An outing to Pine Mountain offers an opportunity to activate 3 summits: W7O/CE-058, W7O/CE-068, and W7O/CE-176. I started the day early with Pine Mountain. The main road up the mountain is heavily washboarded. Take 43.80066, -120.93746 and head up the good forest road. A sedan will have no trouble. I parked at the broad saddle and found a trail heading up the mountain. My plan had been to bushwack straight up, but the trail is good and leads to the saddle on the ridge of Pine Mountain. The trail fades a bit, but travel is easy to the summit.
The summit proper is exposed and features a post and a small stack of rocks to shelter from the wind. This is where I operated from. I had enough cell service to get a spot out, but was unable to get any replies on 2m with a RUJP.
I set up HF and operated for a half hour with great success. The winds, occasional rain, and occasional snow got the better of me. When the pileup peetered out, I packed up instead of calling more CQs. I packed up and headed back into the trees.
It should be noted that the post in the trees is within the AZ. In hindsight, opoerating from here would have been much better because the trees cut down on the wind by A LOT.
All in all, a very mellow hike and easy drive activation east of Bend. I had visited the Pine Mountain observatory in 2016. If you are in the area in the evening, and the weather is clear. It is definitely worth staying for dark. There is a campground near the observatory as well.
From here, I drove the main road and up to Pine Benchmark.
