Longwire mnt. 2012-07-15 CN96jv50
Quickly, after Old Scab I activate this plateau as well. So far the most-most easiest "hike", or more like a walk in a park. Driving only a mile further up from Old Scab trailhead I reach the top of the mountain. Here is a big open space. Park the car in the shade and start to collect this giveaway six point.
Start elev.: 6348 ft (1935 m)
Max elev.: 6447 ft (1965 m)
Total ascent: 119 ft (36 m)
Trip odometer: 0.8 mi (1.287 km) Up: 0.4 mi (0.644 km) Down: 0.4 mi (0.644 km)
Total time: 1h34m Up: 11m Down: 8m
Two trails start from here. One, which I will use, will merge into the trail I have used to access Old Scab. So one can start the activation from this trailhead and on the way back activate Longwire after Scab. I only noticed this at home when examined maps further. The other goes south, down into the valley. Using this, one can access Nelson Butte too. One of the registration place is fallen apart completely, so I am using the other one to fill out the papers.
This is a true giveaway six pointer. You just have to look at the stats. The trail follows an old road with very little ascent. This huge snow pile adds small variation to the easy walk.
I am tired a little. The temperature starts to drop, there is no view because of trees. Most likely I am already in the activation zone, but will carry on walking until I find the highpoint. At this point the terrain is almost totally flat.
Meantime I also have a glance at the GPS to figure out how far is the summit marker. Then I reach a mound with some rocks put together at its top. From here it looks like the elevation will drop so I determine this as the high point. The GPS marker is another 160 feet further. Here I start on 20 meter. I have to fix the pole to a tree. SOTA chasers find me at this summit.
Getting the first Qs from the big ones. Maybe I should have waited for another 10 minutes, because the activation slipped over the UTC dateline. Now in the SOTA DB it looks I activated this peak twice. After 10 contacts I change the band to 2 meter. Nobody heard me on SSB, so start calling on FM. Made a contact from DN06. Strong signal. Then I pack up and walk back to the car.
This is truly a giveaway summit, which you definitely should combine with Old Scab. Maybe one can set up here on a VHF contest. The summit is huge and flat, enough space for a good VHF array. Trees may block a little, but nothing serious, I guess. You wanna come here with a high clearance car, but you might make it with a normal one too. Two summits in a day, completed.
HG1DUL 2013-01-27