After nearly two years of less than dedicated seat time I was able to collect my 10,000 SOTA chaser points.  This is my 2nd set of 10K points.  The first being when I operated and chased as WA6RIC.  Moving to Oregon some three years ago, I gave up my W6 callsign for a W7.  I then made the decision to start chasing again in W7O land.  However, I soon found out that my QTH is not in the best location.  Being on the coast (Newport) I have the hills and the Coastal Ranges backing up to me.  That and low sunspots and generally bad band conditio

This summit had never been activated and I now know why!  The USGS maps would have you believe there is a road to the summit.  There actually was a road when the forestry lookout was standing, but the last 1-1/2 miles of road is now overgrown and would take some guts and a great off-road 4-wheeler to traverse it.  These same last miles are steep and unrelenting, though completely forested.  When the so-called road ends. there are a few hundred feet of vertical trail required to reach the summt.

Scar Moutain is a old lookout site. No trail to the summit which required some bush wacking. Start by taking Parish Road off of Highyway 22 east of Detroit at 44°31'31.88"N 121°59'40.09"W. Follow this for about 2.25 miles. Turn right onto NF-1164 at 44°31'19.71"N 122° 1'49.04"W for about 2.5 miles. Then turn left on NF-1161 at 44°33'2.95"N 122° 2'38.65"W. Follow this for 4 miles. Turn left at 44°33'56.79"N 122° 6'26.54"W. The peak is on your left. After I went left I parked on a wide spot on the road less then a quarter mile in.

ON August 5 and 6 2017 let's work Summit-to-Summit !

This is a quick update on Grass Mountain, W7O/CC-002, near Alsea, OR. In the past, this trail to a grassy meadow with nice views of the valley below was worth the time and effort.

Powell Buttes HP is an RF intensive summit between Redmond and Prineville, OR. I believe that it is a VOR site in addition to the other typical radio equipment. It is clearly marked as off limits.

Give this one a pass.

On June 7, 2017 my wife and I were in the region east of Canyonville, OR. After enjoying Pickett Butte, we headed to Acker Rock, another rock outcrop with a lookout perched on top. Both of these are 2 point summits.

I was staying at The Lodge in Castle Rock State Park for a long weekend. This park is just north of City Of Rocks National Reserve which is a world class rock climbing destination. Though I am not a rock climber there are also a whole bunch of nice SOTA summits in the area. I picked CI-131 as I could see it from the front porch of The Lodge. In fact when I was on top, my wife, looking through binoculars, could see me waving at her. How often can your wife actually see you on a summit if she is not also with you?

This was the last of four Elkton, OR area summits that we explored on May 21, 2017. With a name like that, we were a bit apprehensive, but we set off along a route I traced on a topo map. It starts by turning off of Highway 38 onto Wetherly Creek Rd. This took us into an intense logging area, but no one was working on Sunday.