Heading into the 2024 W7O Campout weekend, I was 36 points shy of Mountain Goat. K6ARK and I hit some strategic drive ups on the way down for 10 points, and then knocked out 24 points on the Siskiyou Crest. That left me at 998 points going into Saturday. I didn't want to activate just any summit for my MG, I wanted something that called back to the mountaineering I was doing when I first got licensed and learned of SOTA.
Mount McLoughlin fit the bill. The trail is approximately 4.5 miles uphill with just shy of 4000' gain. I found three other ops interested in the hike: N7RUN, N7NWT, and KI6SYD. We departed Howard Prairie Lake Campground at 3:10am and were hiking on the trail right at 4:00AM PST.
The first obstical was an easy log crossing over the river. It was not slippery and everyone made it across without trouble. We continued on what seemed like a never ending approach hiking that meanders up and down. Mosquitos harassed us along the way. It is advised to apply bug spray in the parking lot so you don't need to stop and dig it out of the pack. Even at 4am temps were high. We were sweating on the approach.
Eventually the trail finally started consistently going up and we enjoyed sunrise from roughly 8,300' where the trees began to thin. The mosquitos also disappeared and a slight breeze kept us cool for the remainder of the hike.
The trail is well marked as hikers often get lost on the descent by following the fall line rather than the ridge. We summited just before 7:30am and got on the air.
On my fourth contact (with N7HAP), N7NWT surprised me by placing goat horns upon my head 
. All together we operated for about 70 minutes trading around the KX2, KH1, and HTs. I ended the activation with 37 contacts and 9 S2S. BAAAAAA. During our operating temperatures can only be described as perfect with a slight breeze that kept us cool in the sun.
We made quick work of the steep descent and began the long deproach back to the car. We were glad to have started so early in the day. The last hour through the forest was hot and muggy. The mosquitos slept at least.
Big thank you to N7NWT, N6RUN, and KI6SYD for joining me on me MG Activation. Huge thank you to K7ATN, WU7H, K6ARK, NR7Y, K7WXW, N7MTB, and countless others that I could spend all day listing for your emership on my journey to MG. Remember, it's not about the points, it's about the QSOs you make along the way.
