We had a couple delays getting to Dog Mountain but it was our own doing. We came from the east side opposite Dog Lake and took a road up which was not a proper access anymore. Burn scar, landslides and unmaintained roads made it impossible, and dangerous. You must enter from the west side of the mountain on Dog Mountain Rd. If you drive to the very top it is tight for parking. When we arrived the lookout was manned by a young man Lance who was very welcoming and let us set up on the lookout balcony. However the KX2 seemed to cause some rf to the radio equipment so we aborted that plan and set up on the ridge beside. Great view of Drew's Reservoir and Goose Lake as well as the surrounding mountains. Dog Lake is always a very beautiful area and we noted it for future camping. Dog Mountain was devastated by a wildfire that basically took the whole mountain. They did save the lookout though. Lance mentioned the fire snuck up as the smoke was masked by another nearby fire and spotted late.
I had a very successful run at Dog and ran out of time just doing 20m cw.(and me and the radio got a bit hot) A family was also visiting the lookout and were quite fascinated with SOTA. However, when they came to chat I had already tore down the station. Fun day.
I wanted to add that another delay was trying to get a nearby summit before we went to the west side of Dog, CE-256. It was similar road conditions and we chose not to hike it since the heat was getting up there and it too was fully exposed and fully of dangerous snages due to burn scar.
de AG7GP
