Next month on 1-2 August things will be busy with three activities involving SOTA  - The Colorado 14ers event and the ARRL UHF Contest, PLUS the W7 Summit to Summit (S2S) Party.  Let's focus some attention on W7-land activations with the “W7 S2S Party.”  We hope to see many W7 activations and want to facilitate S2S contacts.

With 2,461 SOTA summits, W7I presents a vast opportunity for virgin activations with over 90% of hills unactivated. A great reference for those planning a trip to W7I is “Idaho, a Climbing Guide” by Tom Lopez. There are nine peaks in W7I above 12,000 feet, eight of which are SOTA peaks, five of which are still unactivated and almost all require a 5,000-foot ascent from the trailhead.  In ascending order of elevation are my pre-SOTA trip notes. Seven of the nine are in the Lost River Range north of Mackay.

"Mt. Electric" (W7W/PL-165) is a small hill on a logging property with easy, non-motorized access to the summit along a logging road. This one-point summit has pretty good views overlooking the Naselle River and parts of the Naselle Valley. This is an ideal summit to activate by mountain bike.

It was a sunny day yesterday when my wife and i  went to Bald Peak for a SOTA activation attempt (she thinks i am crazy for doing this). The view was great. It was a busy day at the park, lots of visitors coming and going. I had never been there and until i starting researching SOTA i had no idea it existed. learning about SOTA has allowed me to discover a different perspective and i can't wait for the next opportunity to combine the great outdoors with radio. I was able to make 6 contacts yesterday and with my little 2meter HT.

Nestled between Tiger Mountain and Rattlesnake Mountain, with their mobs of users, Taylor Mountain offers a serene road hike (or bike) leading to a broad peaceful summit sans radio towers, fences, and concrete.   Taylor mountain is an easy two-pointer with a few good views along the way.   The route I took provided a net elevation gain of about 1,200 feet plus an additional 400 feet along the route over an 8 mile round trip.  

As hikers, we've often considered hiking up Guye Peak, mainly due to it's prominance and close proximity to I-90 at Snoqualmie Pass. It has an appealing pyramidal shape when viewed from eastbound and westbound on I-90.  The are 2 main routes; an eastern and western approach. I chose the less technical western approach, using the access path adjacent to the very popular Snow Lakes Trailhead in the Alpental ski area.  

Today my YL and I went up to Little St.

Cowan Lookout is an abandoned fire lookout site that sits at 1,955' on top of a ridge that, at the other end, hosts an antenna site. Locally, the place is known as "Radar Hill." It is located in the hills that overlook the town of Naselle, WA, and the Naselle Valley, due west of the intersection of U.S. 101 and WA 4. You can drive to within a short distance of the activation zone, but the final 100' of ascent is a bushwhack.

For those with 6 meter and up SSB capability, activating on June 13 and 14 could have an extra fun factor – the ARRL June VHF Contest. There will be bunches of folks delighted to work you on 50.125 and 144.200 MHz SSB, other bands too if you have the gear. There is a bit of activity on 2 meter FM; but use of 146.52 isn’t allowed so look for folks on 146.55 or 146.58. VHF contests are a great time to activate a summit where you don’t want to carry or deploy up an HF antenna.

Having made my QSOs at Pine, scrambled down the summit, and headed back over the observatory and down the south access road - 4x4 only and not for the faint of heart.  Once on the valley floor, took NS-2310 south toward East Butte and China Hat, swinging back to pick up NS-1849 and circle up toward the summit.   The easiest route to China Hat is to take China Hat Rd NS-18 from south of Bend, but I was on the wrong side of the basin for that. Parked the truck and hoofed it the last mile as the manzanita was encroaching on the double track pretty tightly.