As Mark-K5LXP and I made it back to the Ft. Tuthill campgrounds, Fred-KT5X & Steve-wG0AT were leaving for another summit. I knew they were talking about activating another summit, but I didn't know it was going to be the same day. I dropped off Mark at his campsite and I followed Steve & Fred on our way to Woody Mountain, SOTA mountain designator AE-037. We turned down one road that to us did not look like a fire service road. Steve and Fred would continue down that road while I kept going down the main road. I went down the road a ways when Fred made contact on 2m to hold up, the road they were on was definitely not a forest road. I drove a little farther until I could get a data signal and looked up Woody Mountain on my phone. By the time I had read about Woody Mountain, Steve and Fred had made their way back to me. We could see a road ½ mile down the road that may be what we were looking for. We knew were close as Fred had spotted the fire tower. Sure enough it was the right road and it was a really nice road to drive on. We were gaining elevation fast as we zig-zagged up the mountain, but we came to a fast stop as there it was a gate that was blocking the road that I had read about and it was padlocked.
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| L-R, Fred-KT5X, Peanut, Steve-wG0AT |
So Steve unloaded the goats and I took off my hiking boots and put on my tennis shoes. It was a nice hike up the rest of the mountain. On the way up there was an opening to the NE allowing us to see the summit we had activated just hours earlier. We were at the summit in no time!
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| Elden Mountain to the NE from Woody Mountain. |
The summit had a nice fire tower and we were the only ones there. Fred climbed up a couple of levels of the fire tower and set up his 2lb 20M CW station. I called CQ on 2M and made my 4 contacts on 2M simplex with guys at the Ft. Tuthill campground.
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| Fred-KT5X on the 2nd level all set-up, Rooster looking on. |
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| Woody Mtn. Look Out sign |
Steve climbed up to Fred and they took turns at the key making contacts across the U.S. and one into Mexico City on 20M CW. The 2lb station was getting out! Steve had climbed up to the top of the tower and took several pictures from a higher point. He could see a storm coming from the south and since we all had more than enough contacts we thought it best to get back to our vehicles. Fred’s station was dissembled in no time and down the mountain we went. On the way down Fred & I talked about mountain top antennas and hiking in general, many tips were picked up. Another SOTA summit bagged!
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| L-R, Fred-KT5X, Steve-wG0AT |
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| L-R, Fred-KT5X, Steve-wG0AT |
Woody Mountain W7/AE-037, 8045ft, July 29th, 2011, 8 points
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| Woody Mountain Lookout plaque |
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| Woody Mountain U.S.G.S Bench Mark |
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73 de Jon N7AZ
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