Saturday, the day before the Winter Solstice looked like it had a decent weather window for at least part of the day so I took the opportunity to activate East Cairn hill GM/SS-282.
I had read the previous reports that this hill could be wet and it didn’t disappoint !
I’ve been after a complete for this summit since last year and the fact it is very close to home made it a good candidate for a short day.
Heading in from the little Vantage car park on the A70, the path had some marshy bits from the off. There are parts where sleepers have bridged the worst of it but it was still squelchy.
I didn’t go as far as Cauldstane slap before branching off up the hill. This takes you up to a large cairn which isn’t the summit. At this point the cloud came in and obscured things but the path across the boggy ground was clear enough to follow beside the fence.
I’d been chatting with Chris MM0UHR on the way up while he was /DWM ( dog walker mobile ). And we had a 70cm QSO when I reached the wee marker at the top.
One more qso on the HT whilst setting up the dipole and flowerpot , a couple more on 2m and then a run of stations on 40m, 15m and 20m. Strangely only s2s callers to my spot on 20m.
The cloud cleared at this point and the sun came out but the wind was still very cold.
The views over Edinburgh and the Forth bridges were good if a little hazy.
After the 20m s2s had died down I realised how cold my toes were and it was time to go.
The walk back down was in warm afternoon sunshine.
Andy
MM7MOX