This summit had a lonely, single activation from 13 years ago and no real report. myself, N7OLE did an MTB activation of Castle Rock, W7O/CM-166 the day prior and wanted to get the doggos out for a good walk and decided this summit fit the bill.

The original report from 2013 only mentions the landslide road closure, as yet to be fixed, but doesn’t mention anything about the actual summit. First off, there is an alternate driving route to the trail head using Horse Creek Rd. to FS2638-356 to access FS 1993 from the north. Horse Creek Rd is paved for a good distance, then transitions to high speed, good gravel. FS2638 is well maintained gravel all the way to FS1993. Turning West on 1993, it starts out as gravel but turns into pavement after a couple of miles, making TH access pretty straight forward. We drove 1993 in from the south, about 26 miles worth of very good gravel, but it was slow going from where we parked for our mountain bike ride and I’d suggest not doing that if at all possible.

The TH is clearly marked with a map a small parking area. The trail is very nice and lightly used but in good shape overall. It starts out mellow but picks up the elevation gain steadily until you hit the switchback where you really start to climb.

The top looks to be an old fire lookout or something. There are metal posts mored into the ground, which made for a good tie off spot for our mast. Some shade and great 360 views to boot.

We worked 2M SSB, 2M FM, 40M CW/SSB and 17M CW/SSB for about and hour before packing it up.

Horse pasture Mountain is a moderate to difficult hike, though its short, only 1.25 miles, so I’d give it a medium on the spicy scale. It’s not too hard to access and with many other summits in the area, worth a visit.