My original plan for an activation was to go to the high peaks in San Gabriel National Forest, but the main highway is still closed due to the snow. So instead I picked a lower peak on the desert side of the range. I had never done a six-point peak, so Liebre Mountain was it. I drove up from the Burbank airport, and hoped that the clouds and rain would stop and lift by the time I got to the trailhead. The parking area was under the clouds, but I quickly climbed into them.
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| Looking down at the road and parking area. |
I took the PCT up to the ridge, passing two NOBO thru hikers, then turned right and walked along the fire road until I was in the activation zone. It was cold and cloudy and windy, so I stopped and setup as soon as I was sure I was in the AZ. I had forgotten the stabilizer feet for my W4OP Loop, so I had a lot of trouble keeping it from falling onto me when the wind gusted. This also made it hard to tune. Overall, a very unpleasant situation. I barely scraped up 4 contacts, one on 40, two on 20, and one on 17 meters. As soon as I got the last one I packed up and headed down.
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| Views on the way down. |
As soon as I got off the ridge the wind slackened and I soon got below the clouds. There were some decent views of the Mojave desert to the north. Overall it took me about 1.5 hours to get to the top, a brisk pace.
Trailhead: Height of land on Pine Canyon Road. PCT crosses the top of the parking area.
Website: SOTA Site
Maps: Halfmile's maps are popular with PCT hikers (Section E). I used a USFS map from
Caltopo.
KB1KXL SOTA Hikes map
Route: Take the PCT up the hill (SOBO). At the top, go around the fence and follow the road into the activation zone.
Red Tape: None.
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| Cold and happy. |
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