I’m a bit overdue writing up this trip, but it’s probably still better late than never! In late-December I took a trip to Bedford, PA for SOTA. The idea was to pass Bedford on I-76, then take I-70 south and do most of the summits along the way, stopping in Bedford, then working my way back home to Pittsburgh the following day.

The first stop was Bark Benchmark, a drive-up in SGL 65. At first, Google maps navigated me south along Boorman Rd, but this road is in poor condition, and there was a PA Game Commission sign that said the road was closed (no gate) with 1.5 mi more to go, so I turned around.

The way to approach is from the south, along Bark Rd. There is an exit to access the road from I-70 S, and you’ll pass a shut-down Days Inn hotel and a large parking lot. There was a thick fog looming over everything. Bark Rd is well-maintained through SGL 65, so I had no trouble getting up to the activation zone.

There was plenty of space to set up with a parking area right by the summit point. This was my first encounter with freezing fog. A few mm of ice crystals had formed around my antenna wire when I was finished due to the fog!

Since this was the first of 3 summits for the day, I just operated for about 30 minutes, but managed to get a couple of S2S on 40m:
KC1MXB on W1/HA-021, inching ever closer to his mountain goat on 100% uniques!
KR4CEL on W8V/PH-098, Snyder Knob in WV

I also logged some FB DX on 15m CW: F4WBN, M1GEO, IK4IDF, SM5LNE, HB9BQB, IU1KGS.

The next stop was W3/SV-066 Town Hill, which had only been activated one time by Dave K2CZH in Feb 2025, one of the more prolific W3 activators.

• Trailhead: 39.90505, -78.21074 : SGL 65 parking area just south of the high point
• Map:  [AA3TZ SOTA]
• Route: Drive-on along Bark Rd from I-70S
• POTA: US-8764 PA 065 State Game Land