Blogs

Grivets is a simple "SOTA-car" (drive-up) summit about 30km south of Grenoble, France. There's nothing remarkable about this one-pointer, but it could be a quick activation stop along the A51.

Le Pet du Loup is a simple and easy summit in the lovely Parc Naturel du Pilat, about 45 minutes south of Lyon, France. Google Translate might let you know that "Le Pet du Loup" really does mean the Fart of the Wolf - a fun name.

8/17/23 Update -  Not really a recommended summit due to new "Preferred Plan" with "sensitive" areas of park, along with varying topo maps regarding whether park is in the AZ...

Quick notes: I have Google Fi, which uses T-Mobile and Sprint. Cell service is great, if you have a view to the northeast. Otherwise, it dies, and quickly. This was obvious when I was trying to stay in contact with people throughout the hike, leading to cutting in and out throughout the trip. I got it into my head to try a 4-pointer with no activations, and I saw a prime candidate, of only .7 miles with a gain of only a few hundred feet! What a find! Only problem is, there's no trail. Well, that's no problem!

It was great to meet club members at SEA-PAC.  I came back motivated to earn my first point! WV-095 (https://www.sota.org.uk/Summit/W7O/WV-095) is Mt Scott and has been frequently activated. It looked pretty straightforward and I had already cycled to the top a few years ago.

After studying the map, I thought it was worth checking if the road that approaches the summit is accessible. I invited my family, and we drove up to check, and it definitely is not. We drove NF 23 to NF 2353, which proceeds past some campsites to the trailhead. There is a gate that is sometimes closed, but this doesn't really add a lot of effort to the trail. We got to NF2348, which turns into NF2365 and heads up the mountain, to find a berm had been constructed, decidedly closing the road. We made the decision to hike it anyway, and embarked.

Flagg Mountain is a great 4 point short hike (or drive-up) summit located west of Winthrop, WA.  For a day trip, it could be combined with Goat Peak Lookout summit W7W/OK-107.  

Directions/Access:

Field Effect Mtn in on Inland Empire Paper ground (IEP). Permit is required I would recommend going to there web site and read all the info to access the property. I started the track from Spirit Lake Id.  The first 5 miles is paved then turns to dirt.  At the trail head if the gate is open you can drive in if the gate is closed you can’t.  The gate was closed so I had to take an ATV up close to the top then bushwhacked the rest of the way.

May 18th was the Puget Sound S2S party. I had plans to take my son dirt biking in Walker Valley in the afternoon, so I needed a quick summit that was resonably close to Walker Valley ORV park. Mount Cavanagh fit the bill nicely, and was surprisingly pleasent!

(IMPORTANT NOTE! Everything in this post is true with the exception of the peak designation: W7O/NC-022.