W6/CT-170 Kagel Mountain

 On my way back to the airport I stopped for some SOTA fun. This time Kagel Mountain was the destination. This peak is used as a take off spot for hang gliding and such. There is a road to the summit, but it is gated. The easiest trailhead seems to be at Dillon Divide on Little Tujunga Canyon Road. Across from the gate there was enough space for a few cars to park. The road to the summit was gated.

Gate at the start.

It was pretty warm out, but there was a nice breeze blowing. Luckily, the hike is not very hard. The road is well graded, if exposed. The first part loses a bit of elevation before a steady climb up to the ridge. 

Looking over at Fernando 2 Benchmark.

Up on the ridge I got some great views of the LA area. The ridge is fairly flat, and the activation zone is fairly long. However, it is worth going to the high point. 

Summit of Kagel Mountain.

On the summit there are picnic tables, perfect for operating from. I sat at the wooden one, thinking it might not be as hot after sitting in the sun. There were some bushes conveniently placed to hold up the pole. Since it was Field Day, I only did 17m and 30m. I got a handful of contacts on HF, then decided to see how VHF was.

Paraglider launch point.

This was a good decision. There were a lot of people on 2m and 70cm, and I filled up the log. It was actually easier on 70cm, since the frequency wasn't as jammed with people. After handing out some points, I packed up and headed back down. As I descended, two cars full of people drove up, to take off I assume. Back at the car I opened everything up to try and cool it down before driving to the airport.

Trailhead: Dillon Divide, Little Tujunga Canyon Road
Website: SOTA Site.
Maps: AA6XA SOTA Hikes map.
Route: Walk up the access road to the summit. Enjoy the picnic table for some comfortable operating
Red Tape: None.
Video: ham_bitious YouTube

W6/CT-086 Strawberry Peak

 After activating the nearby Peak 4140 I drove up the rest of the hill to get Strawberry Peak. This peak has a paved road to the top with an active fire lookout. The gates were open when I arrived, and I was able to drive to the summit. There is a small parking area on top. 

View from the fire lookout.

There were two volunteers in the fire lookout, and it was open to the public. I walked up and talked to the volunteers for a bit. If there weren't so many cell towers at the same height it would've been a great view. The tower was extremely similar to the one on Los Pinos Mountain down near San Diego. There was a picnic table at the base with space to put up an antenna, so I took advantage of it.

Set up on HF.

I did all three HF bands, and got more contacts than earlier on 4140. There was good cell service. I then went back up to the balcony of the tower to do 2m. I was glad to have the SOTABeams BPF so I wasn't deaf. It turns out one of the volunteers was a ham as well, so we chatted a bit about SOTA. 

Base of the tower, parking lot behind.

I could've stayed and chatted and enjoyed the view, but I still had a long drive to the desert, so reluctantly I packed up and drove down to the joshua trees. 

Trailhead: End of Strawberry Lookout Road.
Website: SOTA Site.
Maps: AA6XA SOTA Hikes map.
Route: Drive to the the summit.
Red Tape: None. I did VHF from the balcony of the tower. 
Video: ham_bitious YouTube

W6/SD-459

 This peak is a short distance from the Rim of the World highway, in an area the appears frequented by OHV users. The rental car company had given me a Mustang, so I parked in the large dirt pullout on the downhill side of the road at 2N40. There was space for a few cars here, but I didn't see anyone else while I was out.

Start of the road.

The gate was open, so with a more appropriate car I could've driven quite close to the summit. It was sunny and clear, and getting warmer, and the road did not provide much shade. There is only one road, so navigation was easy. The road goes around a sub-peak to a col, then climbs up to the final col. Here there is a four-way intersection.

Good views, but it was a bit hazy.

At the intersection south of the summit, make a hard right. This path was gated, with extra posts to prevent people from driving around the gate. No problems for a pedestrian though. This path climbs the last few feet up to the unimpressive summit. There is a low building and a few small towers on top. The views were very limited with all the brush. I setup on the side of the road. There was good cell service.

More views of San Bernardino.

The bands didn't seem to be in good condition. I only made five contacts on HF and three on VHF. Enough for an activation, but I was expecting more, especially on VHF. Once I got tired of not making contacts, I packed up and hiked back to the car. It was still there, so I headed up the hill to Strawberry Peak.

Trailhead: Forest road 2N40. This is on the downhill side of CA 18, Rim of the World Highway.
Website: SOTA Site.
Maps: AA6XA SOTA Hikes map.
Route: Follow the road to the intersection in the col south of the summit. Go around the gate and up to the summit.
Red Tape: None.  
Video: ham_bitious YouTube

F/AB-258 Le Brevent

 We were in France for vacation, and after spending some time in Paris we took the train down to Chamonix-Mont-Blanc. This small town, nestled in the Alps, was our base for a few more days. On a beautiful morning, we left our AirBnB to find some croissants. After fueling up, we walked up the hill to the Pranplaz gondola. A few Euros later, and we were on our way up.

Mont Blanc from Pranplaz.

Neither of us were upset we'd miss out on ~1000m of uphill. It was a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky, and no wind. We couldn't have asked for a better one. We started up the hill, following signs for Le Brevent. At the first junction, we decided to go up via the Col de Brevent and come down the ski road. As it turned out, this was the right decision.

Aiguilles Rouge range

The trail up to the col was well trod. We had no trouble following it, and every time we turned around there were incredible views across the valley of the Mont Blanc area. There were other people out having fun, but few enough that it felt remote. Eventually we made it up to the Col du Brevent, marked by a large cairn and sign.

Col du Brevent marker.

On the other side of the col, the trail went up a snow field and around the side of the hill. This was our first taste of what was coming. There were a few snow fields to cross, though none of them seemed very dangerous. We saw some other groups taking more adventurous routes through the snow and rocks, but we stuck to the marked trail. 

One of the steeper snow fields.

After we got across the snow, we had our second surprise of the hike. There was a steep bit with some ladders attached to the rocks. Having grown up hiking the the White Mountains of New Hampshire, I thought all of this was great fun, but Naina was not as enthused about the scrambling. 

Looking down the ladders.

Once we were up the ladders, there was a little more single track before reaching the ski road. The road had a lot of snow on it still, but it was pretty easy to go up. The summit has a hut shelter that was locked, some railings, and a disk showing what everything you could see was. We had lunch in the shade of the hut. 

Mont Blanc beer at Mont Blanc

At the top of the cable car there's a small restaurant where we got a beer. It had a picture of Mont Blanc on the label, so we figured we were set for an expedition to that summit. Since there is an easy way to get to the summit, it was fairly busy. We walked down to near the tram anchor to set up. It was out of the way, had a good view, and was still in the activation zone. We had cell service with our Orange sim card, so spotting was easy. I did 20m and 40m, with about twice as many people on 40m. 

Looking back at the summit on the way down. 

Once we were done operating, we packed up and headed down. We decided to take the ski trail down, which is a dirt road. There were some snow fields on the north facing slopes, but the road was mostly dry. It was the right way to do the loop, up the steep ladders and down the easy road. Back at Pranplaz, we took a few more pictures before getting in the gondola to head back to town.

Trailhead: Top of the Pranplaz gondola.
Website: SOTA Site. Official Site about Pranplaz and Le Brevent
Maps: AA6XA SOTA Hikes map.
Route: From the gondola, follow signs for "Col du Brevent". At the col, turn left and follow signs for "Le Brevent". Alternatively, take the road up to the summit. Also could take the cable car all the way to the summit if you don't want to hike.
Red Tape: None. 
Video: ham_bitious YouTube