Summit is exposed to wind, rain, sun (and good views)
Tallowbox is nice easy summit. <.5mi hike up a gated road. There is equipment, camera lookout, etc up there and I did not get any interference this trip on 20 and 40 with my MTR3B. The drive up is very nice too, paved part way. Great 360 views. de AG7GP
Jim Mee is accessible by continuing southwest on the Tallowbox LO Rd from Tallowbox. It is not accessible from Star Gulch anymore or at the moment. I discovered this the hard way by trying to go down Ladybug Gulch from Jim Mee to Ninemile and the road is deeply bermed quite aways down with no warning. Very disappointed in BLM.
This was the first activation of Gollaher Mountain. The USGS marker at the summit calls it Gollyer Mountain, though all maps and other information uses Gollaher. Someone has placed a register in a glass bottle under some rocks at the summit. A lot of people have signed it. The drive to the summit is relatively straight forward, though somewhat long and requiring 4wd/high clearance (not Prius friendly/Subaru Outback’s may have issues with the deep ruts).
I was driving back to Portland from Northern California and taking Highway 97 for the scenic beauty. There are a number of 4 and 6 point summits in the region with easy-ish access, so I thought I'd try one or two along the way. A forest service employee recommended Orr Mountain, which has great views, a nice open area at the top and an active fire lookout.
My second bust in the Tatoosh Range! These peaks are far enough from PDX that 2m won't reach, and despite the proximity to Seattle, there happens to be a big chuck of rock and ice in the way. I knew it would be a stretch, but was hopeful the extra time on the summit would give me a chance to round up four contacts. Nope. Advice: either bring a beam antenna, your HF rig, or coordinate with other activators and chasers to make sure you can get it done.
Steep, but Priusable route for activating Peak 2905. A one way hike of about 0.9 miles and 100 feet gain. The AZ is on Stimpson Timber land . - not accessible during weekday hours or active logging.
Near Highway 26 milepost 30, turn south onto Shields Road. (About 1.3 miles east of the Sunset Rest Area.) Travel uphill on the main track for 2.1 miles. Note that Google Maps offered several turns just before Shields Road that DO NOT lead to the TH.
May 28th, 2023. Trip #3 up Rocky Top for me and activation #2. But this time we were a party of 7, 5 of which were general class operators.
Dusk Point is a 1.8 mile round trip (500 ft vertical) hike off of FR-2364 in the South Olympics. Access is straightforward (once the snow melts!) but FR-2364 does require a high clearance vehicle. The summit is exposed with limited to no shade even though some trees line the perimeter. I did not have any ATT cell service but there is excellent APRS two-way messaging to enable spotting.
NC-128 is one of the "new" peaks added during the 2023 ARM update. It's on private Stimson land, but publicly accessible to walk-in during weekends and after 4pm on weekdays. The easiest access is drive-in/hike-in from the south via Turner Creek Rd past Barney Reservoir, but would also be accessible by long hike or bike via the north through the same roads as NC-066. If doing the drive/hike route, it's a 15 mile gravel road drive and a 1 mile gravel road hike to the summit. This is easily paired with Blind Cabin Ridge NC-031.
Davis Peak is very accessible to Portland Metro, with a half mile hike and offers an amazing view. The downside is a fair bit of RF interference from the installation sharing the peak with you.
The google directions were accurate, although I will note that the main road to the peak has 2 names, and signage alternates between them : "Aho Carson" and "Davis Peak Road". When google told us to take a right onto Davis Peak Road the sign at the turn said "Aho Carson".
