W6/NC-524 Mulligan Hill

This low hill north of Concord is one of the foothills of Mt Diablo. There is a lot of private ranch land in the area, and access in not the easiest. I parked on Bluerock Circle, which is in a housing development across the road from the Concord Pavillion. There is a ranch road that leads away from the houses to a stream valley. I crossed a fence on the side of a hill, then descended to the road. The road winds its way up to the head of the valley.

Low on the mountain. Mt Diablo out of the frame to the left.

The road is hard to see in the aerial imagery, so I didn't realize it went where I wanted to go, so on the way up I ended up going cross country for a while. This was made difficult by the slick grass covering the slopes. At the head of the valley there is a fence that runs across the road. I followed the new road steeply up to the left, walking along the fence. At the top there is a chain link fence, but a gate is bent and I was able to crawl under it to continue. Inside this last enclosure there were a lot of cows, but they were all skiddish, and ran away from me as I approached.

Final ranch road to the summit.

The road bypasses the summit, but it is an easy hike up to the very top. It took me about an hour to hike up, and about 45 minutes to get back. The clouds were still low when I got to the top, but lifted by the time I left, affording me some views. On top I set up my pole and antenna, and got on 30 meters. There were a lot of chasers, and I filled the log with only one spot. By the time I had finished with the pileup on 30, I was getting cold in the wind and fog, so I packed up and headed down.

The summit.

It had rained the night before, so the roads were not slippery and sandy like they usually are, and footing was better than I expected. This was nice, because it is very steep going down along the fence. Once back in my car I headed over to Black Diamond Mines to get Kreiger Peak.

Trailhead: Bluerock Circle, Concord.
Website: SOTA Site.
Maps: AA6XA SOTA Hikes map.
Route: Follow the ranch road up the valley. At the fence, go to the left, up the very steep hill. Cross the gate, then under the fence, and follow the ranch road up to near the summit. Cross country to the high point.
Red Tape: Watch out for private land.

This pigeon seemed out of place.