2. Ham Radio

Sagehen Hills (W6/NS-193) SOTA Activation 8/9/2012

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Here is a closer shot of Castle Peak. It starts to look like a castle from this angle, but the best angle is when viewing it from I-80 eastbound on the way up to Donner Summit.
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Here is a closer shot of Castle Peak. It starts to look like a castle from this angle, but the best angle is when viewing it from I-80 eastbound on the way up to Donner Summit.

  • The Sagehen Hills really should be called the Snowbrush Hills. That blasted plant has taken over all of the lower elevation slopes. What were once wide roads are now just narrow trails that tunnel through the brush. My ATV is only 48" wide but it was a tight fit in some of the areas that are actually worse than what is shown here. If you care at all about your vehicle's paint, don't take this OHV route up into the hills. Don't worry, there is a longer but much easier vehicle route available that doesn't pit you against the brush. See my <a href="http://www.grizzlyguy.com/HamRadio/SOTA-CarpenterRidge-NS123-2013">Carpenter Ridge (W6/NS-123) SOTA Activation 7/23/2013</a> album and my <a href="http://www.grizzlyguy.com/HamRadio/SOTA-SagehenHills-W6NS193-2013">Sagehen Hills (W6/NS-193) SOTA Activation 8/13/2013</a> album for more information on the easier route.
  • As you climb to above 7,400 feet, the tangles of snowbrush get replaced by a much more manageable brush: dwarf manzanita. There are no formal trails to the Sagehen Hills summit, so I parked here at a log landing and started making my way up through the manzanita and logging slash towards the top of the ridge.
  • Pack on and ready to hit the non-trail.
  • The slope is gradual, and without snowbrush tangles it is an easy cross-country hike.
  • After thinking I found the summit three different times, I finally found this collection of boulders out in the middle of the brush that is clearly higher than everything else on the ridge. It's not a lot higher (maybe 10 feet) but definitely higher, so... tis the summit. Per my GPS it's only about 50-ish feet from where the coordinates in the SOTA database say it is. See the dead tree behind me? That's why I have my pack off. I was planning to grab my Zing-It line and get rock-in-bag hurtling for it's branches until...
  • ... I saw it. That odd looking dead tree that is only about 80 yards or so further down the ridge. I was drawn to it for inexplicable reasons. I headed back down through the brush to the open ground below (left of this shot) turned right, hiked 80 yards or so, turned right again, and...
  • ...was shocked when I saw the tree from this angle. It's The Devil's Trident! Chills suddenly shuddered through my body on this warm afternoon. Should I stay or should I go? I decided I had to see it up close. Up through the brush and boulders I went.
  • The burn scars clearly show that the Devil's Trident tree met it's fate when a powerful bolt from the heavens above crashed down upon it.
  • There were bits of charred wood scattered all around it including this odd, demonic-looking piece.
  • More important to me as an activator was that the tree sat in a rocky dip in the ridge that was entirely free of brush on one side. Erecting an antenna is so much easier when everything around you isn't reaching up to grab the wires and lines. The tree had plenty of limbs that would work great as a main support for the antenna, and the top of the rock formation would be a nifty place to anchor one end.
  • Faster than you can say "the devil made me do it", I grabbed a rock off the ground and had the Zing-It line and ditty bag ready to roll.
  • One quick rock-in-bag toss later, I had the Zing-It line hanging down (both ends) from exactly where I wanted it to hang from: the limb just below the bottom of the trident.
  • In less time then it took for the devil to go halfway down to Georgia, I followed up by pulling my 20/40m linked dipole up and into position.
  • A closer shot of my coax running upward towards the heavens (OK, it was really running up to the center insulator but that doesn't sound nearly as dramatic).
  • Anchoring one end of the antenna to the rock formation (that looked like it could have come straight out of Hell) was easy and did the trick.
  • I had nothing but soulless brush on the other end of the antenna, so I waded in and anchored that end to one of my hiking poles.
  • Antenna up, HB-1B rig plugged in. With a devil-may-care attitude it was time for me to fire things up. The chasers kept rolling in so fast that it almost felt like I was running with the devil.
  • My view while operating, facing southwest this time. The little bump on the skyline right of center (just left of the live fir tree) is Castle Peak (W6/SN-038).
  • Here is a closer shot of Castle Peak. It starts to look like a castle from this angle, but the best angle is when viewing it from I-80 eastbound on the way up to Donner Summit.
  • A bit further to the left (south-southwest), Donner Ridge (W6/NS-181) is is the ridge in the foreground in the center of the shot.
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