NOTE: Conditions on Mt. Hood can change weekly, even daily. Consult up-to-date weather, avalanche, and beta reports.
On March 31st, 2021 I took advantage of a weather window and reasonable avalanche forecast to activate Mt. Hood (W7O/CN-001) via the standard South Side route.
Shingle Mountain summit is a 5-mile out and back hike located Northeast of Dog Mountain and Augspurger Mountain north of the Columbia River accessed from a national forest road just before reaching the Moss Creek Campground. I marked both “Easy Trail” and “Treacherous Trial” above because like many SOTA summits, you get both on this one.
K7EEX trip report for Wolfe Point (http://www.pnwsota.org/blog/k7eex/2018-january-13/wolf-point-oregon) mentioned a possible south trail. This report confirms a south access to Wolfe Point.
If coming from Cedar Butte activation, turn off of the road at: N45.57747° W123.63990°. Park at N45.57731° W123.61891° the trail looks like a small drainage (see pic). It is not maintained and hard to follow in places but you can get to the top from this south access.
Gerakovuni is the highest point of Mount Othrys. We started in Almyros, about 19 km north of the peak.We did not follow the paint marks but used the GPS to bring us more directly to the summit. I'm not sure that was the best idea. I believe we may have passed through these two waypoints on the way to the summit.
39.06381, 22.70841 39.05323, 22.69743
The upland terrain is rocky and open, allowing easy cross-country.
Between October 21 and October 30, 2020, we visited the Sunriver / Bend areas of Oregon. The cold but clear weather allowed us to Activate 8 SOTA summits in 6 outings. This report is one of a series, and deals with the Activation of Burma Rd HP, AKA Point 4,230, W7O/CE-304. Prior to coming to the Bend / Sunriver area, I had contacted Ron, W6PZA, who lives in Bend, Oregon. I had seen on-line that he had been a very consistent Activator in this area, and reached out to him to possibly arrange some joint Activations. Happily, things worked out, we hit it off, and wound up doing 2 joint Activations - this one, and also North Paulina Peak, the subject of another Activation report.
This was #2 of 3 that I did outside of the town of Rogue River during a day trip. This one was a killer. When I click treacherous trail it is because there was none. I drove the main road (BLM 37 5 1) until what seemed to be the highest you could drive to on the north side but the bank is very steep and brushy so it was difficult to find a good starting point. And boy was it hard. This hill is mainly fist sized rock that is mossed over, crumbling beneath your feet, with a very steep angle to climb. It was difficult to stay upright.
TL;DR - Peak 3534 is a twenty to thirty minute drive from South Saddle Mountain (W7O/NC-002) over logging roads. You pass South Saddle to get to 3534 so a two summit, four point day is easy. 4WD, good directions, and GPS are really handy. Once you park, the short hike up is steep but no worries, there's a longer, gentler path, too. The summit has no views, a small open space, trees, good APRS signals, and is RF quiet. Not a summit for hanging out nor the best place for HF antennas but easy to activate with 2M FM.
Between our October 21, 2020 arrival in Sunriver, Oregon, and our October 30 departure, we were fortunate enough to have a spell of mostly cold and dry weather. This allowed us to Activate 8 SOTA summits in 6 outings. We also had the opportunity of doing 2 joint Activations with Ron, W6PZA, of Bend, Oregon - which was a lot of fun! This report is one of a series, and deals with Mount Bachelor, W7O/CM-005. The mountain is a Strata-Volcano, standing 9,065 feet in elevation. It is in close proximity to the Three Sisters Wilderness, with its 3 namesake volcanos, all over 10,000 feet elevation. Also in the vicinity is Broken Top, a collapsed volcano of over 9,000 feet elevation. This nearby combination of peaks, together with a parade of many other strata volcanos from Washington State into Northern California, gives Mount Bachelor stunning vistas in all directions.
East Tonga Ridge is best paired with nearby Mt. Sawyer (KG-052). It is quite a bushwhack to get to the summit of East Tonga, but worth it!
The drive in from HWY 2 is very straightforward. I recommend you read WW7D's report for a good description:
http://www.pnwsota.org/node/610
A 'sorta' near drive-up in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest north of Carson. You can drive within a mile of this unremarkable peak and likely have a nice quiet time playing radio.