N1CLC: 2020-06-13 Tahquitz Peak

I got up early this morning to head out to Tahquitz. It’s one of my favorites in the area but the trailhead is about 2 hours from my house, near the town of Idlewild. The terrain on Tahquitz is super variable, from pine tree lined paths to high desert scrub, brush, and rock. I’d been thinking about hiking Tahquitz for a while but I didn’t want to be hammered by the summer heat. There was a weather window that had a nice dip in temperature forecast for Saturday and it didn’t disappoint.

I was out of the house by 5:30 and headed up the trail by 7:30. The road to the trail-head was in pretty bad shape. I needed 4wd to get over a couple of places. BeI was the first to the trailhead parking lot and when I got out of the car, it was 50f.

I really enjoyed hiking up the mountain in the cool air with a fleas. I took the south ridge trail and a lot of it was in the shade as it’s on the west side of the mountain.

Once on top I setup a descent operating position, did some chasing of other summits and worked 20 and 40m. There was a VHF contest going on today so I grabbed a few VHF contacts as well. Most of my contacts on HF contacts were CW but I did do a little chasing on side-band. I pulled out my sandwich and ate while chasing a few stations on CW. That’s another bonus of CW, you can eat while sending :).

After bagging approximately 45 contacts, I headed down. It was about 1230 but it probably wasn’t any warmer than 72f. It’s a lot of driving for the hike but to me, it was worth the hiking, views, and peace and quiet. I hit the weather window just right.

I think the next time I do this one, I’ll take a different route via devils slide. I’ve never been that way so it might be interesting. Maybe this fall.

I think I found a simple solution to keep my thigh paddles from cutting off circulation in my leg.

Contacts

Date:13/06/2020 | Summit:W6/CT-007 (Tahquitz Peak) | Call Used: N1CLC | Points: 8

Time	Callsign	Band	Mode
17:20	VE7HI	14MHz	CW
17:22	KR7RK	14MHz	CW
17:23	N4EX	14MHz	CW
17:24	WU7H	14MHz	CW
17:24	W0MNA	14MHz	CW
17:26	K6QCB	14MHz	CW
17:26	W0ERI	14MHz	CW
17:28	W7HO	14MHz	CW
17:28	WW7D	14MHz	CW
17:30	WN4AT	14MHz	CW
17:31	WD6TED	14MHz	CW
17:31	K0ES	14MHz	CW
17:34	W4KRN	14MHz	CW
17:35	K3TCU	14MHz	CW
17:36	K4MF	14MHz	CW
17:36	NS7P	14MHz	CW
17:38	K7DJL	14MHz	CW
17:38	N0RZ	14MHz	CW
17:39	K9OZ	14MHz	CW
17:40	WD4CFN	14MHz	CW
17:50	KT5X	7MHz	CW
17:51	K6YK	7MHz	CW
17:53	K6HPX	7MHz	CW
18:00	N6MKW	14MHz	SSB
18:04	N6DNM	14MHz	SSB
18:09	AE0XI	7MHz	SSB
18:10	K6HPX	7MHz	SSB
18:11	NQ7R	7MHz	SSB
18:12	KE6MT	7MHz	SSB
18:14	W6SMF	7MHz	SSB
18:16	W6BRY	7MHz	SSB
18:17	K7SO	7MHz	SSB
18:19	K6YK	7MHz	SSB
18:20	AA7DK	7MHz	SSB
18:21	AI6XG	7MHz	SSB
18:22	K6SDW	7MHz	SSB
18:24	K6RLQ	7MHz	SSB
18:32	KF6FLJ	144MHz	SSB
18:34	KC6MIE	144MHz	SSB
18:34	K6QCB	144MHz	SSB
18:40	KM6RVW	144MHz	SSB
18:41	KB6CUT	144MHz	SSB
18:42	WB6DIK	144MHz	SSB
18:58	N0DNF	14MHz	CW
19:00	NA6MG	7MHz	CW