Mt. Baden Powell W6/CT-004

Can't say enough about this hike, it's absolutely unbelievable! A must do if you are into SOTA and are in the So Cal area.

The video will show various portions of the trail and near the end you will see the contact log, various maps, and an audio file that was sent to me by KK6QMS - Clifford (Thanks Clifford).

If you want to hike this trail just know that the trail from Vincent Gap is on the north face of the mountain so plenty of shade and the trail had iced up in various parts. The parking lot is pretty good size with bathrooms. The last 1/2 mile is the toughest, but worth it when you get there. The profile on one of the map files is only the trip up. My drawing isn't dead on so it shows 3.17 miles versus the 3.9 mile hike. I did not show the downhill profile as I didn't feel it was necessary. For what it's worth, the gate was still closed on Highway 2 so coming from the I-15 to Highway 138 to Highway 2 from the east this was the end of the road. I did see a vehicle on the opposite side of the gate on my way down so I am assuming the road was open from the other side.

Weather for the day was clear skies, allegedly a high of 50F and was very windy coming up the trail in the morning. By the time I headed down the wind had subsided. Plenty of room on the summit to find shelter from the elements.

I had quite the pile up on 146.520 FM and could not video all the contacts. You'll find the log at the end and you will notice that some operators made contact with me on multiple bands just for fun. I had forgotten that my Yaesu FT-817ND defaults to 2.5 watts so for almost the entire day, until the last two contacts, I was only running 2.5 watts. Probably could have run less than that for sure as the signal reports were anything from "blowing smoke" to "slamming the needle" down in the valley. What a great day playing radio with an excellent hike.