Blogs

There is a small peak south of Big Lake and the Hoodoo Butte ski area that
has piqued my interest for some time. (Ah, bad pun) I was there during a warm
day in March. However, Big Lake road is closed beyond the Ray Benson snopark
until May. Therefore, I took my mountain bike and figured I could cover the
road mileage quickly and also ride over to Sand Mountain and get both peaks in
the same day.

Big Lake road is also National Forrest road NF 2090. It intersects US HWY 20
roughly at Santiam pass. Take Big Lake road past the entrance to Hoodoo Ski

The summit near "Dimple Hill" (W7O/CC-118) in McDonald forest near Corvallis
is a nice first summit or a good summit if you are in the area but don't have
much time to spare. To get there, travel north about 4 miles on OR 99W from
Corvallis until Lewisburg Road crosses 99w at the "City Limits Store". Turn
left on Lewisburg Road and travel 1.3 miles where Sulfur Springs Road heads
off to the right. Take Sulfur Springs road for 1.5 miles to the Lewisburg
Saddle (at the top of the grade) where there is ample parking for the trailheads

K7MK and I headed out to activate this summit as our first ever activation. K7MK has been assembling a SOTA capable station for the last 6 months or so. We have done a dry run or two in his back yard and even hauled it up to a non-SOTA summit back in February on a rare warm winter weekend afternoon. But, this was our first real activation.

If you are headed from Portland to Lincoln City, this could be your activation on the way. Or the way back. It's a drive up on a decent dirt and gravel road with the potential for a nice view at the top.

A successful day on Jester Mountain! Made the minimum required 4 contacts on 146.52-FM, then made a hasty retreat down to escpae the blowing snow and cool temperatures. A great day to be outside after not be able to hike last weekend. Trail to Iron Bear is snow-free; descending the saddle to Jester Mountain there was only trivial amounts of snow. I used my Yaesu VX-6R coupled to an MFJ-1714  1/2 wave dipole.

The Pack Forest is operated by the University of Washington, a bit south of Eatonville, Washington. www.packforest.org.

Red Hill (KH6/MA-001) is the tallest peak of Haleakala (“House of the Sun”) located in Haleakala National Park on the island of Maui in Hawaii. It is commonly called Haleakala even though Red Hill is the actual name of the summit. Red Hill is a drive-up, and a drive-up only. Visitors are not permitted to walk the extra 283 vertical feet on the paved road from the Haleakala Visitor Center at 9740ft / 2969m to the summit at 10,023ft / 3,055m. There is no shoulder on the road. There is also no trail to the summit, and walking off-trail is also not allowed.

This was my first successful joint winter Activation with Chris, KG7OFQ. 

Arrived at the trailhead in rain, heavy at times and a light breeze. 46°F.  My wife, Chris and I quickly made our way to the first trail junction, about 2 miles from the trailhead. From the first junction, the trail becomes very steep as it ascends an open hillside.  After leveling off and then descending slightly, the trail climbs the steep narrow ridgeline towards the summit block.  After some boulder-hopping, we arrived at the small exposed summit at approximately 5200 feet. 

Arrived at the trailhead at about 9:30AM, and only 3 other vehicles - on a sunny summer day, there are usually 100+ vehicles! It was a very wet and windy day, right from the trailhead. About 1.5 miles up the trail, my wife decided it wasn't that much fun hiking in the high winds and rain, for no views at the summit. I pressed on while she returned to our vehicle at the trailhead. I made good time to the summit and the lookout. While there were some icy patches, I was able to navigate around them and as such never bothered to put on my "micro-spikes".  

A very enjoyable day out in the mountains with great company and SOTA success!  This was my first time on Red Top Mountain, although I have summitted many other peaks in the Teanaway region of the Central Cascades.  This was our second joint Activation, with Mark Sandler, K7MAS. Mark is helping me understand the benefits of HF when on the more remote peaks of the Cascades. Once set-up, Mark succeeded in making contacts on HF immediately, while I patiently called "CQ", "CQ" and waited....and waited. After several minutes I made 1 contact on 146.52-FM.