Treacherous Trail

An Activation...yes.  A great trip...undoubtedly!  However no points to show for the effort, as I only managed to eke out 3 + contacts on 40M ssb... Yet I do not consider it a failure.  I will return again, and give it another try.  Round trip travel was 13.1 miles, with something over 4,000 feet gain, including some ups and downs along the very long summit ridge.  Highlights included portions of the Wonderland Trail of Mount Rainier Park, a few creek crossings of the wildly flowing Fryingpan Creek, replete with slippery boulder hopping leaps, and being able to spend time with my son, KC7SQD, who was up visiting from LA LA Land.

Description of hike is that of a lesser grade, but longer distance.  We took the shorter distance (about 6.7 miles total) and 2800 elevation gain.  We took the trail to the right and stayed on the newer trail. 

It was very windy up on top which caused us to leave pretty quickly after getting four contacts....

Nice weather, good company and a successful Activation (including a summit to summit contact with VE7DB on VE7/FV-024) were high points.  The route was not terribly ascetic, and the summit block is a large pile of Basalt talus.  We elected to operate from the false summit to the southeast of the summit block. This was a joint Activation with Tim Nair, KG7EJT.  Joining us was Masako, Tim's wife and Sharon, my wife.  Rounding out the crew was Dexter the SOTA Dog.

K7MK and I headed out to activate this summit as our first ever activation. K7MK has been assembling a SOTA capable station for the last 6 months or so. We have done a dry run or two in his back yard and even hauled it up to a non-SOTA summit back in February on a rare warm winter weekend afternoon. But, this was our first real activation.

In recent years, our family has transitioned from tradition material gift giving
to giving that is more relationally based. My oldest son Andrew had noticed that
I kept talking about activating Hayrick Butte but was a bit reluctant based on
the looks of it from the map and in person. He took notice and did a bit of
research. On Christmas morning 2014 I got an interesting relational gift of a
winter-time summit attempt and activation of Hayrick Butte.

Hayrick Butte is an interesting geological feature. Hayrick Butte is a tuya

Here's a sort of easy hike close in to Klamath Falls, Oregon. You'll keep your car clean as the trailhead access is paved all the way into the parking lot. 

My general guidelines for off trail hiking are a mile or so across open sagebrush steppe, perhaps half a mile through open forests like ponderosa pine, and about a quarter mile for a western Douglas fir forest. This activation is a reminder to stay with these guidelines and not ever wander through a lava flow again.

I started from the Carson Guler Road, parking about 2.5 miles east of the gate for Red Mountain (W7W/LC-036 - a recommended activation). 

Stevens Peak in Mount Rainier National Park, is a committed alpine climb. It's recommended you prepare carefully reading guidebooks and climbing websites, and making sure you have the necessary skills, experience and equipment. You will need to be able to handle wilderness route finding, high angle snow ascent and descent, mixed rock and snow, rock climbing, and challenging terrain.

There are two Unicorn Peaks in Washington - this Unicorn Peak is in the Tatoosh Range in Mount Rainier National Park. Unicorn Peak is a committed alpine climb - it can't really be considered a hike.

Here's another four-point summit north of Carson, Washington. You might be able to get within a mile or so in a carefully driven passenger car - perhaps only a little farther in a high-clearance vehicle.