Red Mountain SOTA Activation

This was peak #2 of 4 peaks for the day and the most difficult as I had to make the final ascent off trail. It was windy on the peak as expected in the desert afternoon but the weather was absolutely beautiful. Cell service worked well (Verizon) so self spotting is easy. I use the SOTA Goat app on my iPhone as most of you may know.

The road to where I ended up parking was your typical desert jeep trail. Nothing too serious and had no problems in my truck. Had I been in my jeep I coule have made it a lot further and only had to hike the off trial portion, but that's not what SOTA is really all about for me. From where I parked I believe it was 1.47 miles as the crow flies. If you do this in the summer I'd say do it at night because you are 100% exposed to the sun and elements. The ground is pretty rocky, no trees of course, but outcroppings were availabel to stuff my push up pole in between to hold it up long enough to make contacts. The wind was blowing and my feed point on my trekking poles kept falling over on my causing some frustrations, but I made it work. I kept activating my VOX due to the wind so I appologize for not getting any summit footage of this cool mountain.