I decided to take my parents out for a hike in the Angeles National Forest. With the section of SR-2 from Mount Wilson Red Box Road to just west of Upper Big Tujunga Canyon Road closed for the season, I thought getting out to this little pocket of peaks would make for an ideal Saturday morning. We arrived at the trailhead around 07:30 AM and the parking was already getting busy.
My parents are healthy and their fitness levels are quite good. Although, hiking is a bit out of their comfort zone, so we cruised the first few miles to the base of Strawberry. At that point the trail changed and started getting much steeper. The trail to Strawberry is well-marked and busy on the weekend. I must have seen at least a dozen people on the way up.
With no cell service, I was relying on the Reverse Beacon Network to pick me up and spot me based on the alert I had set the day before. I started with the Yaesu FT-817ND on 40M and quickly gathered a few contacts. Moving over to the other bands, I didn’t hear anything on 20M or 15M, but got two contacts on 10M before a group of young engineers stopped and wanted to talk about what I was doing. They were really nice and I always try to be as pleasant and educational as possible when I’m out activating busy summits. VHF was impossible since I had left my band-pass filter in the car.
KN6RDC on W6/CT-018 (Strawberry Peak), 04 May 2024