Trail contains no technical obstacles
This turned out to be an easy activation. The road has some rutted sections where having a high clearance vehicle is nice but not necessary. Since we were hosting a S2S Party, 2M was no problem, but we also worked many locals on 2M. There are plenty of old Juniper snags to tie off a mast to for HF. Have fun!
See my full report here
This is a stretch for a PNWSOTA summit report but, if you find yourself in Seoul with a few hours to kill, this could help you navigate. My son and I were able to activate this summit after doing the normal tourist activities.
Mount Emily is a six point summit north of La Grande Oregon. It is a complete drive up, but requires AWD and moderate ground clearance to get there. The road out of La Grande quickly turns to gravel and gets steep (17% according to the warning sign). It stays good gravel for just short of 10 miles and then gets a bit rough. The directions given by Google Maps are accurate except for one place where it wants you to cut the switchback (see below). The activation zone is very large so it is easy to get away from all the towers and buildings at the summit. I did that and had no RFI issues.
Sand Ridge was the first of 3 I did while doing a quick spontaneous one night camping trip to Wood River at Jackson F Kimball State Park. After setting up camp, we went to scout it for the next day but were able to get close enough I decided to hike up and activate it that evening.
Start at the Lewisburg Saddle in the OSU research forest. Hike the Vineyard Mountain Trail shown on the maps provided at the trailhead or you can walk the Nettleton road. Trail was by far the better choice. while hiking you will pass mountain bikers on the way down as well as other hikers and this trip we came across some horseback riders. Roughly 2.5 miles to the summit. you can either go through the gate on the right side at the end of the trail and walk to the top past a private house. End of the road is a gate to the tower site. No trespassing signs are visible.
Dean Mountain, also labeled on some maps "Dear Mountain", as in Dear Mountain it's been such a long time, sorry I haven't written.
Vineyard Mountain is 2 miles north of Corvallis, OR. Its an easy,
summit for beginners.
From Corvallis, travel north on OR-99W till reaching the "City
Limits Store" at Lewisburg (red light). Turn left onto Lewisburg Rd.
for 1.3 miles. Then, take the right side fork onto Sulfur Springs Rd.
Go another 1.3 mi up to Lewisburg Saddle. At the Saddle, there is
parking for maybe a dozen cars. It's a popular and crowded place.
Go slow near there.
From the trailhead at the Saddle, head NNW on Nettleton Rd. #500.
This is a fairly easiy ascess summit, good for a quick activation if in the area. Start by taking Parish Lake road off Highway 22 at (44.525530, -121.994293).
Continue down Parish lake road and turn right when you reach a three way intersection at (44.522143, -122.030406). Shown on maps as Scar Mountain Road.
Follow Scar Mountain Road and turn left at (44.550799, -122.044061), follow this untill you come to a large rock pit. (44.562897, -122.071521).