Biddle Butte, WA | February 2023 (via publicly-accessible route)

For this activation, I followed the recommendation made by N7LF in this blog post and came at Biddle Butte (or Mount Zion) from the north through Federally-owned land. I parked along the paved Strunk rd and continued on foot from there. As noted in the aforementioned post, there is a barbed wire fence but there are no signs restricting access. The hike was characterized by the initial fence hop; copious, sharp brambles for the first half; and a short, steep hill near the end. I recommend bringing one or ideally two hiking poles to help with a small stream crossing and the brief, but steep, ascent. Wear long sleeves, robust pants, and boots to protect against the pointy foliage. Once you've traveled far enough south, you'll hit a trail before Mt Zion road which you can follow up to the peak. The trail is wide enough for a vehicle and has wires running up to the infrastructure at the top, so you won't miss it. I had no problem making contacts on 2m FM at the top.

I used the app OnX to track where I was relative to the public/private ownership boundaries. The usability of this app was nice, but I don't necessarily recommend it. It's primarily used by hunters and is relatively expensive ($20/year for 1 state, $100/year for nationwide maps). However, you can get a 7-day, single-state free trial which is what I used for this trip just to try the app out and make sure I stayed in federal boundaries.

If you decide to take this route up to Biddle Butte and forget your hiking poles, i've left a stick for you at the spot that I entered. Picture below.