Mission Peak is an 8-point summit, that is reachable from Wenatchee. This activation was a joint effort with Drew-K7DDC. We tried to make the best of the last few days of fall by activating this summit before it gets snow clad.
Directions:
We drove from I-90 and maps told us there was a way to go there via Ellensburg which was the shortest. It ended up being a closed road, and we decided to back our way through Wenatchee.
From Wenatchee head towards Mission Peak, and then make a right on Beehive Forest Service Road (NF-9712). The forest road is used actively for logging, but it was quite a ride on it. The last 2 miles on it are completely unmanaged and used by ATVs. We were kind of sketched on our SUV and could have definitely used a 4x4 with high clearance.
Trail:
From the trailhead, it’s an easy hike, close to 2 miles one-way with 1k feet elevation. Based on previous trip reports, seems the summit can be approached from the base of the ski resort as well, but well we will try that out in winter. Its covered for most of the trail except close to the summit which is pretty much bare rocky Basalt, and gets strong wind. It was quite windy as soon as we got on the ridge to get to the actual summit and had to take covers behind the rock.
Activation:
We decided to activate from actual summit stuck behind a huge rock wall. I got on 2m while K7DDC started setting up HF antenna for CW. On FM I was only able to make 2 contacts in Plaine and Wenatchee. I could hear some other stations calling out but couldn’t reach out to them.
HF worked well that day around noon with 20m band wide open, I was able to few SSB contacts, and K7DDC got 15 CW contacts. It was quite cold up there with strong winds which knocked down the mast few times, so be careful with that.
Wrap up:
Descent was quite easy but on the way back we were welcomed by first dusting of snow of the season. Given we were already freezing from our picnic at summit, we couldn’t wait to get bac down back to our car. We had planned to go further down the road to explore Bentrim (W7W/CW-038) but the road seemed washed off. Well we save it another day.
Caltopo map: https://caltopo.com/m/N2H46
Thanks a lot to all the chasers.
