After making some coffee, Kel and I left our accommodations in Iron Horse and headed out to Saguaro National Park West to hike Safford Peak. This is also qualifies for POTA US-0060. We started at a popular trailhead at the end of North Scenic Drive, slathered on some sunscreen and got on our way. The trail is well defined and starts gaining elevation quickly, weaving through the beautiful landscape of the Sonoran Desert. The trail eventually becomes a class 2 scramble to reach the summit. At the top is a register and plenty of options to plant a mast. Using a KH1 transceiver with the internal whip on 17M resulted in plenty of QSOs. I added a loading coil and picked up a few more on 40M. Tried 2M FM but didn’t have any takers. The hike down was the reverse of the accent, however, looking at a map post hike shows there could be an opportunity for a small loop through Sanctuary Cove? Overall, beautiful area, nice hike, great day to be out in the mountains. I’d do this one again.

https://sotl.as/summits/W7A/PE-088

Kel and I were driving out to Tucson on interstate 10 for the gem show. Guadalupe Mountain is East of Quartzsite with easy access from the freeway. It’s also a good spot to stop and walk around after being in a car for a few hours. Get off at Gold Nugget Rd, then follow it East until you get to the communications site access road, which goes to the summit. We drove a Subaru about half way up before it got too rutted out to continue. From there, it’s a steep hike up. The last bit it of road is paved which makes it easier. At the top are several communication shelters. I found a rock off to the side to operate from, and gave 2M FM a shot, with two QSOs into Quartzsite. Worked 17M with one S2S. Got a text from another SOTA op needing a complete, so I moved to 40M using the whip and coil on the KH1. That worked pretty well! There are a lot of unactivated summits around Quartzsite, and maybe it’s worth a dedicated trip out there to bag several of them.

https://sotl.as/summits/W7A/PZ-060

2026 SoCal Winter SOTA Fest schedule –
1st – https://blog.benmook.com/w6-sd-080-4633/
2nd – https://blog.benmook.com/w6-sd-013-east-ord-mountain/
3rd – (This one) https://blog.benmook.com/w6-sd-010-ord-mountain/

This was my third summit for SoCal Winter SOTA Fest 2026. I woke up in the morning, headed down to the hotel restaurant, and ordered breakfast with coffee. My knees were feeling “okay” but I was worried about doing more summits after East Ord destroyed them. I figured I could try an “easy” summit today so I headed out to Stoddard Mountain, W6/SD-060. Once I got close to the bottom of Stoddard, I parked the truck, slathered on some sunscreen and started a slow ascent. My knees were hurting. About 1/4 mile up, I wanted to make sure I could actually get down without stabbing knife pains, so I walked back a bit, and my knees were screaming. There was no way I could get up and down any summit today, so I continued back to the truck with the plan of heading home to Los Angeles early.

Over 2M, I heard two local hams at the Slash X Cafe talking about how they were heading up to Ord Mountain. I interjected, introduced myself, and asked if I could joint them, and they agreed! I headed over to the Slash X to meet up with them, and after a quick chat we were on our way. (I’m leaving out all of details on who/ how we got up there) Once at the top I used a 2M HT and called CQ, which was quickly answered by others activating in the area. Two S2S. From there, I went on 2M CW with a yaesu 817 and got two more QSOs. I didn’t want my hosts to stand around waiting for me to work HF bands, so I signed QRT and packed up.

https://sotl.as/summits/W6/SD-010

2026 SoCal Winter SOTA Fest schedule –
1st – https://blog.benmook.com/w6-sd-080-4633/
2nd – (This one) https://blog.benmook.com/w6-sd-013-east-ord-mountain/
3rd – https://blog.benmook.com/w6-sd-010-ord-mountain/

This was my second hike of the day, and second hike for the SoCal Winter SOTA fest. On the drive out to East Ord, I wasn’t paying attention to my map so I ended up in the wrong place, which is listed on a map as Grand View Mine. This would be a nice place to camp, as KB9ENS mentioned in his trip report. I wanted to start my hike from the north so I back tracked and found my way to Guzzler, as it’s listed on the map. There is no trail, and the hike starts off pretty steep. There are rock formations which make route finding tricky; I needed to backtrack several times to find a safer route. Did I mention it is steep? My definition of steep is 1000 feet of gain in 1 mile. This was something like 1800 feet of gain in a bit over a mile. It took much longer than I thought to reach the summit. At the top there was a register going back to 1988. I signed it and setup the Yaesu 817 for 2M. Made some local S2S over CW, and a few more on FM. There was a bit more time before 00:00 zulu, so I quickly setup HF, 20M and worked that as fast I could.

Since I started later than I liked, and it took me longer to reach the summit than anticipated, I was worried about losing daylight. I packed up everything and started heading down. The steep terrain and impact was hurting my knees, but I needed to beat the sun so I pushed through. About half way down, my knees really started hurting; stabbing knife pain. My stride shortened and I took breaks. The sun disappeared behind the mountains as the temperature dropped quickly. Soon, it was pitch black and the flashlight was in the truck. I still needed to navigate a dry waterfall and a wash, which was done by phone light. Luckily I was only in the dark for about 20 minutes. Had I not accidentally gone to Grand View, my timing would have been perfect.

Kel and I woke up later than expected at our camp down on the dry lake bed. We quickly jumped in the truck and navigated several dirt roads to 4097. I used tracks from Bob Burd as a starting point, although, looking at the topo maps, coming from the south might have been a bit easier but longer. The way we took was mostly class 2, with a few class 3 sketchy parts.

