To access trailead From Highway 200 - take the Copper Creek road north. The road is a well maintained gravel road until after the upper crossing of Copper Creek, where it becomes somewhat more primitive. The road hairpins eastwards at this creek crossing, climbs gently, then hairpins again westwards and begins climbing more steeply. Turn right (north) at the first opportunity. This portion of the road is narrow and ingrown, with brush which may scratch wide vehicles. It is an "easy" 4wd or a "some clearance advised" 2wd road. The road will soon enter a st
Tolmie Peak
It took me 2 days to get my 4 contacts at Tolmie Peak. I drove an hour and a half from Buckley, WA down HI 162 to Mowich lake. I then hiked the 2.9 miles past Lake Euclid to Tolmie Peak and experienced strong winds and driving rain to get heard.
I bought my Rainier park pass on the way to Mowich lake and a Fee Stop, $20.
There is clean water at Lake Euclid and while the rain is falling so are the streams. there were 2 waterfalls along the trail.
Western Mountain (ME) activation as WB4SPB/1, 10/1/2015
Home is Tacoma, WA, but since I acquired lightweight QRP gear a couple of years ago, I’ve been tempted to take it with me when I travel. I finally did so, on a trip to visit family in New England.
First SOTA Activation: Cowboy Mountain, King County, Washington - October 5, 2015
A nice fall day, good company of Tim, KG7EJT and Dexter the SOTA Dog, a successful joint First Actvation of Cowboy Mountain (including a S2S contact with VA7JBE/7 on the summit of Mount Baker) and nobody else anywhere near the summit itself, made for a very nice outing.
Mt Maude (non)Activation and Other News
OK, so it seems that I jumped into this SOTA thing a little too quickly and made a couple of mistakes. Thankfully, there are several people who have contacted me with some great advice for getting on track to doing things right. Hopefully I will have better luck going forward.
Hamilton Buttes SOTA Activation
Full Blog Here: http://kf7pxt.blogspot.com/2015/10/hamilton-buttes-w7wpl-023-sota.html
SOTA Activation: Mount Fremont, Pierce County, Washington - September 18, 2015
A crisp Fall-like day, sparse crowds and a successful activation made for a pleasant, if short day. The route to the summit, and the Activation itself were changed, and cut short, by a large heard of mountain goats which were straddling the ridge running between the SE Summit (incorrectly labeled as Mount Fremont) and the Middle Summit, (True Summit).
Green Mountain activation with K7ZG, 9/13/2015
This second day of the NA SOTA Weekend dawned wet and misty, but with the promise (unfulfilled, as it turned out) of clearing at some point, and it wasn't really raining. So Joe K7ZG drove us to Green Mountain, where we intended to find the road that allows a drive-up to a parking area somewhat below the summit. I thought this road was north of the Gold Creek Trail trailhead parking area, but I wasn't sure how far or how it would be marked. We turned around before we got to it (as we learned later, see below), and decided to just do the entire hike.
Mt. Fremont activation with N7OMS, 9/12/2015
On this Saturday of the NA SOTA Weekend, at about 10:45am, our party of four set out from Sunrise on Mt. Rainier to walk the Mt. Fremont Lookout trail. The Lookout promises spectacular northward views of the Grand Park meadows, and the entire trail is hugely scenic. More to the point, about ½ mile before the Lookout, the trail passes a few hundred feet below the summit of Mt. Fremont, and that was, of course, the real destination for the hams in the group: myself and Al N7OMS.
Kelly Butte SOTA Activation
Doug (KY7S) and I activated this summit as part of NA SOTA weekend. We had a blast up there and enjoyed the great day in western WA. Important to have a plan for spotting up there. Cell phone was not that great...APRS worked Awesome. A lot of 2m S2S activity. More then expected. Cant wait to get on the next one.
Full Blog Link:
http://kf7pxt.blogspot.com/2015/09/kelly-butte-w7wkg-060-sota.html