Little St. Helens

Today my YL and I went up to Little St. Helens.  We used a combination of the WTA web site and Hiking with my brother blog to figure out where the trail head was and the route of the trail.  I am not sure, but possibly there was two different ways to get to the summit.  We took the one that was mostly on Forest Service Road and the round trip did wind up being 7.0 miles...  We got to within a couple hundred yards of the summit.  It was not clear how to get to the defined summit, but we did my activation from what was as clear a spot as possible.  There might have been a way to get to the defined summit, which I might try next time as it would have required 15-20 minutes of additonal time.  Not sure that reception would have improved.  Nonetheless we were within the grid.  Using my Yaesu VX-6 / MFJ-1714S combination I got three contacts right way.  I then set up my Arrow Backpack Antenna to dial in the final 3-4 contacts.  Now I need to work on getting a tripod built for the antenna...  It was sunny, and the hike was pleasant.  A not very well used trail, but the views were worth it!