Butt Mountain, W6/NS-176

Activated 2020-07-20

Posted 2020-07-25

On Monday, July 20, I hiked Butt Mountain, W6/NS-176, a 7874ft peak in Tehama county, California, and completed the first SOTA activation there.

The week prior, I decided wanted to get out of the city and camp by some water to take advantage of some real summer weather. The famous Twain quote is probably apocryphal, but San Francisco summers can be pretty gray, cold, and bleak.

I didn't give myself much time to plan, and with the COVID crisis I knew I wanted to stay well clear of any popular spots. A number of years ago I'd gone on bike tour with some friends in the Lassen / Ishi wilderness area, and a particular spot we'd stayed next to Deer Creek off of Highway 32 above Chico seemed perfect: within a few hours of the Bay Area by car, fairly easy to access, and remote enough that I doubted anyone would be nearby.

Of course, I checked the SOTA maps to see what interesting peaks might be nearby. Immediately, Butt Mountain caught my juvenile eye. It had a funny name, had the highest value in the area, and after some research it seemed fairly accessible as a day hike. Easy enough to bring some radios and a backpack along.

So, I loaded up the car and headed towards Chico. After a quick stop at the co-op for food and beer, I found my spot by Deer Creek. The land in this area is mostly Lassen National Forest and Sierra Pacific Industries forest. Dispersed camping is permitted almost everywhere. As expected the area I'd remembered from years before was almost empty- a couple of guys fishing and one group of folks who looked like they'd been there for a night or two but were packing up their truck. I set up camp and had some time to walk along the creek and take some swimming breaks. It had been nearly 100F in the valley, but at 3000' it was a little more comfortable.

I brought along three radios: my Yaesu FT-818, which I intended for my primary radio for the activation, my FT-70d which I figured I'd use as a backup and for use while hiking, and an old FT-50, which I use with a Mobilinkd TNC3 for APRS. That evening I wanted to toss the antenna in a tree and try to work some HF from camp, but I was concerned about battery in the 818 (having failed to setup an external battery in my rush to get out of town), so I went to sleep early and was excited to get going in the morning.

I'd found a good-looking route on the Chico Hiking Association website, with good maps and clear access directions. The route covers about 12 miles and 1800' of elevation gain. Their description sounded compelling:

A long walk up a big mountain. One of our highest peaks. A brief, rocky cross-country final ascent at the top. Outstanding views on clear days. The east flank of Butt Mountain is the mid-point of the famed Pacific Crest Trail, halfway between Mexico and Canada. The trail is usually empty, but in mid-July the surviving thru hikers come striding up our trail toward Butt Mountain, and then back down the other side heading toward Canada. See Trail Journals for their nearly real-time accounts.

So, Monday morning I broke camp and headed up Highway 32, looking for Forest Road 28N12, just past Elam campground. Eventually I found it after talking with some CalTrans guys setting up work for the day.

After 10 miles on Road 28N12 (a well-maintained dirt road that most 2wd cars should have no problem with), I made it to Carter Meadow Trailhead at about 6200', where I parked the car, shouldered my bag, and started hiking.

The route to the peak is pretty simple: from the trailhead, up about 1.25 miles on Carter Creek Trail to where it hits the Pacific Crest Trail at Carter Creek Saddle, then 4 or so miles northbound on the PCT to a junction with an (unnamed?) trail which takes you to the Butt Mountain peak after about a mile. To navigate I used Caltopo on my phone (backed up with a paper map printed from the Chico Hikers site), and it was easy. All trails were well established, in good shape, and moderately graded, aside from maybe a quarter mile of rock scrambling at the very peak.

The walk was beautiful, with constant views once I hit the PCT. The trail at that point mostly follows a ridge, so you can see North towards Lassen and south to Ruffa ridge (another unactivated SOTA peak) and Lassen National Forest as it extends into Plumas county. It was warm, probably in the mid-70s. The sky was mostly clear, though somewhat smokey towards the west from an apparent forest fire, and a forming cumulonimbus over Lassen. On my bike tour in the area years earlier we got caught in pretty wild summer storm, so I was wary of thunderstorms this time around and kept an eye on the clouds over Lassen.

I passed one person clearly doing a multi-day hike on the PCT. Due to COVID we didn't socialize much, and to be honest he seemed pretty wore down from the hike. I made sure he had sufficient food and water and continued on.

I hadn't gotten as early a start as I'd hoped, so I didn't make it to the peak until the early afternoon. I was excited to try for some HF contacts, since my home QTH is extremely noisy in HF and I rarely get to work it. I was also looking forward to trying some 2m SSB using a Yagi I'd pieced together (based on the wideband version of these 5-element beams by DK7ZB). I ate a quick snack and started to set up.

And, disaster! The FT-818 was powered on when I pulled it out, and had probably been on since I repacked my bag that morning! The battery icon was displaying near-empty. Maybe my plan for some HF and sideband work wasn't going to materialize, but at least I'd brought along an HT and I could give FM a shot.

Sure enough, the Yaesu died pretty quickly after I got the beam set up, but not before making contact with KK6YDF on 146.520. Mike confirmed that Butt Mountain is pronounced like it looks (which I wasn't sure of- there are lots of things called "Butte" in the area). He was interested in hearing if I could see the source of the smoke in the air, since he was camping and wanted to be sure he and his family were safe (I could not, but it turned out to be the Hog fire near Susanville).

With the FT-818 dead I was glad I brought along my HT. Sadly I didn't have the correct cable to connect it to the Yagi, so I was left with its whip (a Comet SMA-24). I figured being at nearly 8,000' and close to the Sacramento valley I'd cover enough population to get a few more contacts pretty easily on 2m.

I'm new to SOTA and haven't ever spotted myself or set up alerts. I didn't expect to have cell service, but had a vague idea that I would be able to self-spot via APRS, which I did expect to be usable. In retrospect, I probably should have set up an alert and learned how to spot via APRS before being tired and exposed on top of a mountain. As it was, it didn't seem like the time to learn!

So, I called CQ SOTA on 146.520 repeatedly and got... nothing. I'd call a few times, then take a break to look at the view and eat some snacks. That went on for 30 or 40 minutes. Eventually I used the repeaterbook app on my phone to find some local repeaters. I hit a few successfully and tried to raise contacts, but got no responses.

I wanted to keep my time on the peak brief so I could budget plenty of time for the hike back to the car, with lots of buffer before dark in case things went sideways along the way. As the time crept towards 3:30, I started to get discouraged.

Just as I started to give up hope and pack to leave the peak, I heard a call and made quick contact with KK6OGG, a trucker headed north on I5 in the Sacramento Valley. Very shortly after, I chatted with K6GEL, also on I5 heading south.

My spirits buoyed, I continued to call CQ, until finally KN6IQN returned my call from down in the town of Chester, which I could see below me from the peak. Success! Four contacts and I'd activated the peak!

I quickly finished packing up and started my hike back down the mountain. 2m had come alive at that point, with lots of traffic from people driving home- it was noisy to the point that I turned off my HT to enjoy the silence of the outdoors.

I passed one guy heading north on the PCT, who was in much better shape than the guy I'd passed on my hike out. We quickly said hello and moved on. After a couple of hours I made it back to the car and ate a bunch of chips and salsa, and headed home, happy that even if it didn't go as planned, I activated the peak and had a great time.

I'm hoping to return to the area soon to head up Ruffa Ridge, W6/NS-243, another peak that's not yet been activated!