Decided to kick it up a notch this time, (but only one notch) and do a 4 pointer. But feeling a bit lazy I went looking for a 4-pointer that I could reach without a really long hike. Gold Mountain, just east of Darrington, fits the bill. I headed north from downtown Darrington on SR530, and then east on Sauk Prairie Rd. After a couple miles, turned south on FS24 (pretty good gravel road), and after 4 or 5 miles turned right on FS2420 (OK gravel road with a few potholes to dodge).
Activation Reports
Submitted by KK7DS on
Summit:
A six-point SOTA on a Wednesday? You bet! The July 4th holiday made for a nice mid-week excursion to the hills to one of Washington's fourteen Goat Mountains. This one was twelve miles north of Mt. St. Helens.
After getting stopped at a closed forest road in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, we rerouted and arrived at the trailhead for Goat Mountain Trail #217 a little late. As soon as we stepped out of the Jeep, we knew that we were in for a bloody battle against the "skeeters." I think I was a pint low before I even started climbing.
Submitted by N7AAM on
Summit:
A good dirt/gravel goes all the way to the top. There is a small radio tower, container and photo cell structure. Park somewhere down the hill and make the final hike to the top. There is good cell coverage and I was able to self spot. The top is forested so the view is through trees to the Sisters and Mt. Bachelor to the north.
I did not spend a lot of time at the top since the mosquitos were out in force.
This is an easy 6 pointer but remember to bring your bug spray if you are there in summer.
Submitted by K7TAY on
Summit:
Stats:
6.8 miles roundtrip
1761 ft elevation gain
Start elevation: 3463 ft
End elevation: 4962 ft
Submitted by KG7E on
Summit:
This is probably the easiest summit to locate in Idaho. It is a volcanic dome that rises 2500 feet in the middle of the Snake River Lava Plain. You can't miss it. I accessed it from the ARCO approach, a drive of about 20 miles across a dusty BLM desert road which brought me to the base. Here I unloaded my ATV and rode up the summit trail which is 5 miles one way. A really fine and popular ATV trail ride. The trail ends at the very peak where there is a viewing platform and stinky outhouse.
Submitted by KX7L on
Summit:
This was really a spur-of-the-moment thing. I saw the weather was going to be great on Friday, cleared a day off with the boss, and checked over my "portable station": My NorCal NC-20, EFHW tuner and 34' of wire. Cobbled up a Li-ion battery, and looked over some summit possiblities. I settled on West Tiger as not being too far away, or too ambitious for a first attempt. (But I wanted to do more than a 1-pointer!) So I put an alert on SOTAwatch, and set 11:00am local as a start time.
Submitted by KK7DS on
Summit:
As we headed back from Lakeview Peak earlier in the day, Taylor and I took a detour to go by Bandwidth Mountain. This two-point summit is not significant enough to have an official name, but like many in the Washington SOTA database, it has been assigned a cute amateur-radio name to avoid a simple numbering system. Our outdated topo map software showed a road leading in the direction of the summit, but stopping a couple miles short. However, some satellite reconnaissance ahead of time showed that the road actually went much farther, to just below the base of the summit.
Submitted by KK7DS on
Summit:
UPDATE (as of June 18, 2017): Weyerhaeuser now requires a recreational permit in order to access this area.