Today’s hike takes me to Flat Top Mountain,
near Springerville, AZ. It also happens
to be known by the SOTA community as W7A/AP-033. I begrudgingly got up at 0630 to head out. In retrospect I should have loaded up
earlier. Jeanette was going with me today
as it’s a good hike and near her folks place. (HERE is our route that we took which was 7.8 miles round trip and 935 elevation gain. Not bad really.)
The trail head is about 25 minutes from the SOC
(SOTA Operations Center, AKA my villa or
cabin) and well marked. We put on our
packs and headed out for the hike on a warm clear monring. With all the rain the area is looking really
nice. The trail goes up the Murray Basin
/ Saffel Canyon and then branches off to the south west up Flat Top trail. The mountain has verticals cliffs around
2/3rds of it so you have to walk around to the back side, up a saddle and then
up that ridge to get to the top. The
last mile has about half of the 935 feet of elevation gain so it’s not really
that bad. It’s rocky terrain mixed with
areas of sandy loamy earth. It’s a nice
trail.
[click on image for larger]
Once on top, I walked to the other side of the
mesa. It’s definitely flat, and
expansive. It would be perfect for a
field day operation because you could really spread out. The Field Day Team would just need to pack
all their gear and supplies in.
Because we summited at about 10 there was plenty
of shade to be had. Setup was easy and I
first set out to do a little chasing.
AT&T service was sketchy but usable.
I tried a few stations via CW but no joy. I did get one station via phone SSB and
another called me. After spotting
myself, I had a pretty good pileup working.
(Update: Pete, KD2OMV, emailed me this evening and said that he thought he heard me calling S2S with my call sign. We never made contact but it's nice of him to let me know. I guess this shit does work after all. )
(Update: Pete, KD2OMV, emailed me this evening and said that he thought he heard me calling S2S with my call sign. We never made contact but it's nice of him to let me know. I guess this shit does work after all. )
I netted 20 contacts and decided to try
chasing what few SOTA guys were out there.
I had one call me earlier but I couldn’t pull out any of the CW
guys. I almost had one but I just
couldn’t pull the operator out of the noise.
I really should be trying my dipole but the CHA MPAS allows me to run
multiple bands. A good number of my
contacts were in California, surprising both myself and the chaser. Normally 20 meters skips right over CA. Pretty much the same story yesterday. 40 meter sucked just like yesterday.
The way back is always a tad boring since the
sense of adventure is gone. Today it
felt a bit longer due to the heat. It
was probably pushing over 80. The dog
was hot and her paws took a little too much damage I’m afraid. She was limping a little but would run ahead
of me, duck under a tree, lay down and then wait for me to pass. I gave her some breaks and water along the
way. I felt sorry for her. She’s beat.
After the hike, we met up with Jeanette’s parents
for lunch. I took everyone out to Booga
Reds, and yes, I gorged myself on green chili rellenos and beans. Now it’s time for a nap. The clouds are building over the mountains
but not like yesterday. I give it a 75%
chance of thunderstorms here in Springerville, 95% chance for thunderstorms in
Alpine, next to my villa. (BTW, I've never seen a "Sharp Curves" sign on a hiking trail.
Thanks to all the chasers out there. It was another fun peak.
P.S. It rained on the way home and the villa
was, cool, wet and inviting. Once I
finished editing the vidio from today, I shaved, showered, and setup the
sundowner eats and wine outside.
Ahhh. This is the life.
Contacts
Time
|
Call
|
Band
|
Mode
|
16:47z
|
W1DMH/VE6
|
14MHz
|
SSB
|
17:03z
|
K0LAF
|
14MHz
|
SSB
|
17:09z
|
K6EL
|
14MHz
|
SSB
|
17:09z
|
W0MNA
|
14MHz
|
SSB
|
17:10z
|
W0ERI
|
14MHz
|
SSB
|
17:10z
|
VE2JCW
|
14MHz
|
SSB
|
17:11z
|
K0BBC
|
14MHz
|
SSB
|
17:12z
|
AB4WL
|
14MHz
|
SSB
|
17:12z
|
N0RZ
|
14MHz
|
SSB
|
17:12z
|
W5GAI
|
14MHz
|
SSB
|
17:13z
|
K3TCU
|
14MHz
|
SSB
|
17:13z
|
KD0MQO
|
14MHz
|
SSB
|
17:15z
|
NE4TN
|
14MHz
|
SSB
|
17:15z
|
NG6R
|
14MHz
|
SSB
|
17:16z
|
KE6MT
|
14MHz
|
SSB
|
17:17z
|
AI6CY
|
14MHz
|
SSB
|
17:18z
|
KH2TJ
|
14MHz
|
SSB
|
17:19z
|
K0AVN
|
14MHz
|
SSB
|
17:20z
|
K0BBC
|
14MHz
|
SSB
|
17:27z
|
W9MRH
|
14MHz
|
SSB
|
Loadout for the multiple summits:
NOTE: The links for these were broken, I've updated them on my equipment loadout page.
● Gregory Zulu 40 backpack
● First aid kit. Make sure it’s a good one... like ability to patch up an impalement wound. ● CHA MPAS with spike and additional MIL mast (and version 2 of the top section)
● 30’ of coax feed line
● Yaesu FT-2DR HT
● Slim Jim dual band antenna for my HT.
● 3 L of water (8 lb)
● iPhone with All Trails, MotionX GPS and sota goat
● LDG Z-100 plus auto antenna tuner for the FT 891
● Trekking poles
● Jetboil MicroMo cooking system
● Extra LiFePO Battery
● AnyTone AT-868UV DMR radio for testing.
● Custom wiine bottle cork paddles for CW (crafted by K6ARK)
● American Morse Porta Paddle for CW
● Delorme Inreach satellite tracker and communicator.
73,
N1CLC
Christian Claborne
(aka Chris Claborne)
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