I was recently asked to take a trip with my friend Ted, W6TED. He wanted to head to Phoenix to see his daughter and then up to Flagstaff to do some SOTA and test / shakedown the Toyota Land Cruiser build that he recently completed. He’s been working on the overlanding rig for a while now and considered this would be a good test before he takes the vehicle and his overlanding trailer to Alaska for two months.
Equipment used:
Overlanding vehicle - 200 series Toyota Land Cruiser built out for long-range overlanding. This thing is a beast as it can climb steep rocky terrain like a track vehicle, yet feel like it’s floating over highway markers. We had one issue, the anti-collision radar was showing an error. We called that the 1202 error because it didn't affect the mission (reference to Apollo 11). The Vehicle had a StarLink-mini permanently installed on the roof. This meant we had high speed internet almost all the time. What a great luxury when out in remote areas. This allowed us to setup alerts, do research, get weather forecasts and voice if needed to accomplish the mission. Pure luxury.
Camper - Patriot Campers X3 off-road trailer. The camper followed right behind us to the top of 6 different summits and proved it could go anywhere the Land Cruiser could go.
- Chris’s Ham Radio(s) - Chris, N1CLC, was mainly using an Elecraft KX2 with a random wire he built from the K6ARK.com kit. Sometimes we shared Chris’s Yaesu FT-857D with a chameleon MPAS vertical antenna.
- Ted’s Ham Radio loadout - Ted, W6TED, used his Elecraft KX3 with a random wire antenna that Chris built using the K6ARK kit.
When activating, we normally set up two stations, with one operator taking 20m (14 MHz) and the other person would operate on 40m (7 MHz) and some other bands improving the chance that chasers could also get their points. This allowed both of us to quickly activate while ensuring chasers could get their points. (Chasers only need to contact one of us to get max points for that summit).
Once we arrived in Alpine, AZ to stay at my summer home, we realized that after completing the 7 summits over by Flagstaff and Porter Mtn. last night it might be possible for Ted to get to “Goat” if we did 4 summits a day for the remaining 3 days of the trip. This would add to the 6 summits we just completed near Flagstaff. Ted’s Goat fever got worse!!!
The easiest day would be the first set of summits I chose around Alpine. If we could work in one more summit that day, it would take the pressure off a little for the harder hiking days. As it turned out, that was a major benefit since being out all day, driving and hiking took its toll on both of us the last two days. (See the daily log for more).
Once we determined that getting Ted to “GOAT” was possible, Ted had a “mission.”! WithTed’s “mission” and my goal-oriented nature, we locked in to the task of activating 12 summits with the minimum 4 ham contacts per summit for 12 summits in the White Mountains of Arizona. Twelve summits in three days…doable, right, or had we taken on more than we could achieve?? Iwas all in, Ted was excited and we created a team that would refuse to quit (even if there were moments of doubt). In summary: MISSION ACCEPTED!
We made a plan to get Ted to Goat the evening of our arrival in alpine. A major fire had started close to our area of operations near Greer, AZ which threatened to disrupt our plans. Given my knowledge of the area, I kept in mind alternate summits that we could still group together each day to accomplish our mission. We also kept in mind the fact that it would also be windy all day long, which can be very demoralizing.
A summit by summit report with a few stats and commentary.
1) Dates are UTC time, activations after 5pm Pacific Daylight Time (-7 Hrs) is the next UTC day.
2) “Miles Hiked” is distance for the round-trip.
5/13/2025
Summit: Mount Union
Points: 10
Elevation: 7,982 ft
Miles Hiked: 1.5i
Elevation Gain: 386
This summit is near Prescott, AZ. It was very windy. Ted got behind a block house so he could hear his radio, Chris found a protected spot on the leeward side near the peak. We got lost on the meandering dirt roads on the way up, but eventually found the trailhead.
Summit: Spruce Mtn. Summit ID: W7A/AW-013 Points: 109 Elevation: 7,697 ft Miles Hiked: 1 Elevation Gain: 218
We might have been able to drive up but the gate was locked, hiked up with W6TED. It was windy and somewhat protected by trees. Demoralizing, ready to move on.
