Last year’s very successful and fun W7O Campout S2S Party (hosted by Amy AG7GP) was the inspiration for this campout. I live in the Vancouver, Washington area and frequently visit the Columbia Gorge and Gifford-Pinchot National Forest. One of my favorite areas to hike and do SOTA activations is the Trout Lake area, which is just north of Hood River, Oregon on the Washington side of the river. There are so many peaks in the area that you can visit dozens of times and still not hit them all!
As such, I have decided to host a campout S2S party in the Trout Lake area this year. I do not want to interfere with the W7O campout which is in early July, so the dates that I am planning on are Friday September 8th through Sunday September 10th. Arriving on Thursday the 7th and departing on Monday the 11th allows you participate all three days, but feel free to book whatever works for you. That is the weekend after Labor Day so we likely won’t be competing with the crowds trying to get in their last campout of the summer, and the weather is still very nice.
I have scoped out the area and stayed at different sites and decided that the best place to host this campout is the Guler Mt. Adams County Park. The only problem with that location is that it is strictly a first-come, first-served campground that does not take any reservations. To mitigate this caveat, I will arrive on Wednesday September 6th and get one of the three available group camping spots along with a spot for my travel trailer. I’ll need somebody else there as well to “reserve” the group camp since it is not permissible to just pitch a tent and have it unoccupied. If you are willing and able to come early let me know.
Elk Meadows RV Resort which is a couple of miles north of Trout Lake, is another option. This is a very nice privately run park that has both RV spots as well as cabins available to stay in for those that don’t want to camp. There are additional spots to stay in the town of Trout Lake itself.
There are several US Forest Service campgrounds in the area as well. None of them have hookups for RVs as is the case with most of the Forest Service facilities. Most of them have pit toilets as well. I know that this doesn’t make for the most comfortable camping for some folks, which is why I decided that Guler Mt. Adams County Park was the best choice in the area. It would be nice if there was a great campground like Amy found for the Oregon campout last year, but alas this is not the case.
I am planning on running two Nets each day (Friday, Saturday and Sunday): one at 1000 and the next at 1400. This makes it easier to knock out the S2S contacts in an organized manner. Of course, any summit activations outside of these times are still welcome, and I know that some of you will want to do more than two each day. It will just be more of an ad-hoc pileup like we typically see.
As a homebrewer, another passion of mine besides ham radio and SOTA is sharing my beer. I will be bringing a 5 gallon keg of beer with me this time as the 2 gallons that I brought to Oregon last summer disappeared far too quickly! That will be available at the end of each day for the entire group to enjoy.
The map in this post shows many of the great summits in the area. For those that want a real challenge and 10 points, Mt. Adams is very close.
The links below point you the park as well other facilities in the Trout Lake area.
Guler-Mt. Adams Klickitat County Park: http://www.klickitatcounty.org/Facilities/Facility/Details/GulerTrout-Lkae-Park-3
Elk Meadow RV Park: https://elkmeadowsrvpark.com/
Trout Lake Forest Service HQ: https://www.bing.com/maps?q=forest+service+trout+lake&FORM=HDRSC6&cp=45.999868%7E-121.541898&lvl=16.0
Let me know if you plan on attending and I will add you to the list. For any other information, feel free to contact me directly at KJ7VDP@outlook.com. The more folks we have involved, the more QSO’s we make and the S2S count goes up as well…
Jeff Langford / KJ7VDP