On July 17 I went back to Occidental Peak, the one peak that I failed to activate last time I was there. Occidental Peak, or Satan’s L.A. Condo, as I now call it, was challenging, to say at least.
Since I’ve been there before I had an idea what I was up to, but honestly when it’s been five or so years some of the details do fade from memory. I always do research before activating any peak. The good community of SOTA folks is a wonderful treasure trove of advice, experiences, and all around great information. This looks like an easy peak. Only a mile from the road to the top and with barely 300-some feet of ascent. Here’s the real story.
Despite Google Maps insisting the road was closed it was not. I left home in Santa Clarita around 7am and got there just over an hour later. You park at the side of the road to the one big tower before you get to Mount Wilson. This is the KCBS tower and it’s thoroughly fenced in. The next step is to find somewhere to walk between it and Red Box Road. This isn’t too terrible and getting past the tower site to the old concrete pad isn't bad. However, at this point you discover something important. Despite what others have posted there are no real trails here. Anywhere. This will turn into a painful problem.
Just when you pass the fencing you arrive at a concrete pad. Here you have a wonderful view down to Pasadena and surrounding areas. Between here and the peak lies nothing but pain. Let me explain.
What you are walking on is a rather sharp ridge. Or more specifically, you are walking between the top of the ridge and Red Box road. This is the north slope and, honestly, it’s dangerous. The top of the ridge is effectively impassable due to vegetation forcing you to navigate an area with a 45-degree slope, very soft ground, and if you stay too far north the slope turns into a drop onto the road below. Throughout the hike you are constantly trying to make out the safe route while battling tree branches that are constantly in your way. To top it off there are several false peaks along the way. This is not a 45-minute easy hike but a two-hour bushwhack with terrain that is actively trying to kill you and drop your remains down on the road below.
Eventually I got to the peak and, honestly, I was just tired at this point. I got my chair out, ate some snacks, and realized I did not bring enough water (more on that later). Thankfully Chris (KI6CR) had pulled some strings and gotten me an N6ARA 2m filter. This actually was a great help. My Quansheng reported -55 dB of noise without the filter and -80 with. Although I had brought my HF gear with me I wasn’t keen on getting a tall antenna up so I stayed with my HT.
I made contact with Jon (NT6E) in Torrance on 146.58 first. Jon turned into a wonderful help for my activation and provided valuable information. He told me others were trying to return my call but I wasn’t able to hear them. At that point I switched to 144.200 SSB and was able to get a few more contacts. Jon at this point got back to me and let me know even here there were stations he could hear but I could not. The 2m filter was helping but it wasn’t a magical fix being this close to L.A.’s most powerful transmitters. I moved myself to the very western edge of the peak and tried to get as much dirt between me and the transmitters by sitting on a ledge. That allowed me to get my last contact.
At this point I had successfully activated the peak and decided to head back. Without going over the same pain points as before I will only say it wasn’t any easier. It was frustrating to go up and down hill to try to find a path back. To add to the misery I was getting dehydrated at this point. However, the thought of a cold gatorade in the trunk of my car did help, at least psychologically. Eventually I got back to my car, happy I not only had activated the peak but did so exclusively on 2m. Then I promised myself to never, ever go back here.
