Fellow SoCal SOTA friends - I’ve picked a date for a camping/activating weekend in about a month. My plan at this time, weather permitting, is to head up to the Holcomb Valley area of Big Bear the last weekend of October (Oct 26-28th). I plan to head up Friday (possibly morning) to take up residence in one of the many dispersed/unimproved campsites in the area.
The area has a number of SOTA summits, some requiring some short to moderate hiking, and one that’s a drive-up. 2WD vehicles will get you just about everywhere you need to go. A vehicle with a little extra clearance (small SUV/subaru) will make it even easier. The area is known for some quality off-road trails, but I don’t plan to use any of them except possibly as hiking paths.
Please come out and join us for this low-key event. We can do a pot-luck on Saturday night, sharing activation stories at camp, and can activate local summits on Saturday and Sunday.
It gets chilly up at that elevation in late October, so come prepared. If the weather turns too far South (or would that be “North”?), I will update the destination to a nearby desert location at lower elevation, probably out near Barstow or possibly Joshua Tree.
Please reply if you’re interested. I’m hoping to round you all up another similar event ~ Spring of 2019.
Here’s a map with local summits and the planned camp location. Chris (N1CLC) and I plan to head up Friday afternoon from San Diego.
Oleh, what time do you plan to come up on Saturday?
Chris and I may activate a summit Friday evening if we arrive early enough (Arctic Point, perhaps?).
Saturday will involve activations of summits around the Holcomb Valley area.
Sunday, we plan to meet up with K6TW for a couple of summits - perhaps Butler and Keller, Onyx and a CT-045, or Sugarloaf and CT-041. I’ll have a more definitive plan before the weekend.
Guess we’ll either see ya out there or hopefully catch you on the air.
I am off Friday and Saturday. I might be able to make it out Friday night. I am waiting to hear back from SBSAR about some catch-up mentor training. I kinda hope they just let me get caught up during the next training session so I can come out and camp.
