Nestled between Tiger Mountain and Rattlesnake Mountain, with their mobs of users, Taylor Mountain offers a serene road hike (or bike) leading to a broad peaceful summit sans radio towers, fences, and concrete. Taylor mountain is an easy two-pointer with a few good views along the way. The route I took provided a net elevation gain of about 1,200 feet plus an additional 400 feet along the route over an 8 mile round trip.
Cowan Lookout is an abandoned fire lookout site that sits at 1,955' on top of a ridge that, at the other end, hosts an antenna site. Locally, the place is known as "Radar Hill." It is located in the hills that overlook the town of Naselle, WA, and the Naselle Valley, due west of the intersection of U.S. 101 and WA 4. You can drive to within a short distance of the activation zone, but the final 100' of ascent is a bushwhack.
Clarks Mountain is just south of Seaside Oregon. The trail is about 1.8 miles of one-way hiking starting at a clearly marked trailhead on the very south end of town on Sunset Blvd.
I was off work today and all the kids were at school. I had a doctor's appointment at 0915 and did not have anything else planned for the remainder of the day. I decided that I would head down and recon this unnamed summit in the South side of Capital Forest. Capital Forest has a handful of one and two pointers and this is the last one that I had not activated. Capital Forest is a State Forest that has opportunities for everyone; horseback riders, off road ATVers, hikers, bikers etc.
Quck activation of my "Neigborhood SOTA Summit". It takes me less than 10 minutes to arrive at TH from home. On a very warm day for nearly the end of January (60+ degrees F), we set out from Anti Aircraft TH, Cougar Mountain Regional Park. Our route was abot 7 miles circuit of the upper reaches of the Park. Wilderness Peak is about 1,600 foot in elevation and a 1 point SOTA 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.
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
Pinnacle Peak is a popular spot for beginning activators in this area: it's very accessible, and there are both northen and southern trail routes. My YF and I used the Cal Magnusson trail on the North Side. It is a popular spot for hikers (often with dogs) and runners -- steep but only about a mile to the summit. One runner told us she'd made the ascent in 32 minutes. We took more like 50 minutes.
Another non-NW activation while on my summer work assignment in Cleveland. I was getting bored with the 2 and 4 pt summits on OH, which are mostly on private land, so decided to make an expedition to something with a little more elevation. W3/PT-007 had been previously activated, so I knew it could be done and is an 8 pointer, which would be my first. Finding the summit on the map was a little confusing, however. There is a summit at the coords, but it's either un-named or called "Bear Cave Lookout".