Chris KC7UJO and I took advantage of some sunny weather to bike the Deschutes River Trail to Lava Butte. We met at Meadow Camp (Meadow Day Use Area on Google Maps). Chris was on a hardtrail MTB and I was on my cyclocross bike. The first (and last) mile of this out and back is pretty rocky. MTB reccommended, or catch the river trail at another point. I managed as best I could with my commuter tires and dropbars.
Once through the technical it was a fun 14ish miles along the river trail. We made good time to Benham Falls and then picked up the paved path to Lava Butte. This is 3 miles of gradual uphill to the Lava Butte visitor center. We lucked out and the gate was still closed to vehicles.
Before the final push we stopped and fueled up. I put some fresh air in my front tire, which had a slow leak since biking in Mt Shasta, CA. Thanks for the pump, Chris! With that we hit the road and the steep grade, over 8% in some places. We huffed and puffed our way to the fire lookout.
The lookout was a great place to operate from. Last time I was here it was in use and they wouldn't let me hang a wire off it. I set up my EFRW while Chris activated on 2m. I got started on 20m and got plenty of contacts including our favorite France station. Chris set up his IC-705 for use on 20m SSB and I got some 2m QSOs done.
I was surprised to get WB7VTY in the log. "What a long distance!" I thought! Then WB7VTY revealed that he was near Madras doing a POTA. Tecchnically Lava Butte sits in two POTA parks and Chris was kind enough to run over with those codes for me to give to VTY for the Park to Park.
Chris is a newer CW Op. I had a QSO with Bill K7WXW and then asked over Slack if Bill would stick around to get a QSO with Chris. They called each other and even though QSB was hitting hard, got the QSO done. Chris' first CW QSO!
With that we packed our bikes up and rolled down the mountain. Heading back to the start presents a gradual downhill and we made quick time back to Meadow Camp. My YL had run 19 miles and was patiently waiting our return.
Video: https://youtu.be/4Dthbp1oao0
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