ZL3/CB-729 Knowles Top 22 May 2020

 This hill near Glentui is one I had been looking at doing for a while but I was focusing on the wrong side! John ZL3MR found the route up through the Ashley Gorge and it's a beaut! David ZL3DRN joined me and we set off on a cold, crisp autumn morning, arriving at the Ashley Gorge bridge about 8.45am. There's no parking on the North Side where the track starts however there is a reserve area in the camping ground on the South side. Follow the signs and walk back across the bridge to the track start.

Head up the Ashley Loop track (take the Right hand fork) and you'll soon come to another sign for the Waterfall Track. Take this one and climb steadily on a well marked and formed track noting the abundance of birdsong - no doubt due to lots of pest traps. You'll soon reach a lookout point with a bench seat dedicated to Neil Judson and a sign pointing to places of interest. 

Depart the track here, turning Left  uphill behind the seat to an unmarked but clear trail straight up the spur. There are clearings and short sections of bush to negotiate but you can't go wrong if you stay on the ridge crest. It's pretty steep (33%) so take your time up this bit and enjoy the views regularly!

 Once you reach the bush-line, you'll find the entrance to a track (unmarked but clear) at the very end of the last clearing which takes you right to the top of the ridge. You'll crest the ridge and descend for about 1 minute and then find a junction where you turn right to head to the summit. There's a pile of old fencing wire on the ground at the junction. If someone removes the wire in the future, the track is clear enough. My GPX file is uploaded to the SOTA Tracks section. Waypoints shown below.

Ridge junction point with fencing wire on the ground. Turn Right here (out of shot).

 From here it's an easy walk to the summit sidling around the ridge. Soon you'll emerge from the bush to a large, tussock covered summit with ample operating areas to pick from. You should be able to find shelter from just about any breeze up here. The views are amazing.

View towards Christchurch with the Ashley River in the foreground

Looking North, Mt Thomas and CB-617 in the foreground and Mt Grey CB-673 in the distance

We set up a 57' foot endfed wire (inverted vee style) with a 17' counterpoise and a VK6YSF UNUN (uses a very economical L01238 toroid from Jaycar). It tuned very easily with the KX2 tuner on all bands and worked very well - good signals on the lower bands and contacts to Indonesia on 20m. I also had an Italian station call me but we couldn't complete. 40 contacts in my log.

57' wire on 6m Tactical Mini pole showing trig and vast AZ

 Summit to Summit contacts with Mark ZL3AB (Big Ben Range ZL3/CB-857) on 2m and 60m were much appreciated and capped off my 100th SOTA activation nicely. Thanks Mark!

This is a really nice summit and definitely on my annual list. The AZ is huge so if you wanted to try 160m SOTA, this would be a good one!

 

Getting there: Drive to the Ashley Gorge Bridge, turn into the camping ground on the South side of the bridge and turn right to head down to the reserve area. Park under the trees and follow the signs to walk back up to the road, cross the bridge (footpath) and the track starts as you exit the bridge on the North side. It is well signposted.

Permission : None needed, Conservation land all the way

Cell coverage: Good on Spark/Skinny (4G)

Time: John's estimate of 2 hours +- is a good one

Repeaters: All Canterbury repeaters and easy 2m simplex to Nth and mid Canterbury

Notes: Steep and slippery heading up/down the spur - walking poles needed and a reasonable level of fitness

Waypoints:

Lookout: S43° 13.453' E172° 14.313'

Track junction: S43° 13.110' E172° 13.852'

Track Entry/Exit point to/from summit: S43° 12.771' E172° 14.669'

 

 

Mt Barrosa ZL3/CB-499 10th May 2021

Having plenty of leave to use due to the pandemic and with Francie in Wellington on a course, I decided to take the caravan down to Mt Somers Domain Camping ground for a few days of SOTA fun in the Ashburton Lakes area. John ZL3MR and Anne were passing through too so activations were arranged - I would do Mt Barrosa and John Mt Guy. 

The trip down was uneventful, easy driving leaving home at 0600 and arriving at 0800. I parked the van, plugged in and John and I set off.

 

The thick fog that had stretched all the way from Christchurch dissipated as soon as we entered the Ashburton Gorge revealing fine weather. The start of the Mt Barrosa track is named Blowing Point and so it was! Given the season and strong wind, I packed my big over-jacket as well all the usual layers (and was glad of it later!).

The track is well marked (poled route) and well used. A cool feature is that the track is littered with scraps of gemstones, the mountain used to be covered in geodes but sadly most have been removed. It's a steep-ish but well routed track and should be suitable for most activators.

I arrived at the summit in good time and set up in very windy conditions:

6m telescoping pole in the wind...

 

There is a fence-line running right across the summit so plenty of pole support options. I set up the 2m/70cm jpole but managed no contacts to Christchurch and I couldn't trigger any of the CHC repeaters. There is a sheltered spot only 1m from the summit marker pole so I hunkered down there and fired up on HF.

Operating site with the summit marker just above my poles. Mt Somers CB-387 on the right

 I used my go-to antenna - 20m of wire, endfed with a 49:1 unun arranged as an inverted vee. It's an EFHW on 40m, full wave on 20m, 1 1/2 wave on 15m and plays very well. The KX2 tuner pulls it in easily on the WARC bands and 60m.

60m certainly showed it's value as an NVIS band, I  worked Bill ZL3NB and Rick ZL3RIK just 115km away with big signals and also Roly ZL1BQD some 800km away! 40m was interesting too, just after the UTC rollover Gerard VK2IO and Peter VK3PF called with very strong signals, far better than they had been on 20m earlier.

BD7JNA called me several times on 17m but never responded to a signal report.

The wind kept rising and the forecast weather was rolling in so I packed up about 0030z and headed down, stripping layers off as I reached warmer levels with less wind.

Display of Agates at the summit - traces on the track too

The descent was uneventful and we headed to the traditional coffee break and debrief with John and Anne at the Mt Somers General Store, a quaint shop with lots of essential supplies, retro art and knick knacks.

 

This is a really nice summit - definitely adding it to my annual list.

Getting there: Take the Ashburton Gorge road from Mt Somers and keep an eye out on the right for the parking area and DOC signage. It's about 1.5km past the DOC sign advising that you're in the Hakatere Conservation area. If you get to the Blowing Point one-lane bridge, you've gone too far!

Ascent time: DOC says 2.5 hours, it took me 1.75 hours with one stop (plus a few pauses!). It's 3.5km and the grade is 24.5%. Vertical gain of 830m

Descent: 1 hour - walking poles strongly recommended.

Cell coverage: Good, 4G with Spark/Skinny at the summit

Repeaters: None of the Canterbury ones accessible