Pass Required at Trailhead

We spent the night at Elk Lake Campground. Highly recommend it if you can get a reservation. We were in spot 11 which had great views at sunset. 

From Bend take Cascade Lakes Highway to the Lucky Lake Trailhead. Fill out the free day use permit here (and put your Northwest Forest pass in your car window), then head up the trail. It's an easy 1.3 miles to Lucky Lake. There was some blowdowns a cross the trail as it's early season and they haven't been chopped yet. 

My second bust in the Tatoosh Range! These peaks are far enough from PDX that 2m won't reach, and despite the proximity to Seattle, there happens to be a big chuck of rock and ice in the way. I knew it would be a stretch, but was hopeful the extra time on the summit would give me a chance to round up four contacts. Nope. Advice: either bring a beam antenna, your HF rig, or coordinate with other activators and chasers to make sure you can get it done.

I thought I would do an update and pull together the two trip reports for this summit.
http://www.pnwsota.org/blog/k9wbz/2019-april-23/w7onc-060-lone-ridge-ac…
http://www.pnwsota.org/blog/n7un/2016-september-07/lone-ridge-w7onc-060
It is 9.5 miles round trip and 1200 feet of gain from the gate to the summit.

First hike of the season on May 21st -- hadn't specifically planned to do an activation, but brought along the handheld. Called CQ on 2m FM and got a few stations. Ate lunch and hiked south to the viewpoint toward Mt. Townsend but clouds were coming in. Went back to the summit for another CQ and was surprised to get a summit-to-summit call from KI7QIV on the summit of Mount Rainier! Nice trail -- great QSOs!

South of Bend is a little 2-pointer named Bates Butte. I had mapped out a route from the south side. Frome Bend take South Century Drive and make a left on Forest Lane, a paved forest road. Take a right at 43.80887, -121.50379 and make a short drive up a forest road. There was still a bit of snow when I was there, so 4 wheel drive recommended, but probably doable on 2 wheel drive when dry. I parked at 43.80536, -121.50776. From here look for a decent worn trail heading north up the butte.

The recent update of the W7O ARM  (Association Reference Manual) moved the activation zone of Frog Lake Buttes to the higher of the two butte summits, which gave me a reason to repeat one of my annual snowshoe hikes, notch another unique, and collect a winter bonus.  This was my fourth trip to the summit (three in the winter, one in the summer).

Baldy Peak was a wonderful and pleasant surprise. I recommend it. The minimum hike is 1.2 miles round trip with about 650’ vertical.  The hike can be extended by parking a bit further down B-1000 and hiking up the Buck Creek trail. 

I was fortunate enough to be first activator of this summit. I think it was never activated because people were trying to come at it from the Hwy 141 side. Even though there are seasonal access roads, approaching from the East side requires crossing private property. I approached the summit from the West side. 

Lava Butte is closed to vehicles in the winter, but open for hiking. You can park at the closed visitor center, or there's an option to pull off 97 near where the Lava Butte road passes the highway. From here there's a very short trail through the brush and you're on the road. We did this option which puts the hike at about 1.2 mi and 540' gain. 

The road was mostly clear of snow and ice, with just a handful of spots that had it. We did not need the microspikes we brought in our packs, but had the temps been colder, they would've been neccessary in some spots. 

Standard Mt. Hood disclaimer: conditions vary by the hour, experience interpreting conditions and forecasts are essential for safe alpine travel.

There are several good trip reports that outline the route and condition aspects of this trip, so I'll try to stick to what was specific about this activation.

I took my kids on a snowshoeing adventure this past weekend.  There were several SOTA activators scheduled to be out activating and we joined them for a fun time.  The distance is around 1.7miles one way but we had very nice snow conditions.

Traffic was very heavy heading up to Mt. Hood and several vehicles turned around but we persevered and it eventually improved.  It did add around 30mins to our arrival time.

Starting from the Frog Lake SNO-PARK and heading across the hwy slightly to the north is the Pacific Crest Trail crossing.