This summit lies on the south side of Florence. The trail rises 350 to 400’ over about one mile. The summit is covered with RF equipment which did not seem to cause much interference to my HF station.
The Scalplock Lookout Trail is 4.7 miles and 3,100 vertical feet on a very nice trail that begins at the Walton Ranger Station near Essex, MT. This is a less visited side of the Park. No entrance fees are required and it is much less crowded than many other park trails. The following link offers an excellent trail description:
Broken Top is an eroded stratovolcano about 25 miles west of Bend Oregon in the Three
Sisters Wilderness. It can be reached by traveling to Mount Bachelor on the Cascades
Lake Highway (County Hwy 46) and then continuing west towards to the Green Lakes/Fall
Creek trailhead. Round trip to the summit and back is about 12 miles. The summit reaches
an altitude of 9175 feet.
A Northwest Forest Pass is required to park at the trailhead, or a one day pass can be
picked up at the trailhead for five bucks. A no-cost permit for entry to the wilderness
A nice hike through second growth forest will get you to the former fire lookout site on top of Stormy Mountain. You might consider activating Slide Peak, W7W/CH-202 as you'll be passing right by the trailhead for that summit.
Githens Mountain in the Clackamas River drainage is a short, one mile hike and only about 500 feet of gain. It can be activated along with nearby Tumala (Squaw) Mountain from the same trailhead. Finding the summit may require a GPS, as it's not on the trail and isn't particularly distinct.
Tumala (or Squaw) Mountain in the Clackamas River drainage is a nice walk through the woods of about 2.5 miles RT and about 800 feet of net gain.
This was first dip into the SOTA adventure, and it was big fun! Although this is a super easy almost urban summit it was a good way to start and see how things worked. I used my new KX2 and Alexloop and everything worked great considering propogation. In about 2 hours I worked 24 Q's;14 states and ZL! Not bad for 5W to the loop.I did miss one station calling me on SSB-a cross mode contact if I could've figured out how to undo the 'LSB' mode; somehow the KX2 was set that way on 20 when obviously it should've been set at USB. I did figure it out at home later..sorry to whoever was calling.
On Saturday 25 June we were once again heading back from Eastern Washington. It had been almost 2 years to the day since I had been on Red Top lookout. The days are long so we had plenty of time to head up. It was an amazing hike and amazing views.
The directions at WTA are perfect for getting to the Trailhead: http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/red-top-lookout. The WTA site says round trip 1.5 miles. My GPS said it was right at 1 mile and 345 ft of elevation hike.
Timber Butte is a practically unknown destination not far from the busy trailhead for Triangulation Peak.
Triangulation Peak is a popular summer hike destination with a weekend procession of sandal-wearing hikers, small children and dogs. It's about two miles and 800 feet of gain and has fantastic views of Mount Jefferson and many Cascade Range peaks.