Mount Roosevelt and Black Mountain

After a successful outing yesterday, I headed out today to Mount Roosevelt and Black Mountain.  Both are located near the town of Crab Orchard Tennessee.  Both are located near I40, and both are easy summits.  Mount Roosevelt is 621m  4 pointer.  The area is known for fall migration of sonbirds, raptors, and butterflies.  I arrived on the summit of  Mount Roosevelt shortly before 0900 local time.  On the summit I found a very well populated antenna farm.

 The summit has several nice picnic tables to set up on.  And as you see, even on a cloudy/foggy day, the view is very pretty.   I made my several contacts, but did notice a lot of noise.  I think it was atmospheric noise due to the incoming storms.  40m seemed a bit long this morning, but I was able to make a few local contacts on 80m. 

I packed up my gear, and my reworked antenna, and headed to my next peak.

Thirty minutes after leaving I arrived on Black Mountain.  Black mountain is part of the Justin P. Wilson Cumberland Trail State Park, the state's only linear park.  It runs over 300 miles and cuts through 11 Tennessee counties from the Cumberland Gap National Historic Park on the Tennessee-Virginia-Kentucky border to Signal Point near Chattanooga. At 862m, Black Mountain is worth 6 SOTA points.  

I was surprised by Black Mountain.  It is a very pretty area.  I parked and began hiking the loop trail.  I stopped on the South Lookout and took some stunning photographs.

 I arrived on the summit and found another FAA Radar dome.  This is the second I have activated in the past two weeks.  It's amazing how much FAA hardware is in this area.

I decided to setup just to the west of the radar dome near the large boulder farm.  I took a few more great pictures.  As I said this is a great summit to activate.

I set up, and again the bands were not kind to me.  QSB was rampant, and I apologize to those I was unable to work.  But I was able to make my contacts and activate the summit.

I recommend each of these summits. Mount Roosevelt is a handicap friendly summit with some nice views.  Black Mountain has a nice short hike, and some great views.  All in all today was a great day.  Days like this are why I find SOTA so intoxicating.  

I wont have the opportunity to activate in the next few week, working way too much overtime.  But I will be on the trail again as soon as possible.  

Thanks again to all the chasers!!!

73's AND KEEP CLIMBING