My wife, Christina, and I activated W7/CC-002 on Saturday, May 19, 2012. Here is a brief account of the day.
I will not add to the directions to the trailhead found in N7UN's and other's descriptions. It took close to 40 minutes on dirt roads to go from Alsea to the trailhead. Park near the yellow gate and proceed past the gate onto the trail.
The first section has young trees growing up in the old roadbed, but they are not hard to navigate around. The trail clears out to a degraded road that offers no significant obstacles. There are several places with large downed trees or washouts. Take care going around these and follow the trail uphill. There are a few junctions, but staying on the main roadway trail is not hard. At about 60% of the way up the trail, there is a sweeping 90 plus degree turn to the left. Looking to the right direction, there is an inviting summit; but it is not the top of Grass Mtn. A yellow pole flanks a large washout area. Go around this and continue onto the trail. There are a couple of other yellow poles in this area - don't be confused by them.
The upper reaches of the trail have a lot of downed trees and branches, but it is easy to avoid them.
The summit is reached in about 2.5 to 3 miles up the trail. It is a mixture of open grassy areas and some timber. Many operating sites are available.
We chose a grassy area near trees to set up. This gave me a convenient tree that allowed my 20m EFHW wire to be mostly vertical, with a slope to the east. The rig was a K2 at 10w. I started about 50 mins after my alert time but was quickly found and spotted. I made 13 cw QSOs over a 30 minute perisod. I tried 20m SSB, but had no success without a spot to announce me.
Stations worked:
- K7SO
- WA2USA
- VE4KZ
- K3KYR
- N1EU
- KG7E
- WT5RZ
- AJ5C
- WI2W
- VA6FUN
- WB9WHQ
- KI6J
- VE2JCW
The 3603' summit (with about 900' of net climb over the trailhead elevation) is tiring but pleasant. Recommended.