Good Parking At Trailhead

Cornell Mountain, Portland Oregon. W7O/WV-090

Easy parking on Penridge Rd. Definitely a pavement activation. Quiet neighborhood with plenty of folks walking their doggos. I really wanted to throw a wire up and work CW but didnt see a spot that wasn't private property.

 So out came the Yaesu FT-60.

 146.520 worked well for me and I made 4 contacts relatively quick and easy which was nice because I really didn't want to disturb or raise any suspicions with the fine folks from the neighborhood that were out and about with their dogs. 

Whatatis Peak is directly North of the Hanford Reach National Monument. From Richland WA to the summit is just over 61 miles. You can drive very close to the summit, only the last little 1/4 mile kick up to the top peak is really treacherous. There is good parking at serveral locations off the access road to pull over to complete the summit on foot. I did a 2.5 mile hike to the top.

I activated my first SOTA summit here. Nice views and plenty of tall trees for your wire antenna. Parking is great. Plenty of room along with several picnic tables. Restroom facilities were available and clean. 

 Highly recommend for your first SOTA Summit.

https://oregonstateparks.org/index.cfm?do=parkPage.dsp_parkPage&parkId=77

Lone Butte is a "small" hill in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. It is easily accessible from the Columbia River Gorge via Wind River and NF30, or from I-5 up the Lewis River Hwy to Northwoods and then NF90/Curly Creek Rd. (which connectes to NF30). There is a large area for parking where road 401 cuts to the West. If you aren't particular about your vehicles paint, the road is driveable to an old rock quarry at the west end of Lone Butte, there are some ruts a short way into the road, but they are easy to straddle and most any vehicle could make it past.

UPDATE Dec 2022: There is now a closed (unsigned) gate a ways up Mills Bridge Road. It is recommended to park on the highway and this activation becomes an 8 mile RT. 2200 foot gain road walk. 

Nov 2, 2019 was the perfect day for climbing Mt. Carrie. The weather was cool and clear. Some snow up above Heart lake, but the Cat Walk (the unmaintained trail and scramble east of Heart Lake) was free of snow. That area would be very challenging with snow, and an ice axe and crampons would be a must. 

Why

Why

We didn't see any swamps, and it certainly wasn't swamped with people!

Getting to the trailhead was straighforward by following the directions at https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/willamette/recarea/?recid=80972.

Our first snow of the year. I have done all the 8 point summits in the upper Dungeness area that I can get to with a day hike except this one. It seemed like a relatively easy one, 6 miles in with a half mile off trail to the summit. It was a good day for it. About a foot of power snow at the summit, but the ground under the snow wasn't  frozen yet, so I could still get good traction without crampons.