After wanting to get started activating peaks under the SOTA program, a push from Brett, KG7FFW got both of us out to do our first activation at Three Lakes Hill on Tuesday the 26th of April. A frustrating discovery that there were no good place to park that did not require a Discovery Pass, forced a quick trip into Monroe to purchase one. Upon returning, we discovered that someone had spread nails all about the parking area.
After cleaning up the nails, KG7FFW and I headed up the trail. WA7BAR's instructions on making one's way up to the top were spot on and helped us quickly get up to the summit. But bring gloves and clippers to prune back the branches and sticker brush to make the going easier.
We spied several good locations to set up, but in the spirit of getting to the highest location, we busted brush until we found a spot with several small trees and a number of good trunks to use as a 'work surface'. We brought both a 5W HT for 2 meters and an FT-817ND for 6m SSB. Unfortunately no contacts on 6 today.
There is a clear view to Seattle from the peak, which might make for interesting contacts on the higher bands that might not normally be easy to accomplish when activating a remote SOTA peak.
73's from KB7WSD
