Blogs

With the continuing warm weather, I went out this weekend to finish out the
trio of Coffin, Buck and Bachelor Mountains. I headed for Bachelor this weekend.

To reach the Bachelor mountain trailhead, follow the directions I gave in the
Coffin and Back mountain activation. However, when reaching the #450 road,
continue further for about 0.5 mile and take a left at the intersection. After
about 0.6 miles, the road comes to a end at the trail head. I found only
a post where I suppose the trail head sign used to be.

I made an attempt at this summit on 13 December 2014. I was hoping to get a few bonus points along with an activation of an unactivated summit. Steep Climb and a short day prevented me from making it all the way to the summit.

See my blog here for the whole writeup:

http://kf7pxt.blogspot.com/2014/12/copper-mountain-w7wso-009-attempted.html

Since the weather has continued warm and wet, I thought I'd go grab some solitude
and winter bonus points. I had been eyeing three summits close to each other and
to OR HWY 22. These peaks are Coffin Mountain, Buck Mountain and Bachelor Mountain.
I hoped to summit all three this Saturday but only managed two due to a number
of equipment problems.

To reach Coffin mountain, follow OR 22 east from Detroit Oregon. About 19 miles
east of Detroit, turn right onto FS 11 also known as Straight Creek Rd. It is

Blue Mounds State Park is an easy drive up summit about 30 miles east of Madison, Wisconsin. It's a state park that has camping, picnicing and two observation towers (one at each end of the summit) that would be great for VHF contacts.

Take County Road F north from US-151. You can easily follow the signs less than two miles to the park. At the summit there is a large loop with picnic areas - the summit proper is at the center of the loop so anywhere would be in the activation zone. There is also a wooden observation tower on the east side of the summit. 

Blog and story at: http://www.pnwsota.org/blog/kf7pxt/2014-november-22/larch-mountain-activation

Nice activation.

Story and Blog at: http://kf7pxt.blogspot.com/2014/11/larch-mtn-w7wso-067-tuner-hill-w7wso.html

Was able to spot with SMS.

Pearls On A Necklace – SOTA Adventures in W6/CT. Strung along the Angeles Crest Highway (SR 2, Los Angeles County, California), which runs through the San Gabriel Mountains, on the stretch between the Pasadena / Glendale area the south, and the Apple Valley / Victorville area to the north, lie more than 20 SOTA listed summits.  Most are 6 to 8 point summits. Proximity to Los Angeles, relatively easy access and beautiful terrain, similar to east slope Washington and Oregon Cascades, make this a “tourist delight” area.  On 3 separate days, between October 31, 2014 and November 4, 2014, I activated five (5) of these SOTA summits.  This report is #5 of 5.

Pearls On A Necklace – SOTA Adventures in W6/CT. Strung along the Angeles Crest Highway (SR 2, Los Angeles County, California), which runs through the San Gabriel Mountains, on the stretch between the Pasadena / Glendale area the south, and the Apple Valley / Victorville area to the north, lie more than 20 SOTA listed summits.  Most are 6 to 8 point summits. Proximity to Los Angeles, relatively easy access and beautiful terrain, similar to east slope Washington and Oregon Cascades, make this a “tourist delight” area.  On 3 separate days, between October 31, 2014 and November 4, 2014, I activated five (5) of these SOTA summits.  This report is #4 of 5.

Pearls On A Necklace – SOTA Adventures in W6/CT. Strung along the Angeles Crest Highway (SR 2, Los Angeles County, California), which runs through the San Gabriel Mountains, on the stretch between the Pasadena / Glendale area the south, and the Apple Valley / Victorville area to the north, lie more than 20 SOTA listed summits.  Most are 6 to 8 point summits. Proximity to Los Angeles, relatively easy access and beautiful terrain, similar to east slope Washington and Oregon Cascades, make this a “tourist delight” area.  On 3 separate days, between October 31, 2014 and November 4, 2014, I activated five (5) of these SOTA summits.  This report is #3 of 5.

I did this one as it is very close to home and easy to get to the top. Not a very scenic hill but a nice walk. As I have said before I can't leave a summit unactivated especially this close to home. I am not sure that I will do this one again, unless I am looking for some S2S opportunity with limited time.

GPS Tracks here: http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=3033743

Blog here: http://kf7pxt.blogspot.com/2014/11/ladd-mtn-w7wpl-083-bug-hill-w7wso-106.html