North Chuckanut is a heavily treed summit with very limited views, but is a nice well-marked hike. On a cloudy and rainy Saturday, the trail was well used. To access the summit, use the Pine & Cedar Lakes trailhead which is easily accessed off I-5 near Bellingham, WA. There is good parking and no pass required.
Directions:
Skagit Gadget is a 1-point summit, located within ~20 minutes of I-5 in Skagit County. Some of the area has been logged, and it is a 4 mile road hike with ~700 ft of gain. Both times I've actived as a second summit for the day, and was thankful to squeeze in enough vhf contacts before a new UTC day rollover. Trees are starting to grow near the summit activation area, but there are some views at summit...and more views hiking up.
Directions:
You are in Vancouver for a short time, and want to activate a summit. Where to go? Burnaby Mountain!!
Burnaby Mountain Park is located just 30 minutes east of downtown Vancouver BC. The park offers scenic views, hiking trails, sculptures, and gardens. It also happens to be an easy one-point SOTA summit! It might be the easiest summit in Canada, eh? Most importantly it offers great views and interesting sculpture to keep your significant other / non-ham friends busy while you play radio.
Here is an easy drive up near Cole Mountain. Unpaved roads are good gravel with a few pot holes here and there. Should be alright in any vehicle as of this writing. My Garmin gps and google maps were worthless finding this summit. So here is my attempt to make it easier for the next activator.
While in the Tri-Cities area for a family event, was able to activate Badger mountain later in the afternoon. The trail is very open, and would be very hot during the middle of summer days. In the evening, there were many people using the trail. Since the trail is so open, I enjoyed the views for miles around and seeing the Tri-Cities from a different perspective.
For Mother's Day 2019, was able to blend a family hike and very quick SOTA activation. Activating Guemes Island includes a short ferry ride from Anacortes, and shorter hike (2.2m round-trip) with minor elevation gain (~587 ft). The summit area has great views, and has both a great open space along with areas of trees for antenna's and/or holding a mast. No pass is required at the trailhead, but there is limited parking for ~4 cars.
Here's an unremarkable drive-up summit in the mid-Willamette Valley west of Salem.
Camano Island is a 1-point summit accessed via a short and nearly flat elevation gain hike, or drive-up due to larger activation area. Thank you Josh WU7H for blog comment about drive-up option, and difficulty trying to chase this summit. Stopping on side of N Cross Island Rd just North of the summit appears to be one drive-up option (see picture below).
I was looking for a reasonably tough snowshoe that could be accomplished in a day, and with few bonus point opportunities, and only so many sno parks, I kept coming back to my favorite mountains from last year. I decided to give this a try, and all things considered it went very well.
Cole Mountain is a drive-up in the Coast Range south of Highway 26 off of Highway 53. The road is passable in any passenger car and it's a radio quiet spot.