Easy Trail

One of the last beautiful Fall weekends of 2015, yielded an activation of Thorp Mountain and Hard Knox Mountain together with my "SOTA Buddy", KG7EJT and Dexter the SOTA Dog.  The weather was superb, a successful dual activation, including a First Activation of Hard Knox, followed by a great dinner and local "Brew" in Roslyn, Washington, made for one of the more memorable SOTA outings in my career! The views, and great access, make this a highly recommended double SOTA objective.  This report describes Thorp Mountain Activation.  Hard Knox is listed under a separate report.

Goat Mountain is a reasonable easy summit to access that's not too far from Portland. For anything but high clearance vehicles, the last 1.5 miles to the summit will be on foot, but it's not too far. This site is popular with OHV as I saw seven in two hours on a chilly and damp November weekend.

Start from Molalla, Oregon at the four way stop downtown and go 15.8 miles east on Highway 211. Turn right on Hillockburn Road and go past a group of three gates where the paved road continues through the open gate in the middle.

A return trip to San Gabriel Peak, which I last activated on May 23, 2014.  Taking a break from babysitting duties with our grandson, we snuck away for a quick SOTA Activation, as access to San Gabriel is very easy from the Los Angeles Basin.  It is accessed from SR 2, also known as the Angeles Crest Highway.  I have described this scenic byway before, as part of Activation reports on the many SOTA Summits scattered along its 66 mile long windy pathway trough the San Gabriel Mountains and Angeles national Forest.  See: 

http://angelescrestscenichighway.com/

 No Ghouls or Goblins were spotted, despite the fact that the Activation was on 10/31/15, Holloween Eve.

On a recent visit with some good friends in Leucadia, California (a Pacific beach community, part of greater Encinitas), I spied a cluster of 4X - 6 point SOTA Summits in the Cuyamaca Rancho State Park (California), in eastern San Diego County.  This park is approximately 70 KM east-south-east of Encinitas, and can be reached from both the south and the north.  We chose the north approach, on State Road 79, through the quaint town of Julian, a mining / pioneer town, renowned for it's great apple pies.  If there is one thing I like almost as much as SOTA Activating...it's great apple pie! We decided to head over to Cuyamaca Rancho SP, and try Activating Stonewall Peak, the easiest of the 4 SOTA Summits in the area - as a way of scouting out a future overnight trip to the area.

On a recent trip to LA LA Land, to visit family, we decided to try our luck at "Glamping" (Glamor Camping) at Mount Baldy Tent Cabins, 7,800 feet elevation, below Mount San Antonio.  Also known as "Mount Baldy", 10,064 feet elevation, it is the king of the San Gabriel Mountains which tower above the Greater Los Angeles Basin.  This was the first year these tent cabins were set up and available, and we figured they would be an ideal base for some near-by SOTA Activations. We purchased a package deal, including ski lift ride up and down from the parking area at 6,500 feet elevation, to Baldy Notch, at 7,800 feet, meal tickets at the full service Notch Restaurant and two nights lodging in the Tent Cabins.  This is report 3 of 3 dealing with the activation of Mount San Antonio (Mount Baldy).  Reports on the activations of Telegraph Peak and Timber Mountain are separate.

Sheridan Peak is on the east side of the coast range, about 23 miles from Carlton, Oregon. Carlton itself is quite out of the way, being about 12 miles east of Newberg. But it's a nice short hike of about half a mile through some nice second growth woods, and the road is paved the whole way! (I.e.: if your GPS takes you to gravel, it's not the right way...)

UPDATE July 2021 - There is now a no trespassing sign on the yellow gate. 

The blue gate barring the logging road now bears a Weyerhaeuser No Trespassing Sign, and a second sign explains how to purchase a non-motorized recreational day-use permit from Weyerhaeuser.  Go to https://www.wyrecreationnw.com/HomePage.aspx for details. 

A nice fall day, good company of Tim, KG7EJT and Dexter the SOTA Dog, a successful joint First Actvation of Cowboy Mountain (including a S2S contact with VA7JBE/7 on the summit of Mount Baker) and nobody else anywhere near the summit itself, made for a very nice outing.

Full Blog Here: http://kf7pxt.blogspot.com/2015/10/hamilton-buttes-w7wpl-023-sota.html

A crisp Fall-like day, sparse crowds and a successful activation made for a pleasant, if short day.  The route to the summit, and the Activation itself were changed, and cut short, by a large heard of mountain goats which were straddling the ridge running between the SE Summit (incorrectly labeled as Mount Fremont) and the Middle Summit, (True Summit).