Winter Activation of Red Top Mountain Lookout together with Tim Nair, KG7EJT. Red Top Mountain Lookout is 5,361 feet elevation (1,634 meters), and is located approximately 15 miles NNE of Cle Elum, Washington. There have been several activations of Red Top Mountain before, but none in winter. Great weather, very manageable snow, great views and good company, including Dexter the SOTA Dog, made for a fine activation!
Battle Axe is a peak in the Willamette Valley region just north of Detroit
Lake. To reach it, head towards the town of Detroit, Oregon. Just northwest
of Detroit at milepost 50, take Road 46 north at the Corner Post store. Head
north on road 46 and travel 4.4 miles and turn left on FS road 4696. 0.7
miles later, turn left onto road 4697. This road is not recommended for
passenger cars. Sure, you could make it to Elk Lake, but your car will never
be the same. ;^)
Proceed on road 4697 about 4.6 miles. You will reach a fork in the road
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.
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.
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.
Directly across Hwy 20 from Iron Mountain at Tombstone pass is peak 5436, CM-127. Its really a part of Browser Ridge extending towards the northwest from the other Browser Ridge peak CM-056.
Access to CM-127 is via NF-15 which turns off US Hwy 20 about 1000m west of Tombstone pass. Take NF-15 to the trailhead for trail 3409 which is located right where NF-080 splits off.
This could be the second of two 6-point peaks in the same day when you combine this with an activation of Union Peak (SN-082) - you'll want to cross Union on the way to Jove anyway!
This could be the first of two 6-point peak activations in the same day - just combine this with Jove Peak (SN-058) which is just a bit further up the same trail. These peaks are located in the Mt Baker - Snoqualmie National Forest just east of Steven’s Pass on. Access is via a Forest Service Road #6700 (Smithbrook) iwhich is rough, but ok for passenger vehicles. Parking is off of a spur road, so a NW Forest Pass isn’t needed here.
Dock Butte has great views of it's Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest home. There is plenty of antenna room on the summit and it's only a short 3-mile roundtrip hike. The trail is great - a bit steep and requires just a very short scramble near the top. It took us about an hour from the trailhead.