Mt. Moriah US-9269 Activation!

I was the second person to activate US-9269 Mt. Moriah BLM National Conservation Area yesterday!

The gang and I are out on our annual campign trip to Baker, NV and the environs surrounding Great Basin National Park. We drove to our trailhead using the Hatch Rock Mine access road. The mine extracts quartzite for use in building. The entire wilderness area where the gang and I hiked had frequent quartzite deposits.

That second photo shows the top of a quartzite outcropping that wound up being about four stories high when viewed from below. I realized this once I got to the bottom of the outcrop as I descended the ridge I was on after the POTA activation.

Google had this to say about the stone:

Mt. Moriah Flagstone is a premium metamorphic quartzite sourced from the pristine Snake Mountain Range on the Nevada-Utah border. This exquisite natural stone showcases a harmonious blend of slate gray, soft mauve, and warm tawny chestnut tones, creating an aura of delicate refinement.

Premium I tell you! Premium!

Here's the operating site.

Operating Position (Antenna was placed in large, dead tree)

This is a closeup of the rig and antenna placement in the dead tree shown above. The rig is set on the ground facing the eastern slope of the ridge.

Here's a view of the operating site as it's situated in the Wilderness Area.

And a better view of our actual trail

We drove to the sharp turn in the road tangential to the yellow QSO line with K4CGY. After the turn, the road is for Authorized Personel only, but there's a small parking area next to the partially grown over road that meanders up the ravine to the West. We hiked along that road before eventually making the ascent to the top of the ridge. The gang stopped about halfway up under a shade tree. I hiked to the top, and found a little avenue along the ridge.

The clouds that only sprinkled a bit did a nice job of blocking out the direct sunlight, and the activation only took about fifty minutes or so. Here's the QSO map:

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