The Summits-On-The-Air Century Club (If There Was Such A Thing I Would Now Be In It!)

I cracked into triple digits this weekend with a big SOTA points excursion into the Catskill Mountains. A RaDAR (Rapid Deployment Amateur Radio) of Black Dome Mountain and Blackhead Mountain in the Windham-Blackhead Range Wilderness of New York State scored me 20 (for a grand total of 103) SOTA points. In the W1 New England region, I am the 27th place (out of 189) activator. Worldwide, I am a lot less impressive 2122 (out of 8392). My goal is the 1000 point SOTA Mountain Goat award. In fact, it is my number one goal in ham radio.

In Massachusetts, it is tough to get SOTA points. Most of the mountains are rated only 1 point each and you can only activate them for points once per year. So, for instance, the 20 points I earned for climbing 2 mountains in NY would be equal to climbing 20 mountains in Massachusetts. So, AA1F and I are traveling farther and farther to try to rack up some points. Our trail mutt Nellie is not a spring chicken anymore, so we have to be mindful of what she can accomplish these days too.

The route we decided to take would park us at the Big Hollow Road trailhead in Maplecrest, NY. We would hike up through the valley between Blackhead and Black Dome Mountains via a well-established trail. At the base of the saddle between the mountains (otherwise known as a col), we would run into an intersection along the ridge. The trail to the east would take us up Black Dome. We would activate Black Dome, and return along the same ridgeline trail and ascend Blackhead Mountain. After activating Blackhead Mountain, we would complete a loop down its southwestern slope. A huge blown down tree greeted us near the beginning of the trail.

The root ball could swallow AA1F and Nellie right up!

The hike up the valley was steep but reasonable. We reached the ridgeline trail at the col with no problems and paused for a snack.

We decided to ascend Black Dome Mountain first. It is the 3rd highest peak in the Catskills, sitting behind Slide and Hunter Mountains. The official reports say it is shy of 4000 feet, but my GPS clocked it as more than 4000. Maybe my calibration is off? Below you can see Black Dome Mountain from the trail up Blackhead Mountain.

The summit flattened out and was covered in a spruce forest. There was a very small outcropping offering Southern views. As we were setting up our antenna, a young guy in a ranger-like outfit stumbled upon us. Turns out his name was Andrew and he was a Catskill Mountain Trail Steward. Once he decided that we were not destroying the terrain, he became quite fascinated with the activation. He wondered if he could use ham radio to chat with his other trail steward friends. He took videos of us as we made contact with France, California, and Florida, and commented in the way only a man alone in the woods would “Humanity never ceases to amaze me. People are so interesting.” Another party of drone operators (seen in the background), whom we would see throughout our hike, also became part of our activation crew. In the mountains, we are all friends.

I noticed my initials had been chiseled into the rock. I did not do it! I took it as a good sign though… Sure enough, we secured our four contacts (and then some!) and completed our first activation. Yay, 10 points!

The trail from the summit of Black Dome Mountain back to the col was very steep. Essentially straight down a cliff in some parts. In fact, walking the 0.6 miles up this section was the hardest part of the hike in my opinion. I strove to not break a leg on the way down. My backpack with radio gear probably topped in at about 25 to 30 pounds, but I used an internal frame pack instead of my favorite frameless JanSport so the weight was distributed better.

Yup, me at some trail signs saying “I was here!”

We doubled back to the col and began the ascent up Blackhead Mountain. Below you can see how it looked from Black Dome Mountain. And how far away it appeared (about 1.2 miles).

AA1F and Nellie took a pause on the way up Blackhead to point at me.

The snakes on Blackhead were cute and small.

The rabbits on the other hand were HUGE! In fact, in a bit of a trippy, exhaustion-induced, hallucination-like experience, this bunny hopped down the middle of the Blackhead Mountain summit trail. He was so big, and so unconcerned by us and Nellie, that I thought it was a dog at first and I was waiting for its owner to show up. It took a minute or two to realize it was a rabbit. Fortunately, the drone operators were with us too to see it or I may not have trusted my eyes. I have never seen a bunny on the top of a 4000 foot mountain before. My mind flashed to “Alice in Wonderland”. He even stuck around long enough to be photographed!

AA1F and I set up our station for the Blackhead Mountain activation, while Nellie poked around for some nibbles. We quickly made about a half dozen contacts each, and completed our second activation of the day. There was no view from the summit of Blackhead mountain, just a few signs telling you where to go.

We had initially been trying to decide if we would loop down the backside of Blackhead mountain or just go back the way we came. We ran into another hiker and asked her opinion. Of the loop trail, she said “its extremely challenging, the whole thing is a rock scramble.” But, given that the descent started right in front of us, with no need to back track, and was about the same mileage, we decided to go for it anyway. And she was right…it was a cliff down the side of the mountain. I highlighted the trail in pink to try to show some perspective. The arrow points to the lowest part of the trail I could see from my vantage point.

We came across a few views. The weather had threatened rain and thunderstorms all day. It looked as though Mama Nature may deliver. We were starting to race sunset, figuring we had an hour hike left at 7pm local time.

By the time we got back to the trailhead, the last rays of sunlight were filtering through the trees and it was starting to sprinkle. Limey, my van, could be seen camouflaged into the forest. The GPS clocked us at 6.63 miles for a total elevation gain of 2320 feet. The entire hike plus activations took 8 hours and 15 minutes to complete. Our moving speed was only 1.6 miles per hour. The difficulty rating of this hike is difficult to very difficult depending on where you look. I thought it was hard, but not too bad overall.

With our 20 SOTA points now safely tucked away, AA1F, Nellie, and I hopped in the truck and drove off for some Make-Your-Own-Sundaes at Stewart’s. Only an Upstate New Yorker would know what I am talking about.

Thanks Chasers!
KM1NDY