Valjevske planine - day 2

Ozrim - YU/ZS-111 - 961 m 4 points  (WAS SM08 Ljubovija)
Ranjenica - YU/ZS-109 - 976 m 4 points (WAS SK02 Osecina)
Pajkovača - YU/ZS-102 - 1010 m 4 points (WAS SK01 Valjevo)

The plan for Saturday was to activate some lower summits, 4 pointers, on the southern and western outskirts of Valjevo mountains.

Approaching village Tornik and Ozrim YU/ZS-111 above the village

The first was Ozrim, YU/ZS-111, just at the western foot of Tornička Bobija YU/ZS-068. Ozrim is one of the small hills near village of Tornik, just above the starting point of Nature reserve Trešnjica river canyon YUFF-035. I parked 1 km outside of Tornik, at the foot of a gently sloping meadow.

The summit of Ozrim YU/ZS-111 in front of me ...

... and behind me, Tornička Bobija YU/ZS-068 activated a day before

I reached the summit hoping to find some refreshing shade. I did find the shade, but it did not help much, since a new hot and humid spring day was starting. I managed somehow to find a spot for me and my inverted V doublet in the dense vegetation. 10 MHz was the only band available  (I have a 7/10/14 MHz MTR V2 tribander) since WPX CW was in full swing on non WARC bands.

View South. I guess the summits on the left hand side of the horizon,
are summits in Mt. Tara National park (YU/ZS-032, YU/ZS-057...)

Operating camouflaged at Ozrim summit

I managed to work 26 qsos in hour and half of operation on the summit. The last qso was (the only) S2S with DL/HB9DPR/P on DM/BW-001.

Next goal was to reach Ranjenica YU/ZS-109. I had to drive West to reach one of the major roads, then go a bit North, and then again East on dirt roads along a ridge were the next SOTA summits are located. I took a wrong turn on the way, had my lunch and some rest, so I reached the dirt road to Ranjenica at 3 pm local time.

The the dirt road along the ridge is a part of a mountain biking route network. Except the bikers, only hunters visit Ranjenica summit - it seems to be uninteresting for regular hiking groups. A forestry road goes all the way close to the summit. Fortunately, there were no hunters to be seen. Although I could operate on a meadow in the activation zone, near the place where I parked, I decided to get to the very summit. It was not the brightest idea, since the summit was (again!) located in dense vegetation. Once I reached it, I managed to set up my inverted V doublet and hit the road on 10 MHz. Familiar chasers were there, and after a short half hour activation I had 26 contacts in the log.

A quick photo of the operating position before dismantling the antenna

View from East.
After activating and leaving Ranjenica YU/ZS-109, I had a chance to have a proper view of the ridge and the summit.

Last summit for the day, further along the ridge, was Pajkovača YU/ZS-102. Pajkovača is sometimes visited by hiking groups, because it has nice views to the western escarpment of nearby Medvednik YU/ZS-076.

It was getting late when I got near the summit of Pajkovača. Fortunately, the summit was just above the road, on a beautiful meadow, with short grass and willow trees. It was one of the nicest SOTA summits so far. It was almost 19.00 local time when I set the antenna. I made only 10 contacts in as many minutes, because I had to hurry and reach my camping site for the night before dark, if possible.

At the summit of Pajkovača YU/ZS-102.
Mt. Medvednik YU/ZS-067 is in the background.

A look to the East. Is there an unknown, higher summit some 500 m away?

Looking around and admiring the scenery, I spotted a noticeably higher summit just to the East. Is it a new SOTA summit... or a previously unnoticed higher summit? Unfortunately, when I got home and took a look of the maps, it turned out that the "new" summit is in fact the real summit of Pajkovača. It went unnoticed during the preparation of YU summit list. Since the new summit is outside of the current activation zone, in the next update of YU SOTA list, YU/ZS-102 will be deleted, and the new summit will replace it.

After the last activation, I descended to the foot of Mt. Medvednik and found the nearby mountain hut. I did not like the surroundings, so after few hours of wandering and getting lost I managed to find my way out and get to the mountain hut near Mt. Jablanik YU/ZS-067, not far from to the place where I spent the first night. I spent the night there in my tent, hoping to activate Mt. Jablanik in the morning.

On Sunday I woke with a headache and sore throat, without much energy for activating any summits. After finally packing the tent, I set off to explore the forest roads and look if there is a road connecting Mt. Jablanik and Mt. Medvednik. But all I managed to do is to get a flat tire in the middle of nowhere. I managed to replace the tire, but I took it as a sign that this power-activation (6 summits in 2 days!) should come to an end. So I headed home, arriving early and with enough time to recover for Monday.