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Calamity Peak

KD7QOW's picture
Summit: 
W7W/LC-073
Voice Cellular Coverage: 
No service at all
Data Cellular Coverage: 
No service at all
Cellular Provider: 
Verizon
APRS Coverage: 
Full two-way messaging

The network of roads that accesses this summit are minimally maintained, and the final approach road isn't maintained at all as there is no active tree harvesting happening at the time I activated the summit. Expect the final access road to continue to degraded and grow over. When I activated this, I was able to ride my bike to the highest point on the road but had to lift it over a large blowdown that you won't be able to drive past or lift a motorcycle over. if you're feeling ambitious, you and another experienced sawyer could get it with a 24" bar. 

From the road, it's just a bushwhack straight up the hill. It starts out relatively open and then becomes continuously thicker and thicker until it's a frustrating push. It isn't as bad as Bare Mountain a little to the South, but it's not exactly easy. Stay a little bit to the South on the approach to avaid an annoying cliff band. There is barely enough space between the trees on summit to get an antenna set up and definitely no pleasant place to sit down. I ended up doing the whole activation standing up with the radio set on a log. I'm starting to wonder if ants built the Cascades here, because there are a lot of ants. 

APRS kinda worked but it needed a little persuading to get a spot out. There was no cell service of any kind, so don't count on it as your backup plan. 

I wouldn't recommend this summit if you're on foot, as it's a pretty long walk from where the road is reasonably passable by motor vehicle to where the bushwhack starts. I was relieved I brought my mountain bike as it was helpful with the retreat from this less than satisfying activation. Once the road grows over to the point a bike can no longer pass through, this summit will not be worth activating. It's another PNW summit where the point value doesn't come close to reflecting the difficulty of access.