Forested Summit

In recent years, our family has transitioned from tradition material gift giving
to giving that is more relationally based. My oldest son Andrew had noticed that
I kept talking about activating Hayrick Butte but was a bit reluctant based on
the looks of it from the map and in person. He took notice and did a bit of
research. On Christmas morning 2014 I got an interesting relational gift of a
winter-time summit attempt and activation of Hayrick Butte.

Hayrick Butte is an interesting geological feature. Hayrick Butte is a tuya

I was off work today and all the kids were at school. I had a doctor's appointment at 0915 and did not have anything else planned for the remainder of the day. I decided that I would head down and recon this unnamed summit in the South side of Capital Forest. Capital Forest has a handful of one and two pointers and this is the last one that I had not activated. Capital Forest is a State Forest that has opportunities for everyone; horseback riders, off road ATVers, hikers, bikers etc.

Quck activation of my "Neigborhood SOTA Summit".  It takes me less than 10 minutes to arrive at TH from home. On a very warm day for nearly the end of January (60+ degrees F), we set out from Anti Aircraft TH, Cougar Mountain Regional Park.  Our route was abot 7 miles circuit of the upper reaches of the Park.  Wilderness Peak is about 1,600 foot in elevation and a 1 point SOTA summit.

The day after Christmas seemed like a good day to do some local re-con on a two-pointer I've been
meaning to try out. I left the house about 11:30am headed for Bald Mountain W7O/CC-011 in Polk
county Oregon and packed the backpack with radio and SOTA pole just in case I got lucky.

To get to Bald Mountain, you need to get on OR 223, also known as Kings Valley HWY. OR 223 can be
accessed from US Hwy 20, west of Corvallis, OR or near the junction of OR 22 and OR 99W close to
Dallas, Oregon. The first off-pavement turn from OR 223 is on Valstez Rd about 0.4 miles east of

Nice activation.

Story and Blog at: http://kf7pxt.blogspot.com/2014/11/larch-mtn-w7wso-067-tuner-hill-w7wso.html

Was able to spot with SMS.

Pearls On A Necklace – SOTA Adventures in W6/CT. Strung along the Angeles Crest Highway (SR 2, Los Angeles County, California), which runs through the San Gabriel Mountains, on the stretch between the Pasadena / Glendale area the south, and the Apple Valley / Victorville area to the north, lie more than 20 SOTA listed summits.  Most are 6 to 8 point summits. Proximity to Los Angeles, relatively easy access and beautiful terrain, similar to east slope Washington and Oregon Cascades, make this a “tourist delight” area.  On 3 separate days, between October 31, 2014 and November 4, 2014, I activated five (5) of these SOTA summits.  This report is #5 of 5.

Pearls On A Necklace – SOTA Adventures in W6/CT. Strung along the Angeles Crest Highway (SR 2, Los Angeles County, California), which runs through the San Gabriel Mountains, on the stretch between the Pasadena / Glendale area the south, and the Apple Valley / Victorville area to the north, lie more than 20 SOTA listed summits.  Most are 6 to 8 point summits. Proximity to Los Angeles, relatively easy access and beautiful terrain, similar to east slope Washington and Oregon Cascades, make this a “tourist delight” area.  On 3 separate days, between October 31, 2014 and November 4, 2014, I activated five (5) of these SOTA summits.  This report is #3 of 5.

A fun...cold activation. Please see my blog and Every trail GPS tracks for information

Blog - http://kf7pxt.blogspot.com/2014/11/ladd-mtn-w7wpl-083-bug-hill-w7wso-106...

Everytrail - http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=3033719

Just east of Trion, Georgia is this easy to access hike on the Pinhoti Trail to Taylor Ridge. 

About 1.2 miles north of the light at Central Avenue (that leads into Trion) on Highway 1

During the first week of October, I was delighted to receive an invitation from accomplished SOTA activator KR7W to accompany him to the not-yet-activated Huckleberry Ridge summit.  I expected to take my HB1B along, but testing my equipment, the day before our outing, I managed to toast something inside while trying to get a good antenna match.  So I petitioned Rich to let me pack along his trusty KX3 as an alternative to the HW7 he was planning to bring for his own use.