3-7-2021, Santa Rosalia Mountain W6/CC-062

Peter and I have been doing semi-regular summits, and I picked this one and did the research.  The route via Summit Rd was supposedly closed, making the hike longer.  So I drove us to Aptos and came in via Buzzard Lagoon Rd.  I took a look at it via Google Street View, and couldn't confirm we would be able to make it all the way, but some other bloggers posted that you could park within a couple of miles of the summit so we decided to go this way.

One big mistake was starting out too late the in day.  I had something I had to do that morning so we didn't get going until after lunch.  The drive was over an hour, maybe an hour and 20 from San Jose.

Eventually the paved road becomes dirt but you can drive all the way up to a gate on the main trail, and there is a pull out for one or two cars to park.  It's about 2 miles from there to the summit.   To get to the actual summit there is a little deer trail off the main trail.  There are really no views but it is very shady - so this would be a good place to go in the summer heat.  Otherwise it's a pretty boring place.  If you want views, the main trail back a ways is still in the activation zone and you can see Loma Prieta, but it's nothing spectacular.




You can tell that people do go up to the summit proper, but the trail is not super used.


There is a nice log to sit on right at the top.  We decided to set up there.  We took turns lugging up the somewhat heavy Wolf River vertical antenna we had used at Umunhum a while back.  So we started to set that out.  By this time it was getting to be close to 3pm.  In setting up the antenna, I found a relatively new looking tennis ball with a carabiner attached to a long piece of thin paracord.  It didn't look all that weathered. Clearly someone raising antennas had been there before - so if this is yours give me a call and I'll give it back.  Otherwise it's going into my go kit.



We tried to load up the vertical, but couldn't hear anything on it.  After 15 minutes, I started putting out the end fed.  Peter switched the KX2 over to that and started making multiple CW contacts.  We already knew that cell phone service was going to be an issue, and it was.  He had set up an alert before hand and RBNHole picked up his CQ's and auto spotted him for SOTA.  He probably had 15 contacts on two bands before we realized I should probably start calling CQ to get my contacts.  I have so much fun watching him and trying to copy the dits and dahs in my head that I wasn't even thinking.

I was still a little uncomfortable with doing CW again, so I tried SSB.  Peter walked around and found a half bar of cell phone service and was able to spot me, so I was able to make two contacts.  After a lot more calling CQ, Peter spotted me again, with a plea that I still needed two contacts.  One person felt sorry for me apparently and came over but I tried and tried for the fourth and nobody was responding.  By this time it was almost 5pm and people were probably done for the day.  I was hearing people so it wasn't the band, but I felt bad interrupting a rag chew.  I even tried to call out on VHF but nobody answered.

So Peter hiked outside the activation zone and came back to me on 146.52 simplex - fourth contact made very late in the day but we followed the rules so it counted.,

Lessons learned:  Don't start out this late on a far away activation, and trade off sooner if you only have one radio.  Also, I think I will not hike with that vertical anymore.

TimeCallsignBandModeNotes
00:34KN6LFB7MHzSSB
00:35WW7D7MHzSSB
01:00K6LDQ7MHzSSB
01:07WB6POT144MHzFMThanks Peter! 

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