5/14/2025
Summit: Mingus Mtn.
Summit ID: W7A/AW-010
Points: 0
Elevation: 7,818 ft
Miles Hiked: 0
Elevation Gain: 0
We dropped the trailer off at Potato Patch campground and then drove up to the top of Mingus Mountain. The wind died down and it was beautiful. We sat on the grass taking in the fantastic view with a hell of a drop off and included a view of the Verde Valley and Sedona. This is a big hang glider launching spot, just make sure you get airborne cuz the first step is a long long way down. We shared a QRO station (Yeasu FT-857D) using sideband. I think we should have pulled a beer out of the overlanding fridge. We operated until the temperature quickly dropped as we moved into shadow, it was time to head to camp.
Summit: Woody Mtn.
Summit ID: W7A/AE-037
Points: 10
Elevation: 8,048 ft
Miles Hiked: 4
Elevation Gain: 720 ft
We headed out with the trailer and drove through Jerome and then Sedona (by choice). We parked just off the road at the Rogers Natural Habitat area with a fantastic view of the San Francisco peaks (includes Mt. Humphrey). It was a beautiful hike up a simple closed dirt road with an easy incline. The winds were light at the top but combined with the temp, I quickly froze.
5/15/2025
Summit: Mormon Mtn.
Points: 10
Elevation: 8,514 ft
Miles Hiked: 3
Elevation Gain: 200
This is the last summit of our very busy day. The winds were very light. The road was a good test of the overlanding vehicle and trailer. After airing down the tires we climbed some very rocky roads like they were nothing. We were able to drive most of the way and then walked due to the road being blocked by fallen trees. Both operating positions were comfortable in the setting sun…. And then… Summit-To-Summit with ZL1BYZ on a New Zealand Summit!!!!! I got up to suggest that Ted try to chase ZL1BYZ and then heard screaming and yelling. At first I thought something was seriously wrong, it was just Ted celebrating the S2S. Once the sun went behind the trees, it got COLD. After setting up camp and eating dinner we decided to go to bed just to stay warm. The low was 28F, cold for two Southern California boys (very cold for that 3AM potty call!). Overall the overlanding vehicle and trailer performed
Summit: Hutch Mtn.
Points: 10
Elevation: 8,533 ft
Miles Hiked: 0
Elevation Gain: 0
After freezing my butt and some other parts off, we headed over to Hutch Mtn. Hutch was a simple drive up summit with an operational lookout. While Ted and I were sharing a QRO station running SSB, a group of Jeeps arrived. One of them was a ham, Chris (K2MMT). We invited him to join in for the activation. His party thought it was pretty cool when we started working Christian (F4WBN) in France. Then, they came back over when they heard us working Alexander (S57S) in Slovenia. The view from the lookout tower was awesome! All in all, this was a great activation. But more to come.
Summit ID: W7A/AE-043
Points: 10
Elevation: 7,598 ft
Miles Hiked: .5
Elevation Gain: 100
Our next summit, Porter Mountain, which is about a two hour drive from Hatch Mountain. We fueled up the vehicle in Winslow, Arizona and stopped to get lunch at the Falcon restaurant on the famous Route 66 highway. We had Navajo Tacos, a specialty of the area and they were awesome!!!
This summit is a quick walk up near Show Low, Arizona in the White Mountains of Arizona. Our operating position had a great view to the east. We shared a single station, with one operator running one band and the other running a different band, giving chasers the best chance for points. We had planned for one more summit today, but we still needed to get to a grocery store to provision and over to my villa in Alpine, Arizona before it got dark. Unloading the vehicle and commencing the house boot up is easier in daylight and I was looking forward to a sundowner on the front deck.
