Ring Mountain (W7Y/EW-020), the second activation of the day, presented some obstacles… my planned route coming from Jelm Mountain (see picture below) was blocked by a closed gate with a NO TRESPASSING sign. There is a separate trip report for Jelm Mtn. if you are interested.

To find public access, I continued to drive south on Wy10. The only possible access I could find was a small two-track, not even a dirt road… I almost missed it and had to back up to turn east.

Being hot, tired and thirsty from my prior 10+ mile hike up Jelm Mopuntain, I decided to drive my old Subaru as far up the hill as I could. It was an adventure for the old Subi, some of the ruts were deeper than the ground clearance of my Subi and I had to make sure not to get stuck up here… who knows when the next car would come by… towing would become expensive.

I managed to reach a gate with the car hitting the ground only once. I was sure hoping not to encounter another NO TRESPASSING sign. Luckily it was a US Forest Service gate, just 0.5 miles from WY10. I passed the barbed wire fence/gate in no time and continued to follow the two-track up the hill.
Finally the track disappeared completely and it became too steep to continue by car. I left the vehicle, declared this point as the trail-head and continued my climb by foot.

Trailhead:  8288 ft / 2526 m
Summit:     8818 ft / 2688 m
Elev. gain:  519 ft / 158 m
Roundtrip: 0.8  mi / 1.2 km

Compare this summit with my other activated summits

How to get there:

From Laramie WY, take WY-230 W for about 26 miles. Take a left onto WY-10 S for another five miles. The exact coordinates for the two-track:

Latitude:  41° 2'32.49"N 
Longitude: 106° 0'3.75"W

Parking/Trailhead

View Larger Map

Red Tape:
There is private land everywhere and the two-track seems to be the only public access to the summit.

The Ascent:

The summit is close and clearly visible. Taking the route of least resistance, I crawled up the mountain in scorching temperature. The ground beneath me radiated the heat to uncomfortable levels and no shade was in sight.

The Summit:

The summit offers a nice 360 degree view, Jelm Mountain with the WIRO dome clearly visible just a few files to the north. The sun was already high in the sky and the scarce vegetation provided no shade what so ever. I used a dead tree to tie my mast to and tuned the antenna for 20m, only to encounter the same kind of QRM I ‘enjoyed’ on Jelm Mtn. This time I did not try other bands but moved my shack immediately a little further down the mountain to have the summit between my  antenna and Jelm Mtn, still blaming some of the radio installations up there for the noise – BINGO, the noise was gone and Phil/NS7P answered my call, spotted me and I logged ten contacts in no time – thanks Phil.

The Descent:
Nothing noteworthy on the descent… did I mention that it was HOT? I reached the car, turned on the air-condition to max and carefully navigated my way back to the road while nibbling on my sandwich – thanks to the heat with a layer of melted cheese – yummy.

Some video impressions:

If you would like to leave questions or comments, please do so through Youtube.

---

!! WARNING !! There are old mountaineers, and bold mountaineers... there are no old-bold mountaineers. Hiking and mountain climbing are potentially hazardous activities particularly in Colorado with its extreme elevations. I am not accepting responsibility for any death or injury resulting from activations based on my trip reports. Proper training, experience, and personal capability assessment is required - enjoy!