An opportunity for a one-day, three summits activation. A good US Forest Service road system gets one close enough to activate three summits easily in one day, rare in Western Montana. Babcock Mountain is forested summit. The other two summits, Golden Mountain (W7M/GA-141) and Burnt Mountain (W7M/GA-145) are open summits and accessible via short hikes from the same US Forest Service road system. Trees are available for attaching wire ante
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.
Chinese Peak is one of the few drive-ups in the area during the Spring, Summer and Fall. Take South 5th street in Pocatello Idaho and Turn East at Barton Rd. You will arrive at a large turn around /TH..if the BLM gate is open you can drive all the way to the summit. This gate closes to motorized vehicles from Nov 15th to April 1st due to it is a winter game range.
There are alot of various towers on the summit. It is a great summit to chase on or to learn SOTA activating.
Summit 6620 is located in N Bannock County. Travel North down Hiline road from Pocatello Id to 2 1/2 mile rd in Tyhee Idaho. Proceed up 2 1/2 mile road pass the Oregon Trail Gun Club. You will go literally through a landowners property with his house and outbuildings, drive slow and be respectful. Proceed down the Rd until you see a paneled gate..on the gate it states "OPEN AUGUST 31st TO NOV 16 ". The admission onto this property is allowed through what is called "Access Yes" by our Fish and Game Dept.
One-day, three summits. A good US Forest Service road system gets one close enough to activate three summits easily in one day, rare in Western Montana. Burnt Mountain is an open grass/scattered-tree summit. The other two nearby summits are Golden Mountain (W7M/GA-141) and Babcock Mountain (W7M/GA-146). Both accessible v
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
This summit is located South of Pocatello Idaho. Take Bannock Hwy through Pocatello to Gibson Jack Rd which will take you to the Gibson Jack TH (see W7I-SI-153 Writeup below).
This summary is for two summits...Joell, KJ7GFN and I started our SOTA trip about 1.5 hrs before daylight, I was hoping to get to the first summit, Smith Rock (also Sky Lakes Wilderness for WWFF), while dx was still happening to EU. We dressed preparing for a freezing morning, forecast was at 20-25f low in the area, figured even cooler at 6000'. I wore the warmest of everything I had since I get cold very easily. But we were fooled! Some sort of an inversion in the mountains was happening and I am guessing it was more around 50-55!
One-day triple-summits activation. A good US Forest Service road system gets one close enough to activate three summits easily in one day, a bit rare in Western Montana. The other two summits, Burnt Mountain (W7M/GA-145) and Babcock Mountain (W7M/GA-146) are accessible via short hikes from the same US Forest Service road system.
This summit is located South of Pocatello Idaho. Take Bannock Highway through town and turn at Gibson Jack Rd. The Trailhead is approx 3 miles on paved road. Once at the Gibson Jack TH take either trail 7015 which is a steep, exposed motorized trail...I would only take a dirt bike or 4 wheeler due to the condition of the trail or you can take single track non-motorized trail number 7014 which is longer but less exposed. I generally choose to hike the motorized trail due to time constraints.