Activation Reports

This summit is an easy driveup, though low clearance vehicles will have trouble with the last half mile or so. Even better, park at the bottom of the steep hill climbs and hike in or pick up the unused motorcycle trail (starting near 45.3353, -123.559) that crosses over the summit and follow it up. The hill is accessed by Boundary Road, which is accessed from the upper reaches of the Trask drainage or a variety of roads that climb up from the Nestucca.

An easily accessed summit, that's easily access from the Nestucca River byway. A bunch of different roads will lead you into the area from nearly any direction. Probably the easiest is up Fan Creek Road from the Nestucca River. It is near enough to Boudary road to access several other nearby summits along the same ridgeline.

I was in Spokane with my wife, who was presenting some research at a conference (I'm retired, she's the "breadwinner" now) and had some time to kill. I brought my KX2 along, with a QRPGuys 40m-10m UnUnTenna. This is a fairly simple antenna, with wire mated to a 9:1 unun, and takes a bnc coax jumper from the KX2. After a hike up from the parking area, I found a good place to set up, and threw a messenger line up into a tree. It was then that I realized I had not remembered to bring the coax jumper. This really deflated me. All that effort, and there was to be no activation.

A one point summit that you might want to do along with close by Cedar Butte, Triangulation Point, Blue Ridge or Peak 2300.

Myself and AC7MA set off to activate Hex Mountain (1534m, 6 Points + 3 winter bonus) this past Tuesday (20th March). Here is a short video I made at the summit:
https://youtu.be/wEc5C1NV1F0

It was a beautiful sunny day and we had the mountain to ourselves. Snow conditions were great - we were on snow the entire hike but did not need snowshoes. It was about as perfect as an early spring activation could possibly be! Compared to our last activation (Sky Mountain) this was a walk in the park.

In looking at peaks near my QTH that had not been activated yet, I noticed Long Mountain (W7O/NC-034).  There were no notes on the peak’s page warning of issues and from examing the maps, it appeared that it may be a fairly routine exercise to get to the summit which is just north of Green Mountain.

Planned on a camping trip for a few weeks to the area so I'd scouted out the summits on the map and noted routes in. Our orignal plan was to camp at and activate W7O/CE-265 - 6057 but in the weeks leading up to the trip, lots of snow had fallen in the higher elevations.

Good parking along the road in a pullout (during winter).  Note for winter ascents, stay left of the track at the bottom so you keep high.  Do not go right into the quarry as you will need to climb out.  We had to snowshoe up mud!  We stayed high on the descent.  On your climb up, work your way to the left hand summit ridge.  No trail and steep, but doable.  Metal posts at the top to strap antenna to.  Great views

In the summer you may be able to drive into the gravel quarry and take other ridgelines.

This is becoming a popular summit and may be one of the most accessable summits in the Boise area.  This is about an hour drive from Boise however.  The parking is always good as they plow the side road next to Little Camas Reservoir.  Snowmobile activity is present in the winter and also park along the road.  The snowmobile tracks can help with a winter track up the lower slopes.

In the summer, this track (below) can be used, but a shorter/direct route can be found if you park in a pull-out SW of the summit on Hwy20.

I took advantage of the great weather to take a stroll up Squak mountain with a friend and my son. The activation zone is a nice, wide, clear gravel area. This was my first activation on HF and with a new radio. Needless to say I was a little nervous about being able to make any contacts at all. It did take a while for anyone to come back to me, but I pretty quickly made 5 contacts on 20m and one on 40m. Not bad for my first time playing around on HF!