Forested Summit

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.

Clarks Mountain is just south of Seaside Oregon. The trail is about 1.8 miles of one-way hiking starting at a clearly marked trailhead on the very south end of town on Sunset Blvd. There's a large parking area that may fill up on sunny summer weekends. 

Scouting Report

TL;DR version: Parking for one or two rigs outside the gate.  Broken rock road to lookout, 2.75 miles, path to true summit forks off from LO road at ~ last 1/4 mile.  LO area was forested, true summit likely is also.  Good opportunities for hanging wire, limited view.  All in all, a lovely walk in the forest.

A very nice springtime activation of Squak Mountain, 2,024 Feet, 617 Meters elevation, a 2 point SOTA summit.  This was a return trip to work HF, as opposed the all 2M FM I used on my first activation of Squak, a little less than a year ago.  We also ascended via the much less crowded East Ridge Trail, through nice old growth evergreen trees, and the lush green growth of spring.  I highly recommend the East Ridge route on Squak!

The summit near "Dimple Hill" (W7O/CC-118) in McDonald forest near Corvallis
is a nice first summit or a good summit if you are in the area but don't have
much time to spare. To get there, travel north about 4 miles on OR 99W from
Corvallis until Lewisburg Road crosses 99w at the "City Limits Store". Turn
left on Lewisburg Road and travel 1.3 miles where Sulfur Springs Road heads
off to the right. Take Sulfur Springs road for 1.5 miles to the Lewisburg
Saddle (at the top of the grade) where there is ample parking for the trailheads

I've spent many wonderful fall weekends black powder hunting near Suttle Lake west of Sisters, Oregon.
I've hunted the slopes of Cache Mountain as well, so activating Cache Mountain has long been on my mind.
The B&B complex fire of 2003 devastated the area and the game in the area seems non-existent. Still,
I couldn't wait to go back, this time with smaller caliber hunting gear.

The access to Cache Mountain is via US Hwy 20. The turn off onto Old Santiam Wagon Road, FS 2067,

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