Good Parking At Trailhead

KK7HJL and I had been wanting to get out and do more activations during our Holiday break from work responsibilities.The weather and social calendars colluded to prevent us from making it happen until the last day of our break. We won a pair of lift tickets to Hoodoo Ski area and decided to bring along our radio's to see if we could activate the summit. This is one of the easiest "hikes" we have done, since it really only involved walking from the car to the bottom of the lift.

Canuck Peak is a forested summit in far northwestern Montana. The summit is identified only by three summit trails all heading downhill, a sign pointing to American Peak and a recently burned cabin. The trail to Canuck Peak is part of the Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail system Congressionally designated in 2009. The one-mile trail portion to Canuck Peak is a well-maintained easy grade. The trail traverses’ dense subalpine forest having periodic good crops of summer huckleberries. 

Summit 7112 is at the head of Ninemile Creek and overlooks the Clark Fork valley to the north. It is a pleasant hike on cooler summer days.  The on-trail and off-trail are currently exposed with very little tree cover. It will remain open until lodgepole pine regeneration grows for another decade or two.  The summit offers good views of the Mission Mountains and summits of the Reservation Divide.  Snags are abundant so exercise caution especially on windy days. 

Hike miles roundtrip:  1 on-trail #98 and 1 mile off-trail

This un-named summit is near US Forest Service trail #313 south from Skalkaho Pass. The trail begins in a regenerated timber harvest unit and quickly transitions to old-lodgepole pine/Rocky Mountain subalpine fir forest partly burned by a wildfire in the early 2000’s.  Most of the trail is within this wildfire and is dominated by snags and windfall trees. Use caution traveling this area especially on windy days. In approximately one mile the trail enters a moist unburned large wet area dominated by large spruce.

Nice easy walk, bike or drive up. Can be VERY windy.

Full report at https://w7mtb.blogspot.com/2022/11/activation-report-w7oce-068-pine.html

Very easy walk in all seasons. Summer is very busy.

Full trip report at https://w7mtb.blog/2022/11/activation-report-w7oce-188-lava-butte.html

Skalkaho gets its name from the area in Salish meaning ‘many trails’.  Unrelated to the name, the summit does have several trails converging near its summit.  I chose the trail coming from the west off FS road #364.  This trail has many views of other SOTA summits and to the west the much higher elevation Bitterroot Range. 

The trail is well defined and approaches within ¼ mile of the summit, an easy off-trail scramble. 

Four curious mule deer greeted me near the summit and hung around.  Interested in CW, I thought?  

Summary - Lakeview Peak is on Weyerhauser's Longview land north of Yale and is accessed through a gate on Rock Creek Road. The drive to the gate is roughly eighty minutes. From the gate  to the summit is another 2.5 miles and a 1400 foot climb along logging roads.  Don't count on two meters to make your four QSOs. Cell phone service is marginal, and APRS pings get picked up.

Palisade Mountain is a popular hike east of Corvallis, MT. The trail system is well maintained to within 500’ of the summit. The summit is a large talus rock pile with a several oddly-located whitebark pine trees.  Evidence of the 1930s lookout still exist as some rock work and old trails in the talus. The main trail does not go to the summit though a semi-improved travel way in the talus on the west side does. Excellent views exist from the summit including a large expanse of the Stony Mountain Roadless Area. 

Dome Shaped Mountain is a scenic and lightly traveled trail near Hamilton Montana. Much of the hike overlooks a large portion of the Stony Mountain Roadless Area. Alpine larch dominate the summit with brilliant yellow fall color in early October contrasting with green whitebark pine. Most of the trail system is in unburned forest with large wildfire burned areas to the east. Two unsigned trail junctions are worthy to note as they could be easily missed on the return trip.  See the directions narrative.