NE7ET's blog

As I mentioned in my previous report from Rattler Benchmark, my Dad and I followed that activation with a trip up to Cleman Mountain.  If you are coming down Game Department Rd from Rattler, you need to drive south back towards town for a while on N Wenas Rd until you reach the entrance. 

Unfortunately, the map shows many roads leading up the mountain but we were only able to find one that was passable at (46.833565, -120.711814). The signs at the gate read "Closed from Dec 9th thru May 15th."

For Thanksgiving this year, we drove to Yakima to visit with family and the day after my Dad and I drove up to Rattler Benchmark.  Starting in Selah, we took N Wenas Rd turning right on Sheep Company Rd up to where it turns (46.778909, -120.563142) to become Bell Telephone Rd (going straight eventually leads you to Gracie Pt aka W7W/CW-096, see my report here).  This is a a goat trail with many ruts and requires steady nerves and high clearance.  Fortunately, my Dad has both.  This

When I visited Northern Idaho, I also had the chance to activate this summit.

The route to the summit starts on Hwy 95, turning East onto Blacktail Rd.  This is followed around until it once again turns East onto Little Blacktail Rd.  Then follow the pit run (larger gravel) covered road to the top.

There are 3 or 4 repeater towers up there so I parked next to the large propane tank on the southernmost one and headed south to put some distance between us.  Even so, 20m was very noisy.  I didn't have a problem on 40m or 15m.

I recently had the occasion to spend some time in Northern Idaho and while there I activated this summit.

The road up to the summit starts from Hwy 95, heading East on Hwy 54 and North on N Perimeter and East again on Bayview Rd to N Cherokee Rd and north following that up.  N Cherokee Rd is also shown as FS 297 on Google Maps.  The road condition is not great with many ruts down the middle.  I had to straddle the ruts in many cases.  A high-clearance vehicle is probably required.

I thought I should put a few pointers here based on our recent activation of Triode Mt.

The property is privately owned by Inland Empire Paper Co.  They sell a per-day access permit from their web site.

See Etienne's report for more details.  I wanted to add just a few words on the road condition to the upper trailhead (road 370).  

It is definitely high clearance and 4WD recommended, quite bumpy with large ruts in places.

During the 2023 W7O SOTA Campout, we had the opportunity to activate Trap Mt.

This is an easy drive, though there are spots where the manzanita closes in on the roadway.  Your vehicle's paint may not like it much.  Otherwise, it has good gravel all the way to the top.  Take a left from Hwy 138 West onto NF-900, then a right onto Big Camas Rd (NF-3701).   Take another left onto NF-3704 and follow that around and turn left on NF-230 and yet another left onto NF-250 and a final left on to NF-290.  Google Maps was right this time!

I took my kids on a snowshoeing adventure this past weekend.  There were several SOTA activators scheduled to be out activating and we joined them for a fun time.  The distance is around 1.7miles one way but we had very nice snow conditions.

Traffic was very heavy heading up to Mt. Hood and several vehicles turned around but we persevered and it eventually improved.  It did add around 30mins to our arrival time.

Starting from the Frog Lake SNO-PARK and heading across the hwy slightly to the north is the Pacific Crest Trail crossing.

UPDATE March 2023: W7W/CN-024 has been retired and replaced by Frog Lake ButtesW7O/CN

On a recent trip to Idaho, I had the opportunity to activate Bernard Peak which is a drive up 45min or so from Coeur d'Alene.

The drive up was uneventful, though some sections of the road have quite a few potholes and washboards.  I managed it in my wife's Toyota Highlander.