The Seaside Hamfest is coming up on June 6-8.  As in the last two years, we are having a Friday evening SOTA gathering at 6:30 pm.  This will be held at Pizza Harbor, 

http://www.pizzaharbor.com

Hope to see you there. 

Identified by SOTA as Chuckanut Mtn, this peak is better known as Blanchard Mountain and is part of the Chuckanut Range. it is located on State Trust Land managed by the DNR. More information about the area may be found at:

www.blanchardmountain.org

A DNR Blanchard Forest Block map can be downloaded at:

When the snow is gone, this is a easy two point summit not far off of Highway 26 east of Mount Hood.

On a training hike for our Switzerland Hiking / Climbing tour next July / August.  Accompanied by my wife Sharon and our Labrador Retriever Dexter.  Rattlesnake Mountain is a relatively easy 9.2 miles round trip (including preliminary walk to trail head from parking lot), gaining 2,500 feet +/- to a summit elevation of 3,517.  TH is is easily accessible from my home QTH in Bellevue, WA.  I-90 east to exit 32 in North Bend, then good but windy paved road to Rattlesnake Lake area.  The hike is through mostly wooded terrain, with some sections

There are a bunch of different passes required to access public land for Summits on the Air - I currently have five and under some circumstances, I might need to acquire another. For example, the 35-year reciprocity between Oregon and Washington for Sno-Park permits ended in 2014 - if I do a winter activation in Washington I would need to get a $20 day pass or a $40 annual pass.

In conjunction with the Colorado 14er Event on Aug  3rd, the Rocky Mountain SOTA 

All of our trips to Lopez Island seem to involve a bike ride, and today was no exception. After a brisk ride in this year's annual Tour de Lopez, KG7JEH and I left the latex-clad crowd at the finish line for some SOTA de Lopez action. As it turned out, that action didn't last too long before my battery was down to 10 volts and I called it a day.

This Friday afternoon activation happened on a cool day with the sun breaking through a few clouds for a beatiful sky above the epic scenery. It takes a ferry ride from Anacortes to Orcas Island to get here, but it's sure worth the trip! The main road goes from the ferry dock right through Moran State Park. Turn left at the Y onto the Mt Constitution road, which can take you all the way to a sizeable parking lot at the top.

An early ferry ride out of Anacortes took me to Orcas Island and, after a short drive, I arrived at the Cascade Falls trailhead by about 7 AM. My plans included biking in about 3 miles and hiking up the last 3/4 mile to the summit. Wrong. I was 1/2 hour into the ride when 2 facts became clear: 1. My hybrid bike was not up to the task of handling that muddy, rocky, slippery road - no matter how much air I let out of the tires. 2. My lungs, legs, and nerves weren't up to the task either. I took the bike back down to the truck and began again.

Thirteen operators on ten summits (two 4-pointers, two 2-pointers and the rest 1-point peaks). Three Activtitors encountered snow on their summits and one experienced snow falling - we were fortunate that everyone else had a dry activation under mostly cloudy skies. All activity was on 2m FM using 5W or sometimes less.