W6/CC-023 (Cone Peak)

Summit: W6/CC-023

Date: January 16, 2022

Route: Out-and-back: Highway 1 <-> Vicente Flat Trail <-> Cone Peak Road <-> Cone Peak Trail <-> Cone Peak.

24 miles over 3 days, ~6200 ft elevation gain.

https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/california/highway-1-to-cone-peak

Equipment: VX-3R and ladder line J-pole antenna. KX-2 and 58' end fed random wire, with a USB-PD power bank and QRP Power Board.

I was looking for an outdoor activity over the long weekend in January. With clear weather and temperatures in the 50's-60's, backpacking in Big Sur fit the bill! Cone Peak is not the tallest mountain in the Santa Lucia Range, but the topography is noteworthy (nearly 1 mile up, and only ~3 miles from the ocean).

This peak hadn't been activated since May 2016. Road closures have made Cone Peak relatively unaccessible in the past few years. At the time of writing, Nacimiento-Fergusson road was closed due to fire damage and washouts...and Cone Peak Road had a massive chasm. The Big Sur Trailmap website is a great resource for seeing closures and crowd-sourced trail conditions.

Parking on Highway 1 at the trailhead was scarce, though people seemed to park in pullouts north of the trailhead and walk on the highway. Vicente Flat is a pleasant campground under the redwoods and next to a stream, and is only a few steep miles from Highway 1. The trail between Vicente Flat and Cone Peak Road was tough; heavy rains had washed out much of the trail and trees. Definitely bring a GPS with the route pre-programmed for this portion. After climbing up from the stream towards Cone Peak Road, the trail speeds up and the ocean comes into view.

I'd hoped that 146.58 MHz would be an easy way to get 4 contacts on the weekend of the January VHF Contest, especially given its line of sight to a surprising number of peaks in the Bay Area / Southern California / the Sierra Nevada. This was wishful thinking and I struggled to even get one contact on VHF. Perhaps the antennas on top of the abandoned lookout station were transmitting and my VX-3R was not hearing replies to my CQ call. I set up the KX-2 and random wire antenna, made 6 CW contacts within 15 minutes, had some lunch, and headed back to camp!