Activation Reports

(0.6 miles, + 560 feet)

This summit is on USFS land & is covered by the Beaverhead-Deerlodge-Central map.  The area is open to motorized vehicles on designated routes Dec.3 – Oct. 14.

(1.2 miles, + 1,100 feet)

From I-15:  Take Exit-99 (Moose Creek) & head east up the Moose Creek Road towards the Humbug Spires Wilderness Study Area.  Drive 2.9 miles up the Moose Creek Road (gravel) & park on the left side of the road near the fenced culvert that conveys flow for the drainage to the north under the road. 

(1.5 miles, + 930 feet)

From I-15:  Take Exit-99 (Moose Creek) & head east up the Moose Creek Road towards the Humbug Spires Wilderness Study Area.  Drive 2.9 miles up the Moose Creek Road (gravel) & park on the left side of the road near the fenced culvert that conveys flow for the drainage to the north under the road.  It is likely best to climb directly up this drainage.  I will describe the route that I took, which is a bit more circuitous, but still quite nice.

A bit of research showed several gems waiting to be Activated, while the high country is still buried in deep, unstable snow.  Tibbetts Mountain is a 4 point SOTA Summit, of a modest 4,115 feet elevation.  It has a fantastic vantage point, overlooking the beautiful Wenatchee River Valley, the City of Wenatchee, and several towns lying along SR 2, the major east / west highway connecting western and eastern Washington State.  We opted for the more reasonable north approach, which is mainly a very steep forest service road, with about 1/4 mile of easy off road clim

We finally got to Activate Old Pass Hill, after snowshoeing by it a number of times before.  Old Pass Hill is a 4 point SOTA Summit of 4,885 feet elevation.  In winter, the route is mostly avalanche free, and so is a semi popoluar snowshoe trip.  A nice spring day, right before a change in weather, yielded a mostly sunny early morning, with increasing wind and clouds later in the mid day.  The temperature at departure from the TH was 37 degrees, and the snow was firm enough to hike on without snowshoes.  On the return trip, it had warmed up en

(0.6 miles, 500 feet)

This is a short climb that is located immediately adjacent to I-15 south of Great Falls.  It was first climbed by Merriweather Lewis on July 16, 1805.  Lewis described it as follows:

On March 10, 2017, my wife and I were exploring summits to the south of Eugene. After activating Yellow Butte, W7O/CC-024, near Yoncalla, OR. We found a nice little hill south of Elkton, OR, Peak 1100, W7O/CC-135. This summit is on a private farm above the Umpqua River. The owner lives in a house about half way up. We spoke to her and told her about SOTA. She gave her permission (reluctantly, I think) for us to activate her summit. She said that she would prefer that others not come to activate the hill top summit. I told her that we would make it off limits in our data.

(1.3 miles, 970 ft)

(3.6 miles, +1,650 ft, -510 ft)

On a family vacation to the Lake Tahoe Basin in Nevada and California, I was fortunate enough to Activate 4 peaks in 3 days.  This is a description of the Mount Watson Activation, number 2 in the series.  On this Activation I had the pleasure of meeting up with a "local" Activator from Reno, Nevada, K1LB - "Woody" Brown, so that we could do a joint Activation of Watson.