5/16/2025
Summit: Mogollon Rim
Summit ID: W7A/GR-001
Points: 10
Elevation: 9,442 ft
Miles Hiked: .8
Elevation Gain: 50
Today’s activations will be fairly close to the house in Alpine, the Ham Ninja Arizona SOTA Operations Center (ASOC) for the next few days. The trailer will stay at the house for the remaining summits. After arriving last night, the neighbors came over for drinks and a full tour of Ted's overland setup. Given the bit of celebrating we did the previous night, both of us were a bit slow getting up this morning. It was a beautiful morning, the winds were calm and both operators were ready to start the big push for the next three days. I had given Dale, AA7OY a heads up so he could join us if he wanted and he decided to chase and meet us on South Mountain.
Summit: Timber Top Mtn. Summit ID: W7A/AP-015
Points: 10
Elevation: 9,341 ft
Miles Hiked: 1.2
Elevation Gain: 244
It was about a 30 minute drive to the next trailhead, Timber Top. The hike is up an old jeep trail which goes right into the activation zone. When the Aspen get their leaves, this is a beautiful hike. Chris had already activated this summit earlier in the year so Ted was the primary operator. Band conditions were challenging, and working together, we set up and broke down fairly quickly.
Summit: South Mtn.
Points: 10
Elevation: 9,511 ft
Miles Hiked: 0
Elevation Gain: 0
South Mountain is located across the highway from Table Top Mtn. and looks over Bush Valley of Alpine Arizona, so the drive is pretty quick. There are a lot of RF towers up there but the bands are workable. When we arrived, we found Dale, AA7OY, who had been chasing us from m there. Dale had been operating from here for a while and was in full S2S mode. He let us share his station and we had fun passing the key around to do a little CW chasing and catching up. It's always great to do SOTA with Dale.
Summit: Noble
Summit ID: W7A/AP-007
Points: 10
Elevation: 9,577 ft
Miles Hiked: 0
Elevation Gain: 0
It's about a 45 minute drive from South Mountain where we left Dale to drive into the activation zone of Noble Mtn. It was windy and an easy drive up near the Ham Ninja ASOC). We chased some summits on the QRO station including Dale over on South Mountain, and then boogied to the next summit.
The original goal was to get 4 summits in today but if we could get 5 activated, it would take pressure off the remaining days. This was important because the road closures due to the Greer Fire could play a factor on what we could or couldn't do. Also, some summits may be too smoked out or inaccessible due to the fire. Because of this, we didn't post a spot, but left after Ted activated (Chris had already done this one this year). Did I mention that it was windy?
Summit: Prairie Point Peak
Points: 8
Elevation: 8,337 ft
Miles Hiked: 0
Elevation Gain: 0
This summit in New Mexico is 8 points, but Ted was carrying enough points to still achieve the Goat goal. I had already done this summit this year and when using my vehicle, I had to park a couple miles away from the summit. However, using the tricked out Land Cruiser overland machine, we were able to take a very primitive road all the way to the summit. The overlanding trailer could have made the trip but it was parked for this part of the trip at the ASOC. This is the first time I've been able to drive to the top. The new Land Cruiser build delivered! The summit is somewhat protected from the wind and the activation was pleasurable.
This day was a huge success, and being able to exceed our goal, we took a little pressure off the last couple of days, requiring us to only activate 4 summits one of the days, and 3 summits on the other.
5/17/2025
Summit: Cooley Mountain
Summit ID: W7A/AE-042
Points: 10
Elevation: 7,743 ft
Miles Hiked: 1
Elevation Gain: 350
Start of a new day! Our plan was originally set to hit Escudilla Butte, Flat Top near Springerville, Coyote Hills and one other but we changed the plan to avoid the smoke from the fire and possible area closures. The new plan was to summit Wahl Knoll, and then do a triple over by McNary, Arizona. We took a back way to Wahl knowing about road closures but found workers had just setup another roadblock not far from the summit area due to the forest fire. This would essentially close the area around Wahl Knoll. A new plan was needed.
I pulled an audible??? and decided to use Cooley Mountain on the White Mountain Apache Indian Tribe’s reservation as an alternate given its proximity and our ability to knock it out quickly. After purchasing an adventure pass for access to the reservation, we drove as far as we could and then hiked. It's a very steep climb up but only a half mile, but it's its still a lot of work for the first thing in the morning.
