Activation Reports

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!

Mount Solo on the west side of Longview, Washington off Highway 432 is posted "No Trespassing." Solo View Drive that heads towards the summit is a private road and has a gate. 

4.0 miles (+2340, -1090) from Bighorn Lake; 15.2 mile approach from Dearborn TH

We made this part of a 4-day backpacking trip that included W7M/CL-082 (Peak 7676) and W7M/CL-008 (Caribou Peak).  See also the trip reports for these summits.  The trip report for W7M/CL-082 describes trailhead parking at the Dearborn Trailhead & the initial portion of the trail to our campsite on the Continental Divide between Blacktail Creek and the Lander’s Fork.

0.7 miles (+940 feet, -190 feet) from saddle; 12.2 mile approach from Dearborn TH

We made this part of a 4-day backpacking trip that included W7M/CL-057 (Peak 7676) and W7M/CL-008 (Caribout Peak).  See also the trip reports for these summits.  The trip report for W7M/CL-082 describes trailhead parking at the Dearborn Trailhead & the initial portion of the trail to our campsite on the Continental Divide between Blacktail Creek and the Lander’s Fork.

0.5 miles, +740 feet; 9.1 mile approach

4.6 miles, 2,200 feet

This is a very nice hike on a well marked trail.

UPDATE MARCH 2023 - W7O/NC-037 has been retired. Please refer to the replacement W7O/NC-129. 

Ten miles from Tillamook and off Highway 6 there is a near drive-up summit – Blue Ridge. The road is a bit rough in places but should be okay in a carefully driven passenger vehicle. Don’t confuse this Blue Ridge with W7O/SC-202 Blue Ridge near Coos Bay. The hike is short but steep 0.2 miles.

A bit over 11 miles from Tillamook on Highway 6 you will find this easy drive-up summit – Peak 2300. The road was graveled smooth in early 2018 and would be drivable in a passenger vehicle, even if a little steep in a few places.

“Bah,” said Scrooge, “Humbug.” At least that was what we thought to ourselves as we looked at the weather forecast for the weekend. The Weather Channel splashed the headlines of a series of epic storms that were lashing the west coast. Regardless, the lead sherpa was determined to get the family out of the house. There would be no sour moods for us! “There is hiking to be done, geocaches to be found, and a summit to be activated!” she proclaimed.

Scrambling much of the Rocky Mountain Front’s limestone summits keeps you looking for good footing as well as viewing the many ancient fossils of life when these high mountains were an ocean floor some 300 million years ago.   The fossils are common and so are trails of big horn sheep and mountain goats.  The views are outstanding of surrounding rugged SOTA summits and to the east, the vast plains of Montana.