Easy Trail

All of our trips to Lopez Island seem to involve a bike ride, and today was no exception. After a brisk ride in this year's annual Tour de Lopez, KG7JEH and I left the latex-clad crowd at the finish line for some SOTA de Lopez action. As it turned out, that action didn't last too long before my battery was down to 10 volts and I called it a day.

After taking the ferry ride from Anacortes to Lopez Island, getting to the trailhead is easy, and directions can be found with Google Maps - search for "Lopez Hill Trailhead". 

This Friday afternoon activation happened on a cool day with the sun breaking through a few clouds for a beatiful sky above the epic scenery. It takes a ferry ride from Anacortes to Orcas Island to get here, but it's sure worth the trip! The main road goes from the ferry dock right through Moran State Park. Turn left at the Y onto the Mt Constitution road, which can take you all the way to a sizeable parking lot at the top. A brief pathway leads up to the peak with a stone lookout tower that is just too cool not to climb. 

An early ferry ride out of Anacortes took me to Orcas Island and, after a short drive, I arrived at the Cascade Falls trailhead by about 7 AM. My plans included biking in about 3 miles and hiking up the last 3/4 mile to the summit. Wrong. I was 1/2 hour into the ride when 2 facts became clear: 1. My hybrid bike was not up to the task of handling that muddy, rocky, slippery road - no matter how much air I let out of the tires. 2. My lungs, legs, and nerves weren't up to the task either. I took the bike back down to the truck and began again.

There are at least four trails that approach the summit of Big Huckleberry Mountain - we choose the Pacific Crest Trail from the south for about 8.6 miles round trip and 1400 feet of net elevation gain (1900 total).

Here's a six point summit to tackle on a nice summer day - we tried it with lots of snow and found a blizzard at the top in mid-April. The trail is on a road of about 7 miles round trip and about 1800 feet of gain. 

Check out my blog at http://kf7pxt.blogspot.com/2014/03/larch-mountain-w7wlc-103-sota.html for additional information.

Here is my everytrail post with downloadable GPX tracks - http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=2713566

On a quck training hike for our Switzerland Hiking / Climbing tour next July / August, I carried along my trusty ICOM - IC - V85 2M HT because it has an output of 7 Watts.  Together with my old AEA "Hot Rod" telescoping vertical antenna for 2M, it seems to work very well on 2M FM.  Squak Mountain, 617 Meters, 2,024 Feet elevation is an easy 4.2 miles RT hike gaining 1,274 feet to the summit.  It is easily accessible from my home QTH in Bellevue, WA.  Park on SR900 (Issaquah - Renton Road) or, as we did, at one of the higher trailheads on Mountainside

Peak 3534 is a near drive up in the Tillamook State Forest west of Portland off Highway 6. It would be a good combination activation with South Saddle Mountain, W7O/NC-002.

If you are tackling Peak 3534 on its own or to start first on South Saddle, use the directions here http://www.pnwsota.org/blog/k7nit/2013-august-13/south-saddle-mtn-or-ju… to find the "major triangle intersection" and consider using a GPS and a good map while in the Tillamook State Forest.

Along Highway 22 between Salem and Detroit there is a near drive-up summit. In 2013 the road was passable (with some care) in a passenger car. (It may be a bit overgrown now.) This summit could be a  back up plan when nearby Rocky Top can't be accessed due to snow. In fact, 

Here is an urban 'pavement' activation - the closest one to downtown Portland. The summit proper for Cornell Mountain is on private property with the Activation Zone accessible from a neighborhood street with very limited shoulders. This summit is near a number of very large comm installations and 2m FM was totally blocked with S9 noise on my Yaesu VX-8G - 70cm FM might be a better choice and HF isn't a great option as there's only a small shoulder spot in the AZ big enough for HF antennas - and that's where you can park.