I had an evening to slip away from Charlotte to return and complete the second SOTA peak in Crowders Mountain State Park. Luna and I parked at the Linwood Road Access area and started up the Backside Trail, which is blazed with orange hexagons. The trail was still busy for a Tuesday evening, and we saw at least two dozen other hikers along the hike.
This one is a steep but short climb, about 0.8 miles to get to the rocky scrambles at the top. The last bit of the ascent takes you up a wooden staircase.
I found a side trail that I could string my EFHW along and hunkered down with Luna for some operating. There was a strong breeze keeping things cool. I had good luck on 40m and 20m, working 28 QSOs in quick succession. The new UTC day was approaching quickly, so I decided to pack up HF after only 20 minutes, and called on 2m. I got W4MW again on FM from his QTH in Boone (I worked him on my activation of W4C/WP-010 The Pinnacle a couple days ago), but had trouble hearing anybody else as I was still close to the tower. I walked a bit further from the tower and was able to hear KO4AXL, who was mobile. That was it for 2m FM. I’m going to have to get one of those 2m BPF filters that N6ARA is about to release!
- Trailhead: 35.24099, -81.26946 : Crowders Mountain State Park – Linwood Road Access
- Maps: [Crowders Mountain State Park Map]
- Route: 1.8 mi RT hike along Backside Trail
- POTA: US-2726, Crowders Mountain State Park
Tom Zajdel 