VK2/MN-123 The Pinnicle, by VK2NU/P 08/10/2019 (6-Points)
Map
I originally attempted this SOTA in 2017, but due to a rough track on the way in, I had to turn my car back 15km short of the planned parking spot! Two years later, armed with my new/old 4wd it was time to have another crack!
Firstly, thanks to VK2CDS for his blog post on the summit, which I stumbled across the night before my activation.
This gave me a bit of confidence that I could reach the planned start point with a more suitable vehicle!
The Pinnicle is in the Barrington Tops National Park (VKFF-0017). There are three possible ways to access the summit but the easiest/shortest seemed to be from the South.
Drive North West from 'Dungog' along the 'Chichester Dam Road', after 16.7km turn right into 'Wangat Trig Road'! Basically stay on this road for about 22.5km, and it will bring you the start of 'The Mountaineer Trail'.
After a few Kilometres, 'Wangat Trig Road', turns into 'Wangat Road', but there are no signposts to show this. The road is a excellent 4wd track (at least in Oct-2019), and would be suitable for other vehicles with good clearance. This could well change in the wet though!
Google maps shows many side roads branching off from 'Wangat Road', but the main trail is very evident!
Start of trail, and entry to Barrington Tops NP.
The trail to The Pinnicle is a very good walking track and is approximately 4.5km each way! However, the trail crosses another three peaks on the way to VK2/MN-123 and there are lots of very steep 'ups and downs'.
At best there are only very-very filtered views from the trail or the summit, although the walk isn't unpleasant!
Sign, about 200m into the walk...
!!!!!
The walk in took a little under 2-hours, with the walk out about 30 minutes longer, due to sore knees and fatigue!
The summit is on the trail, and has plenty of room for antennas!
Shack, and squid-pole tied to a sapling!
The trail would seem to get a fair amount of foot traffic, but there were many fallen trees across the path, suggesting that it has been a while since anything with wheels passed through!
On the day of the activation, no other walkers were seen, and I had the place to myself!
Log
Grid and altitude of the summit!
10 QSO's in a 30 minute period on 7-cw, 7-ssb, 14-cw. I also had a 2m FM QSO with VK2WFT who was back at 'base-camp', sitting this one out!
Instead of backtracking along 'Wangat Road', we drove out via 'Middle Ridge Road'. This again was a good 4wd track, although very narrow in places. The 4wd took a few 'whacks' from overhanging branches and vines! This eventually feeds back onto 'Wangat Road' a few kilometres before you get back onto the sealed road!
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