NE7ET's blog

On a recent camping trip to Riffe Lake, I activated this summit after activating Burley Mountain (W7W/PL-039).  See my other trip report for directions to get there.

On the way over to Bend, I stopped to activate Black Butte.  I came on Hwy 20 and turned at NF-11 which is also the turn for Indian Ford Campground.  From there I followed north to the turn for NF-1110 (also known as Black Butte Rd) and on around the north of the mountain.  After a hairpin turn, there is one more sharp turn to the right which takes you to the upper trailhead.  The road up to the last turn was in good shape as of this writing.  The upper portion after the last turn was not as good but still very drivable.

This was my first summit on the day of the Central Oregon S2S party.

I had spent the night at the Pine Mountain Observatory Campgrounds which is FCFS so get there early.  If it's full, there are dispersed locations but it's hard to find one in the pitch black dark.  The observatory requires no headlights (only running lights) at the top so take that into account.

In the morning, I drove back down NF-2017 to the trailhead which also double as a cattle watering station.

This was my second summit for the day of the Central Oregon S2S party.

I had spent the night at the Pine Mountain Observatory Campgrounds which is FCFS so get there early.  If it's full, there are dispersed locations but it's hard to find one in the pitch black dark.  The observatory requires no headlights (only running lights) at the top so take that into account.

This was my 3rd summit while over in Bend area for Central Oregon S2S party.

I had activated Pine Benchmark and Pine Mountain earlier in the day and I drove from there. I took NF-2017 from the Observatory down to the valley.  However, that road is in very poor shape and high clearance is needed if you go that way. (If starting at the Observatory, travel time going back to Highway 30 to Road 23 is likely similar to taking rocky NF-2017 south).

The summit is in pretty much the same shape as previous report linked by Etienne K7ATN.

We headed up to Tropo after getting some excellent pointers from Etienne K7ATN.  He and Darryl WW7D were also up here a few days ago.

The route we took started from Morton, WA on Hwy 7 northbound.  Unfortunately, Google Maps wants to route through private gated property.  So we continued on north until NF-74 and turned off there.  We followed NF-74 to the crossing with NF-295.  Beyond that point, you will need to disregard your vehicle's paint job.  The scrub brush is very ingrown on the next section of NF-74.

This was my second time to visit Huffraker.  Last year, the property owner had closed the area due to fire danger.  This year, it was reopened.  However, last year I was able to drive all the way to the edge of Gifford-Pinchot NF and park.  This year, there was an incredible amount of blowdown that had not been cleared which added another 4 miles to this hike bringing it to overall 6.3 miles RT.  It may be that, due to the late season snow, once the mushroom pickers get busy some of the blowdown will get cleared.

This is the fourth summit I activated with my Dad while visiting Lemolo Lake KOA.

From the KOA, we drove across the dam on NF-2610 and right onto NF-2612.  Then left onto NF-700 and again left onto NF-920.

A third summit I worked with my Dad while at Lemolo Lake KOA.

This summit is a careful drive-up with a nice turnaround at the top.

I put up the mast and EFHW antenna and proceeded to work a nice combination of 40/20m stations.

No 2m stations were heard.

We packed up and headed on to Bunker Hill (W7O/CS-090).

These 4 Lemolo Lake summits could be easily done in a day if you have the time.

I split them into 2 mornings as we were visiting Crater Lake during this trip.