that headed out today who were completely skunked on their attempts. I came away with an activation and a beautiful hike in the morning.

Wahl Knoll W7A/AP-005

If I can get 4 contacts on this next summit, it will be summit activation number 100 for me. I’ve been skunked a couple of times so I’ve actually summited more than 100 since 10/31/2017 when I activated my first summit. It’s hard to believe I’m at 100. Yesterday, I passed 500 activator points, halfway to the title of mountain goat. (I’m the front half of the half goat by the way).

I got up early and went into Alpine for breakfast before heading out. The little village of Alpine, AZ was prepping for a parade down the main drag. There was a light sprinkle of rain coming down and I was hoping I wouldn’t be skunked by weather. The drive out to the trail head is a pretty one, up through Williams Valley, Big Lake area, and then north to the turn off. Along the way I had a light sprinkle off and on.

There is a road that winds around and goes up to the top, but the stroll through the meadow is really nice. This hike is as beautiful as yesterday’s but in a different way. Open fields lined with pine trees. It’s a short one mile hike and dead quiet as I walk up the meadow toward a small saddle and go up a false summit to the summit.

As I’m setting up I can hear wild turkeys below me. I setup pretty quick because it looks like there may be a more significant bit of rain coming my way. Most importantly, there is no thunderstorms and the weather doesn’t seem like it is going to produce one at this time. As things heat up and the air becomes more stable, it might produce some...

Once I’m on the air there is a light sprinkle. I have my gear covered up with my shell and I get to work. I barely have any cell coverage but if I hold my mouth just right I can get my spot out. I have the satellite communicator but don’t need it this time. The HF conditions seemed to be a bit better today but then again the noise level is almost at zero. I quickly have a pileup going with all the usual suspect reaching out as well as a lot of others. I was trying to complete the summit before I started getting outright rain since I didn’t have any cover... then it stopped for a few minutes. I worked a lot of stations so the activation went well. The rain was definitely heading my way and as the air heats and rain gets any heavier, the chance of lightning goes up.

Activate 100 summits? Check!

Rather than head to another summit, I promised to bring my wife’s parents to their ranch in Concho, AZ. Criss needed to irrigate (or direct the irrigation operation) and have a little BBQ. It turned into real rain on the way into Springerville. We had a nice visit and excellent grub up in Concho and then headed back.

After getting back to the villa, the neighbor invited me to another BBQ. I had a splitting headache all day so I relaxed for a while and waited for the grill to get fired up (I still had to cook my dinner). I went easy on the wine and decided that my last day up here will be spent at my mountain villa. This was helped along by the forecast for rain. It had been raining at the villa and started raining heavily with some thunder at 7pm or so. It rained for the rest of the evening.

There was more heavy rain at 3AM till 6 AM. And more heavy rain from 10 to about 3PM. I had a lovely nap up stairs under the metal roof at noon... I was going to do a little chasing but... no, it felt too good to just watch and listen to the rain fall... and WATCH THE US WOMEN WIN THE WORLD CUP.

This was a nice trip and it always feels great to be immersed in the forest. I hope to be back up here in a few weeks and knock out a few more summits.

Contacts

Cerro Montoso W7A/AP-031

Date:04/Jul/2019 Summit:W7A/AP-031 (Cerro Montoso) Call Used:N1CLC Points: 10 Bonus: 0 Delete

Time	Call	Band	Mode
00:00z	K0LAF	7MHz	SSB
00:01z	WW7D	7MHz	SSB
00:01z	NW7E	7MHz	SSB
00:02z	K6MW	7MHz	SSB
00:02z	W7MOE	7MHz	SSB
00:03z	K6HZR	7MHz	SSB
00:03z	K6QCB	7MHz	SSB
00:04z	K6VSS	7MHz	SSB
00:05z	K7TAB	7MHz	SSB
00:15z	WA7JTM	7MHz	SSB
00:19z	N7AMA	7MHz	SSB
00:20z	K6YK	7MHz	SSB
00:20z	AS6XA	14MHz	CW
23:44z	NS7P	7MHz	SSB
23:50z	NW7E	7MHz	SSB
23:51z	K6MW	7MHz	SSB
23:51z	AE7UT	7MHz	SSB
23:52z	N0RZ	7MHz	SSB
23:53z	WW7D	7MHz	SSB
23:53z	AB4WL	7MHz	SSB
23:54z	K7DTU	7MHz	SSB
23:56z	KI6EAB	7MHz	SSB
23:58z	N5ZZM	7MHz	SSB
23:59z	NS7P	7MHz	SSB

