Summit 7905 W7I/BC-059 was the second stop on K7MK's and K7ZO's Idaho Triple Play day. (Along with Pilot Peak W7I/BC-056 and Sunset Mountain W7I/BC-062. See these other activation reports for the whole story of the day. Where appropriate, some text is repeated in each report to make each one a standalone complete story.)
Pilot Peak W7I/BC-056 was the first stop on K7MK's and K7ZO's Idaho Triple Play day. (Along with Summit 7905 W7I/BC-059 and Sunset Mountain W7I/BC-062. See these other activation reports for the whole story of the day. Where appropriate, some text is repeated in each report to make each one a standalone complete story.)
The Idaho Kool-Aid kids, K7MK and K7ZO, accomplished our Triple Play on July 31. Not without some usual SOTA challenges. We got a late start courtesy of a plumbing emergency at K7ZO's QTH (aren't all plumbing projects emergencies?). So, we had about an hour less time for our summit quests than we had planned. Thanks to support from our RZR drivers and chauffeurs, Steve and Rich, we were able to zoom around 20+ miles of typical Idaho back-country road and ATV trails, being dropped of for our final pedestrian climbs to the activation points.
A four (4) point SOTA Summit, close in to Seattle Metro area. This makes a great first Activation objective. A quick return trip outing, just before the weather turned bad. We still ended the Activation early, as it started raining. Accompanied by my wife Sharon and our Labrador Retriever Dexter the SOTA Dog.
K7MK and I continue to get our SOTA Activator legs under us. We are going to attempt a Idaho Triple Play on Friday afternoon the 31st. Look for us on the following summits starting around 2:00PM MDT/20:00 UTC.
Trout Creek Butte is a convenient activation site from the town of
Sisters, Oregon. Its only about 12 miles from the town center. This
summit could probably be considered a drive-up, provided the gate
near the top was open and you had a suitable vehicle.
From the west side of the town of Sisters, take Oregon 242 west. Just
after passing Sisters High School, NF-15 will head south on your left.
My description begins here (mile-point zero) at the junction of NF-15
and Oregon 242.
Take NF-15, heading south initially on blacktop. The blacktop turns to
K7MK and I headed out late in the morning on July 24 to accomplish a double -- Boise Peak - W7I/BC-079 and this summit 6624 - W7I/BC-077. We were thwarted on our access to Boise Peak by an impassible section of road. See a separate activation report on Boise Peak for that story. This wasted well over an hour of time as we drove up the road to Boise Peak and then came back down again. If there was one silver lining is this cloud is that during the round trip we noticed that K7MK's APRS system was not working.
This is not a formal activation report but a heads up and advice to anyone trying to access Boise Peak, W7I/BC-079. The shortest path up to the peak is via a road extending from 8th Street in Boise up the the Boise Ridge Road and then over to Boise Peak. On Boise National Forest Service maps the 8th Street Extension is shown as FS-231 and the Boise Ridge Road as FS-275.
Pine Mountain east of Bend, Oregon is a beautiful and relatively isolated summit in the summer. However, there is no defined trail so you have to find your own way through low density pine forest and scrubland.
Round Mountain near La Pine, Oregon is a straightforward and interesting activation in the summer. There is a fire lookout tower on the summit and the 360 degree views are magnificent.