W6/NC-378 Mt Wittenberg

I had a full day of radio planned, three summits and a visit to KPH. The first stop of the day was Mt Wittenberg, the high point of the area. I started from the Sky Trailhead, near the top of Limantour Road. I chose this trailhead because it was the highest of the obvious routes to the summit.

Parking lot.

There is a reasonably sized dirt lot, and it appears that it is ok to park on the side of the road too. The Sky Trail is a dirt road, and appears to be driven every once in a while. I made good time up the hill, and it seemed like I had the place to myself. At the second junction I turned onto the Horse Trail, which contoured across the hill for half a mile.

Lots of fog.

Here I turned right onto the Z Ranch Trail, which climbed a bit more and traversed to the other side of the summit. At the other end is a big intersection in a field. Make a U-turn and head up the quarter mile spur to the summit. There are no views on top. It took me 45 minutes to get to the summit.

My antenna running across the summit.

I sat on one side of the summit clearing, and ran my antenna across it. If I was more ambitious, I could have gotten it higher using a tree branch. After hooking up my radio, I sent out a spot and started calling on 30 meters. I quickly started filling the log. After I got everyone on 30, I went up to 20, and got a similar number of calls.

Stopping for a selfie on the way up.

I finished up on 60, getting some of the locals. The cell service on top was generally ok, but there were some points where I lost it, or it could only do 3G. It was getting cool, and I had so much more to do, so I packed up and retraced my steps back to the car. As I was coming down the summit spur trail, two runners passed me going up. I said hi and stepped to the side to let them by. A short while later, while I was heading down the Z Ranch Trail, I saw the two runners coming towards me again. The seemed a bit lost, and after talking for a moment they decided they were heading the wrong way, and turned around. I was wondering if I'd see them again. Back at the car I drove down and over to Point Reyes Hill.



The trails were very well marked.

Trailhead: Sky Trailhead, Limantour Road.
Website: SOTA Site.
Maps: AA6XA SOTA Hikes map.
Route: Take the Sky Trail to the Horse Trail. Turn right onto the Z Ranch Trail, then follow the spur up to the summit.
Red Tape: None.