Trout Creek Hill is a near drive-up summit north of Carson, Washington. You can reasonably drive into the AZ, but you'd rather not travel the last few hundred yards to save the finish on your vehicle. So be sure and look for a good place to turn around and leave your vehicle before that last bit of road.
Bunker Hill is a nicely accessible summit a few miles north of Carson, Washington. The trailhead is an easy drive, and the hike is about 3.6 miles roundtrip and 1300 feet of gain. Note that little of the gain is on the first mile or so of the hike - it's steep later. The hike starts on the Pacific Crest Trail for the first easy half mile or so.
Short Version - Wildcat Mountain is only an hour from Portland. You can drive to the trailhead and the two-ish mile hike along a well-maintained, if not well-marked, trail gets you to a small clearing on a summit with wire-ready trees. APRS messaging and 2M FM contacts are both easy and it is a good location for working HF. You are unlikely to be alone, as the Douglas and 781 trails are quite popular; if you like solitude, get there early. And be prepared for snow, even in early November.
Between October 21 and October 30, 2020, we visited the Sunriver / Bend areas of Oregon. The cold but clear weather allowed us to Activate 8 SOTA summits in 6 outings. This report is one of a series, and deals with the Activation of Burma Rd HP, AKA Point 4,230, W7O/CE-304. Prior to coming to the Bend / Sunriver area, I had contacted Ron, W6PZA, who lives in Bend, Oregon. I had seen on-line that he had been a very consistent Activator in this area, and reached out to him to possibly arrange some joint Activations. Happily, things worked out, we hit it off, and wound up doing 2 joint Activations - this one, and also North Paulina Peak, the subject of another Activation report.
This was #3 of 3 outside of the town of Rogue River I did on a day trip. This was quite a climb but not as bad as the one prior (W7O/SC-229). The hill is steep with no trail other than by wildlife but there is quite a bit of open, grassy, pine needled areas rather than brush and rock like the first two today. There was a lot of bear sign up here but I did not see any. Due to time (and bears), I did not go to the very top but activated in the AZ on the SW facing side that was very open and had a great view of Applegate Valley.
This was #2 of 3 that I did outside of the town of Rogue River during a day trip. This one was a killer. When I click treacherous trail it is because there was none. I drove the main road (BLM 37 5 1) until what seemed to be the highest you could drive to on the north side but the bank is very steep and brushy so it was difficult to find a good starting point. And boy was it hard. This hill is mainly fist sized rock that is mossed over, crumbling beneath your feet, with a very steep angle to climb. It was difficult to stay upright.
UPDATE: last trip I walked the bermed road. A bit longer but much easier and safer. Tracks on sotamap.
Blue Nose is a US Forest Service Lookout built in 1934. The structure still exists. From the summit are good views of the steep slopes of the Salmon River Canyon and high summits of the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. The final access road is a bit
This is a burned-over flat-summit on the Idaho/Montana Border. Access is via an obscure 4x4 road that takes off to the north from FS#038. Along this road after several hundred feet is a flatten area used as a dispersed campsite most commonly in hunting season. Beyond this area the road becomes an ATV track weaving through a sn
Lakeside Ridge is an easy to get to summit with a nice hike of about 1.5 miles one way on a dirt road. It offers plenty of space and plenty of small trees to lean a mast against or string an antenna on. It's a pretty nice place for an activation. We had some pretty nice weather, the sounds of cows nearby and good DX. I was able to log New Zealand and France.