The band conditions were almost a radio blackout. We had to fight, paw, and scratch for every contact. It was like digging a post hole with lots of big rocks using a digging bar. In the end, we just barely activated so it worked out… painfully. It was an auspicious start to the day and we were afraid that if the solar conditions got any worse we might be doomed to failure or it would take so long forcing us to crawl home, because bushwhacking at night is not on our punch list.
Summit: Lake Mtn.
Summit ID: W7A/AE-030
Points: 10
Elevation: 8,504 ft
Miles Hiked: 2.2
Elevation Gain: 482
This is the start of what I call the Lake Mountain triple, three summits very close together. The travel time was about 45 minutes to the road leading to this summit that includes a lookout tower. The gate at the bottom is open about 50% of the time. The walk up the road has some nice views to the west looking out toward Pinetop, Lakeside, and Showlow. It was windy and Ted and I quickly set upsetup and activated different bands. I used 20m and Ted activated using other bands. We found that the solar conditions had improved a bit. I worked F4WBN in France and other stations in OR and WA were coming in much better. The day is looking up. We have two medium-hard summits to go so hike back to the vehicle at a range walk.
Summit: Wishbone Mtn. Summit ID: W7A/AP-027
Points: 10
Elevation: 8,822 ft
Miles Hiked: 1.6
Elevation Gain: 742
The drive to the trailhead took about 10 minutes. Last year, I had found a new cut trail that added a bit of distance from the old trailhead. It looked like a team had used chainsaws to clear a nice trail through the fallen trees. There was a fire up there three or four years ago so the amount of downed trees increases each year making the old approach more difficult each year. That, combined with an influx of large thorned New Mexican locust bushes, can make it almost impassable (I still have scars on my legs inflicted by these bushes from a few weeks ago). The trail takes a lot of effort to get up (climbing 742 feet in .8 miles is tough). It was windy AFon top. The one glimmer of light was delivered when Ted spotted a massive bull elk, with about five points. The elk couldn’t hear or smell us because of the wind. I got a good look at him before the bull ran off.
My choice of operating position was a mess from the beginning. We thought we could make it a quick activation and get to the next summit but after me tripping over antenna wires, dumping the radio gear into the dirt, tossing stuff out of my pack, cussing the thorn bushes that were next to the chair, and fighting the band conditions, I was ready to give up. We tried chasing but after having several QSOs broken by nasty QSB, we switched tactics. Ted took over and spotted while I tried to cool off, sitting down and meditating while I thought about how lucky I am. Once Ted was done, we switched, and I worked on any band that might bear fruit. The wind combined with everything else made this a very frustrating summit. If we hadn't had access to that cut trail we may have just headed to the pub instead. Given the amount of burned trees and soot, we both looked like firefighters when we got back to the vehicle.
Summit: Wolf Mtn.
Points: 10
Elevation: 8,287 ft
Miles Hiked: 1.1
Elevation Gain: 5.5
The transit time to Wolf Mountain starting point took about 30 to 40 minutes. We arrived with tired legs, and it showed. I think Ted was bonking since his lunch hadn’t hit the bloodstream yet. He was hiking, head down looking for rocks, one foot in front of the other, running into tree branches, and getting frustrated with himself. It was a long slog given the rocky conditions and because we had hiked three other summits. In addition, the wind was howling at a minimum of 30+ mph. The wind, which is normally demoralizing, just added to the effort. Once on top, we had a chance to break out our stations, and sit down. Ted mentioned that the only time he was able to rest during this trip was when we were operating. Once we had a bag of contacts and a little rest, we were in much higher spirits. We just had to make it back to the car and go grab a cold beer. Solar conditions were OK and the contacts came pretty easy. Just three summits to go tomorrow for Ted to make “goat”.
5/17/2025
Summit: Greens Peak
Summit ID: W7/AE-009
Points: 10
Elevation: 10,135 ft
Miles Hiked: 0
Elevation Gain: 0
It's the last day of the Mission, and we have three summits to go. Due to road closures, we had to take the long way to the first summit and then work our way back to the others. I would normally save the easiest for last but I didn't want Ted to use Greens peak for his Goat mountain given the amount of RF and exposure to wind. We felt it was best to check this one off and take the easy 10 points. I also think your goat summit should be a non-driveup. At 10,144’ I’m told this is the highest summit in Arizona with a lookout tower you can drive to.