St. Peters Dome W7A/AP-006

Date:05/Jul/2019 Summit:W7A/AP-006 (Saint Peters Dome) Call Used:N1CLC Points: 10 Bonus: 0 Delete

Time	Call	Band	Mode
17:53z	K6ARK	10MHz	CW
18:12z	KB4SMK	14MHz	SSB
18:17z	W0MNA	14MHz	SSB
18:18z	K6MW	14MHz	SSB
18:19z	K7ATN	14MHz	SSB
18:19z	NK7L	14MHz	SSB
18:20z	W0ERI	14MHz	SSB
18:21z	K6TQ	14MHz	SSB
18:21z	K7GT	14MHz	SSB
18:22z	K6QCB	14MHz	SSB
18:22z	K6YK	14MHz	SSB
18:23z	N0RZ	14MHz	SSB
18:23z	NS7P	14MHz	SSB
18:23z	W5ODS	14MHz	SSB
18:25z	W5GAI	14MHz	SSB
18:25z	AC1Z	14MHz	SSB
18:26z	AB4PP	14MHz	SSB
18:27z	K1LIZ	14MHz	SSB
18:27z	WB7ULD	14MHz	SSB
18:28z	K3TCU	14MHz	SSB
18:29z	KI4TN	14MHz	SSB
18:29z	NE4TN	14MHz	SSB
18:30z	W5ODS	18MHz	CW

Cooley Mountain - W7A/AE-042

Date:05/Jul/2019 Summit:W7A/AE-042 (Cooley Mountain) Call Used:N1CLC Points: 10 Bonus: 0 Delete

Time	Call	Band	Mode
21:30z	KR7RK	18MHz	CW
22:57z	AB6SO	14MHz	SSB
23:02z	W0MNA	14MHz	SSB
23:03z	KE6MAK	14MHz	SSB
23:04z	W0ERI	14MHz	SSB
23:05z	W2SE	14MHz	SSB
23:06z	KI5WA	14MHz	SSB
23:07z	AA6XA	14MHz	CW

Wahl Knoll W7A/AP-005

Date:06/Jul/2019 Summit:W7A/AP-005 (Wahl Knoll) Call Used:N1CLC Points: 10 Bonus: 0 Delete

Time	Call	Band	Mode
16:34z	WW1USA	14MHz	SSB
16:36z	N7KRN	14MHz	SSB
16:39z	KG3W	14MHz	SSB
16:39z	W5BOS	14MHz	SSB
16:40z	KI4TN	14MHz	SSB
16:40z	W0MNA	14MHz	SSB
16:41z	W0ERI	14MHz	SSB
16:41z	WD4CFN	14MHz	SSB
16:42z	KD9FM	14MHz	SSB
16:42z	K6MW	14MHz	SSB
16:43z	K1LIZ	14MHz	SSB
16:43z	K0LAF	14MHz	SSB
16:44z	WD0ACB	14MHz	SSB
16:44z	W4KRN	14MHz	SSB
16:45z	W5GAI	14MHz	SSB
16:46z	KI5WA	14MHz	SSB
16:47z	WA3LKT	14MHz	SSB
16:48z	KG5OSX	14MHz	SSB
16:49z	K5BCN	14MHz	SSB
16:50z	N5HA	14MHz	SSB
16:50z	W4ACW	14MHz	SSB
16:51z	NE4TN	14MHz	SSB
16:51z	WF2Y	14MHz	SSB