We started north of the watershed, but if you do this, you need to be on the south side. Kel found a snail shell here (see photo below). I assumed this was an ancient fossil from the various dry lakes in the area, but it turns out there are a few species that live out there, specifically in drainage basins/ watersheds on the sides of mountains – just like the area we hiked through. I’m assuming the example she found is a Victorville shoulderband, not the endangered Mojave shoulderband. Pretty neat!

Near the top I started walking towards what I thought was the high point; This ended up being Spear which is 5M below the actual summit of 4097. At the top of the real summit, Kel and I found and signed the register. Not too many people come up here. The wind was cool and breezy. I tried to get some friends on 2M back at camp, but instead got a station from Phelan which was unexpected. I stretched out a 40M EFHW and started working CW, then switched to 20M. No S2S on this one.

I started this hike with low batteries on my GPS watch, so unfortunately I don’t have a track of the whole trip. The way down was basically the same as the way up, except we didn’t hike back down through the watershed. I’d probably go up this way if I visit again; it’s a bit sketcher but shorter.

Lead mountain is a bit east of Barstow, CA. I first became aware of this mine form the Mineralogical society of Southern California when they hosted a field trip to the area. I didn’t make the trip, but I’ve been curious about visiting since. Additionally, I worked two SOTA stations from the summit above the mines for So.Cal Winter Field Day, so activating this would make it a complete. Getting there was pretty easy. I found a few interesting rocks while hiking up which appeared to host interesting minerals, but honestly I didn’t know what I was looking for. At the top I setup a 40M EFHW antenna and connected it to my MTR3bv2 and worked several stations on 40M and 20M. No DX or S2S unfortunately. Overall, this is an easy one to activate but it’s a bit far off road. I wouldn’t drive a sedan there. The total hike was less than a mile and 400′ of elevation gain.

Kel and I spent the weekend in Morro Bay for her birthday where we enjoyed visiting various restaurants and bars, their downtown farmers market, a few beaches, and some fancy coffee spots. We made several return trips to the Grassy Bar Oyster Company, which raise and sell oysters right from Morro Bay. It’s a low brow kinda place and you can BYOB. I like it. There are a few SOTA summits in the area, we did two; First Valencia Peak, then Black Hill the following day, which is very easy and shouldn’t be missed if you’re in the area.

From Morro Bay, we drove north up to Los Osos, found our way to Pecho Valley Road, and eventually the trailhead for Valencia; a nice drive mostly along the coast. It was somewhat early in the morning so heavy fog was in the area. The trailhead was well marked, and the trail was very easy to follow. The hike is a bit over 2 miles one way with 1,200′ of elevation gain. At the top is picnic table with good views to the east. The west was covered in fog still.

There were several people on the summit enjoying their time, so I didn’t stretch out a long antenna, but instead used the KH1 with internal whip. Conditions felt poor but I managed to get 6 QSOs on 20M, one S2S out in W0C. We were above the fog layer and it was starting to get hot, so after activating, we headed back down to the car and headed to Los Osos for coffee and breakfast.

https://sotl.as/summits/W6/SC-353

I woke up early in the morning at Tinemaha Creek campground, made some hot water, dumped in a tablespoon of instant coffee, gave it a stir, and drove the truck straight to Red Mountain. The air was cold and brisk with a slight breeze. It took longer to get to Red Mountain than I anticipated. There are several dirt roads which one could take but many were washed out or simply dead ended. I’m assuming there is a “main” road to bypass my adventure but I didn’t find it. Eventually I landed on a spot that looked like a promising location to start.

After slathering on sunscreen and chugging the remainder of my coffee, I started hiking up. Red Mountain is really a cinder cone and part of the Big Pines Volcanic Field. I’ve read it sits right above an active fault line. Loose, red basalt makes up most of the ground. There is no trail and vegetation is thick in some places, but easy to navigate around. At the top, the wind was really blowing. Luckily I was able to find shelter in a small hole at the top, perhaps left from a prospector? Worked 20 CW and hiked down. While hiking around the rim of the cone I noticed a group of mule deer chillin’ in the center. Overall, fun hike if you’re in the area.

https://sotl.as/summits/W6/IN-049

If you have ever driven up to Mammoth Lakes from Los Angeles, you probably drove right past Red Hill. The hill is an ancient volcano, which is covered in small marble sized volcanic rock called cinders. The surrounding area features fields of basalt, with Fossil Falls just to the south of the summit. I parked my truck on the side of Red Hill, in an area where it appeared to be mined for it’s cinder. From there I started up. You can make out a use trail most of the way. The small, loose cinders made the trek up slow, as it felt like walking on a beach, except worse. Take a step, slide back a bit. Once at the top I used the KH1 with the whip. Worked 6 stations across two bands – two S2S. While packing up I found the summit register hidden in some rocks. I signed it and started heading down. Loose rocks make the decent quick, and I was back on the highway heading north quickly.

https://sotl.as//W6/ND-283

This wasn’t a planned summit for me. While driving north on US 395 to camp and hike other various summits, I noticed some hills in the distance. I pulled over and checked the SOTA maps and found I was looking at W6/SD-463 and W6/ND-270. They didn’t seem to be too far off the highway and the day was still early and cool. I made the detour and headed down Shadow Mountain Road – A slow dirt washboard road. Navigation was easy, and W6/ND-270 seemed the easiest of the two summits, so I headed to the base of the mountain. There are two hills – One I believe is an FAA radar site, and the other is the Shadow Mountains. I parked at a clearing at the bottom and hiked up. At the top was an empty radio shelter with some pretty decent artwork. I heard some radio chatter on 2M simplex and made a QSO there before setting up on 20M CW. There was little breeze and the sun was intense. After working chasers I packed up and headed back to the truck, then continued my way north on US 395.

https://sotl.as/summits/W6/ND-270