W7I/BL-134 Dollar Mountain

Dollar Mountain is a relatively low mountain with a ski area on its north face. I activated the peak after climbing Peak 8324, a short distance down the road. My original plan was to get BL-092, but after hiking up about 200 feet, I realized that I probably couldn't get up and down before sunset, so I turned around. The mountain will be there another day. I parked in the ski lodge parking lot, and set off.

Start of the hike. The summit is just out of view, behind the cell tower.

I started following a dirt road that looked like it might head to the summit. At the top of the shorter lift, the road started heading downhill, but I found a trail that went up. I followed this up to the end of the road near the summit. It was very windy at the base, and the wind only got stronger as I went up. The trail was muddy in places, and I slipped a few times. At the top of the trail, I followed the dirt road up to the summit. Peakbagger and List of John say that the peak without the tower is higher, so I went up to tag it.

Dollar Mountain Peak.

It was windy enough that I really had to lean into the wind. I didn't take any pictures on top, because I was concentrating on not being blown away. After tagging the summit I descended to find a sheltered space behind one of the ski buildings. The ski patrol building had a picnic table, but it was in the wind and my loop wouldn't stay still. Instead I sat on the ground on the lee side of the building. I probably had a better view here, looking down the valley and over to Bald Mountain.

Looking up to the slightly shorter summit with the cell tower.

I got on 30 meters, and figured I'd have a quick time, but as I was operating the sun came out. This warmed me up quite a bit, so I stuck around to operate on other bands. Seventeen and 20 meters were both open to the east coast, and I went down to 40 to get some of the closer chasers. I had another contact and a summit to summit with DL6AP in Colorado despite some bad fading. By this point the sun had gone away, so I packed up and got moving again.

Looking south down the valley I drove up.

I was cold, so to get down quickly I took another trail that went straight down the front of the hill to the first dirt road I had come up. Both of these trails are faintly visible in the satellite imagery of the area. Some people working on top of one of the ski lift towers waved as I went down. I got to my car, and got in, glad to be out of the wind, for the drive home.

Trailhead: Carol's Dollar Mountain Day Lodge parking lot.
Website: SOTA Site.
Maps: AA6XA SOTA Hikes map.
Route: Follow the dirt road up, then take a use trail up to the road near the top, Follow this road to the summit. In the winter, or when the lifts are running, this could be a "drive up" peak.
Red Tape: None.