After the long Iambic adventure I was looking for something easy and short. I choose Mount Wow, and read a lot of trip reports about the mountain. I had three choices to get onto the top. On the west ridge, from south following the old national park border trail, or from east using the Alan lake trail, which is also abandoned. At the end I decided to try it from west. This one is the shortest and most likely the easiest too.
On 5 June, 2013 I headed up to Wildcat Mtn. in the Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness section of Mt. Hood National Forest OR for my first attempt at a SOTA activation. This is a quick and easy trip out of the Portland area, so give it a go!
Douglas Trail #781: route described below starts at Upper Douglas Trailhead
Driving Directions:
Just south of downtown Issaquah is Squak Mountain. It's a Washington State Park and so access is straightforward. From the north trailhead it's 2.3 miles one way on a maze of trails where it's a good idea to check the trail map carefully as there are several junctions on the way to the summit and one unsigned (very short) trail link.
Along this trail I observed the largest spruce trees I've seen in Oregon - the trail is nearly a perfect picture of the Oregon coastal rain forest. That being said, there are no expansive views, no place for your antenna, and no place to sit...but it is an nice hike on the Oregon coast and close to Highway 101.
W7TAO and K7ATN will be activating W7O/NC-004 on the way to SeaPac in Seaside on Friday afternoon. QRV time for us is about 2100. If you are at SeaPac, please call us on 146.58-fm.
Sea Pac, the ARRL NW region hamfest is May 31 to June 2, 2013. We are having a Friday night SOTA gathering, much like last year. This year we have reserved the banquet room at the the same pizza place we met last year, so we should have lots of room for the expanding group of SOTA folks!
Sea Pac, the ARRL NW region hamfest is May 31 to June 2, 2013. We are having a Friday night SOTA gathering, much like last year. This year we have reserved the banquet room at the the same pizza place we met last year, so we should have lots of room for the expanding group of SOTA folks!
Sea Pac, the ARRL NW region hamfest is May 31 to June 2, 2013. We are having a Friday night SOTA gathering, much like last year. This year we have reserved the banquet room at the the same pizza place we met last year, so we should have lots of room for the expanding group of SOTA folks!
Most of the Oregon south coast summits are accessible only by dirt roads. access to summit bases are on un maintained dirt roads. Since the South Coast gets, on average, 6 feet of rain a year, well, you can imagine what a steep unmaintained dirt road looks like.