Good Views From Summit

Here's an easy road walk in Eastern Oregon of about 2.1 miles round trip and 400 feet of gain. Interestingly, there's only one "Lake Butte" in Oregon - and there's no lake near it.

Here for some activation fun west of Trout Lake, Washington is Peak 4420 or Monte Cristo Range High Point. It's a bit out of the way, but is a near drive-up four pointer accessed by a road that a passenger car can handle. 

Needless to say, a GPS is a good help for finding this summit. There are other roads leading there, but the directions below are for a gravel road in good condition.

After my first activation on Black Mountain VE7/GV-013 a week ago, I wanted another activation before the rain season starts. I chose Hollyburn Mountain VE7/GV-011 because it seemed just a little more difficult than GV-013. An extra 100m gain shouldn't be too much, right?

My first SOTA activity was activating VE7/GV-013 on a sunny day in October. I find this mountain a great place for local hams to experience SOTA for the first time.

VE7/GV-013, Black Mountain is located in Cypress Provincial Park, just half an hour drive from Vancouver. Parking at Lot 1 of Cypress Mountain Ski Resort is free and it is mostly empty in the morning, as long as it's not ski season.

Easy driving access in a somewhat remote part of the Mt Hood National Forest. Best way in is to enter the forest from Hillock Burn Road off Highway 211 which turns into the 45 road. You follow that for about 13 miles to the turnoff to the 4540 road. It's notable as you go from gravel to pavement when you turn off from the main road to a secondary road. the 4540 meanders it's way up past a sometimes-there lake, taking a left turn there and is fairly overgrown but still passable. In about 3.5 miles, you pass the turn off to South Fork Mountain, an easy drive up summit.

Had the day off from work and headed out to activate this summit with Dave, N7LKL. Turned out to be a great day with nice weather. 

We started off on 2m FM and each of us had at least 4 contacts in no time. And then proceeded to set up HF, where our good fortunes continued, reaching the East Coast. With the band conditions the way they are I consider that good DX, especially running around 4 watts from my MTR. 

See my trip report for Saddle Mountain for a map of this area. This summit is a drive up, on pretty good gravel roads. Most any car should make it with some careful driving. High clearence is helpful but not required. After you leave the pavement its about a 25 min drive.

The views of Hood Canal from the summit are great! Parking not a problem - there is room for several cars.

I spent a few hours on this summit for the 2018 WA state QSO Party 'Salmon Run'. I made a lot of contacts! There is even a picnic table up here, but I didn't use it.

This is an easy 2 point drive up with great views! From Hoodsport, head north on highway 119 along the east shore of Lake Cushman. Take a right when you get to Prices Lake Rd. Prices Lake Rd. is paved for 1/2 mile and then turns to gravel. The road is good and most any car should make it with careful driving. Check the FS topo maps for full directions. From the turn off of highway 119 it took me about 20 mins to get to the summit. Parking not a problem on the summit, lots of space.

The summit is clear cut with large piles of debris. The views are good!

Here is a lovely hike in the south reaches of the Clackamas watershed. The hike is about 6.5 miles round trip and 1000 feet of gain. Although about two hours from Portland, it's also a nice drive to the trailhead with good signage along the way. Only the last half mile or so would be challenging in a passenger car. 

John, Ralph and myself (Eric) made the trek to the summit of St Marks. The hike is very popular with 200+ on the trail on a nice week-end. The first half of the trail is well groomed and easy walking. The trail improvement stops about half way and from there on the trail is easy to follow but it is very root infested and so one needs to be constantly watching where one steps.