Reprise on Jester Mountain, exactly 8 months later. We originally activated Jester on September 3, 2014. This time I returned with a different crew, and in a different season: Spring. The flowers were out, the views were incredible as usual, and the weather was sunny, with a slight cooling breeze which kept it very pleasant. Good company, successful Activation and sections of beautiful flower blooms made for a very nice outing.
A very nice springtime activation of Squak Mountain, 2,024 Feet, 617 Meters elevation, a 2 point SOTA summit. This was a return trip to work HF, as opposed the all 2M FM I used on my first activation of Squak, a little less than a year ago. We also ascended via the much less crowded East Ridge Trail, through nice old growth evergreen trees, and the lush green growth of spring. I highly recommend the East Ridge route on Squak!
Tiger Mountain is in about the middle of the Tiger Mountain State Forest southeast of Issaquah. Access is via a gravel forest road and you may want to use a GPS or track your mileage as any signs may not lead you clearly to the summit.
McCulloch Peak is another great peak to actiavte if you are in the Corvallis area. It is reached by taking OR Hwy 99W north from Corvallis and turning left about 3 miles from town on Lewisburg Rd. Take Lewisburg road 1.3 miles and bear right onto Sulfur Springs Road. Proceed to the top of Lewisburg Saddle and head back down the hill. Near the bottom of the hill, which is Soap Creek valley, the road will take a 180 degree right turn. This point is 3.9 miles from Hwy99. Stay straight turning onto the gravel road.
The summit near "Dimple Hill" (W7O/CC-118) in McDonald forest near Corvallis
is a nice first summit or a good summit if you are in the area but don't have
much time to spare. To get there, travel north about 4 miles on OR 99W from
Corvallis until Lewisburg Road crosses 99w at the "City Limits Store". Turn
left on Lewisburg Road and travel 1.3 miles where Sulfur Springs Road heads
off to the right. Take Sulfur Springs road for 1.5 miles to the Lewisburg
Saddle (at the top of the grade) where there is ample parking for the trailheads
The Pack Forest is operated by the University of Washington, a bit south of Eatonville, Washington. www.packforest.org.
Arrived at the trailhead at about 9:30AM, and only 3 other vehicles - on a sunny summer day, there are usually 100+ vehicles! It was a very wet and windy day, right from the trailhead. About 1.5 miles up the trail, my wife decided it wasn't that much fun hiking in the high winds and rain, for no views at the summit. I pressed on while she returned to our vehicle at the trailhead. I made good time to the summit and the lookout. While there were some icy patches, I was able to navigate around them and as such never bothered to put on my "micro-spikes".
Quck activation of my "Neigborhood SOTA Summit". It takes me less than 10 minutes to arrive at TH from home. On a very warm day for nearly the end of January (60+ degrees F), we set out from Anti Aircraft TH, Cougar Mountain Regional Park. Our route was abot 7 miles circuit of the upper reaches of the Park. Wilderness Peak is about 1,600 foot in elevation and a 1 point SOTA summit.
A fun evening activation. Here is the blog to the activation: http://kf7pxt.blogspot.com/2014/12/w7wso-081-sota-activation-and-other.html
I made an attempt at this summit on 13 December 2014. I was hoping to get a few bonus points along with an activation of an unactivated summit. Steep Climb and a short day prevented me from making it all the way to the summit.
See my blog here for the whole writeup:
http://kf7pxt.blogspot.com/2014/12/copper-mountain-w7wso-009-attempted.html