WU7H's blog

You are in Vancouver for a short time, and want to activate a summit. Where to go? Burnaby Mountain!!

Burnaby Mountain Park is located just 30 minutes east of downtown Vancouver BC. The park offers scenic views, hiking trails, sculptures, and gardens. It also happens to be an easy one-point SOTA summit! It might be the easiest summit in Canada, eh? Most importantly it offers great views and interesting sculpture to keep your significant other / non-ham friends busy while you play radio.

WW7D and I were in the area for the WA State QSO party 'Salmon Run'. This was the 2nd summit we activated on this fine sunny day in Sept!

D-Layer is a great summit!! I guess I had low expectations based on the intel we had, but it is a really nice summit with a great view to the east. 

I like big buttes, and I can not lie...  

I don't have much to add that K7NIT didn't already cover in her excellent report.

WW7D and I were in the area for the WA State QSO party (Salmon Run). This was the 2nd summit we did on this extremely wet Sunday in late Sept.

The road up to West Twin Butte is really fun... if you are on a motorcycle! The last 1/2 mile of this road is heavily rutted out, and would be a challenge for a high-clearence 4x4. Most people will probably opt to park lower down and walk up the road.

WW7D and I were in Skamania County for the WA state QSO party (Salmon Run). This was one of two summits we visited on Sunday of that weekend. Neither of us realized it at the time, but this was the first activation of this summit.

Termination Point is a great little summit! There is a steep boot path from the end of the road up to the summit - a little faint and bushwhacky in some spots. The hike is very short - something like 1/2 mile and ~100' of elevation gain.

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!

I won't give all the details of how to get to Red Top, etc. This summit has been well covered by others. Here is an interesting report from K7MAS for comparison:

http://www.pnwsota.org/blog/k7mas/2015-march-09/sota-activation-red-top-mountain-kittitas-county-washington-march-8-2015

West Tiger Mountain is one of W7W's most frequently activated summits. It is part of the 'Issaquah Alps', and being close to Seattle is a very popular day hiking area. Arrive early to get parking near the trailhead, and don't forget your Discover Pass!

There are a series of summits called 'West Tiger' - the one we are interested in for SOTA is known as West Tiger 1. 

This was a winter activation of Bearhead Mountain.

WW7D and I decided to give this a shot based on some WTA trip reports that indicated it was possible to drive to the trailhead. We took my 1988 Toyota 4x4 truck that has big tires and is fairly capable off road.

This was a New Year's Eve activation with WW7D. You can find a .GPX file of our route here.

We parked on the side of HWY 2, just east of the turnoff for Smithbrook. This is where everyone who is headed up to Smithbrook for winter sports parks. There were some XC skiiers, and snow mobiles unloading as we pulled in.