The wind down in the valley was minimum 40 mph, measured at the airport, and it seemed to be blowing harder at the summit. You couldn’t hear yourself talk over the sound of the wind, much less hear a radio. We hauled the QRO station to the lee side of the summit to get out of the wind and slammed out some SSB contacts, sharing the mic. The solar conditions sucked and I was happy to get off this windy peak but spirits were high. There are two summits to go with medium effort required for each.
Summit: St. Peter’s Dome
Points: 10
Elevation: 9,636 ft
Miles Hiked: 2.38 mi
Elevation Gain: 673
This is a fairly short hike but steep enough to require a zig-zag to the summit. At 9000+ feet, our sea level lungs are struggling. The wind was still howling but we are much more protected in the trees and the terrain on the windward side. Once at the top, I found a somewhat protected spot near the top and got to work on bands, staying off of 20m. While working CW,
I pulled my sandwich out and ate that with some dried fruit to replenish the power banks in my body. Ted's operating position was at the top, sitting in the trees, but it was still very windy. Ted was afraid the wind might snap his pole at one point but he made it through. When he texted me that he was packing up, I jumped on 20m and got a few more contacts. The descent is always a pleasure on this one. This is the first summit of the trip I was able to log a lot of contacts on.
Summit: Whiting Knoll - The Goat Summit!!!
Point: 10
Elevation: 9,347 ft
Miles Hiked: 2 mi
Elevation Gain: 436
Today we do the Goat summit for Ted. His goat fever is about to break! It's still very windy. I told Ted that I wanted to see what it feels like to be a real man and drive the Toyota to the next summit. Ted let me take the controls of the overlanding monster. The last chunk of road is normally a challenging drive, but the Toyota just crawled up like a tracked vehicle.
The solar conditions were still challenging and Sunday afternoon can be harder to get the attention of chasers. In addition, the QSB on the bands was really bad.
Earlier in the day, we had put the word out that the goat summit was imminent, so once Ted had spotted, he had a flood of chasers. I got a picture of him getting his goat contact, we did a quick fist bump and pump and I headed down the hill looking for a spot out of the wind.
Ted is now a “mountain goat” and we are both exhausted. It’s time for a beer, wine, and REST!!!
The next day was a 600 mile drive back to San Diego.
A few final stats for this trip:
Ted earned 188 activator points over 6 days!
Ted also reached 100 unique summits on his goat summit.
We hiked a total of 24 miles.
We climbed 5,302 feet while hiking.
We drove approximately 1,800 miles in three states!
We used a minimum of 180 gallons of gasoline.
The two of us made 335 contacts across the United States, France, Slovenia, Japan, Canada, and New Zealand.
We consumed three bottles of wine, 6 draft beers, a few shots of tequila, lots of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, 5 dehydrated meals, a dozen eggs, two loaves of bread, one large pizza, several gallons of water, a couple of chickens, and two Navajo Tacos.
We cured a bad case of goat fever!!!
I was there when Ted made his first SOTA contact in 2017, a chase to me, when he heard me on a local mountain while sitting in his vehicle. On May 18th, I was there in person when Ted made his 4th contact on Whiting Knoll, making him officially a SOTA Goat. After Ted mademad his 4th contact, we did a fist bump and the chasers started to flood in, congratulating Ted on his accomplishments. Ted is an awesome CW operator and an all around great dude.
Thanks to all the chasers and other activators
Thanks to all the chasers and other activators and the emotional support team. Our top chasers were none other than the dynamic duo of WW7D and WU7H in Washington who were contacting us on almost every summit.
I'm glad you reach the MG. And I was able to work you. 73, Aleksander, S57S.
ReplyDeleteAleksander, thank you and very glad we were able to have a SSB QSO from one of the summits. Many people were watching our QSO!
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