W6/CT-140 Jupiter Mountain

Jupiter Mountain is a short ridge that overlooks the Bouquet Reservoir. The trail leaves from the height of land on Spunky Canyon Road, across the street from Spunky Edison Canyon Road. There are two options to get to the top, straight up the dirt road, or more gently up on the trail. I would recommend the trail.

The (very full) reservoir.

Turn right at the junction, and follow the trail up the side of the mountain to the ridge line. Here turn left and climb up to the peak. The trail is well graded, but there are some steep sections on top of the ridge. At the top there is a bench, a perfect place to set up and operate. I quickly got set up and called CQ on 20 meters. I did not have a data signal, but RBNHole spotted me quickly. I got a small pileup, and worked 16 stations. After I had worked them, and was calling CQ a few more times, KS0S started calling for the SKCC WES on the frequency I had been using, and ignored my calls back to him. What a lid. Makes me glad I'm not a SKCC member. He was also QSD, for a while I thought his call was OS0S. Since I had enough contacts, and it was getting cold in the wind, I packed up and headed down.

I took the short way down, and it was very steep. Probably would have been quicker to go back the way I came. Overall, a very pleasant hike and a nice little summits on the air peak.

Trailhead: Height of land, Spunky Canyon Road, across the street from Spunky Edison Canyon Road.
Website: SOTA Site.
Maps: KB1KXL SOTA Hikes map.
Route: Turn right, and take the trail up to the ridge. Turn left on the ridge and follow the path to the summit. Or, follow the very steep dirt road up to the top.
Red Tape: None.