The pnwSOTA website was created to facilitate communication between SOTA operators in the Pacific Northwest region, as well as show off some of the activities of the top-notch folks we have in the area. On this site you will find information about getting started in SOTA as well as details about summits and activations contributed by people that are operating here.
Roger contributed a lot in his 11 years of Summits on the Air – mostly around his Oregon home. See this link for some history: https://reflector.sota.org.uk/t/nd7pa-sk/36591.
Etienne-K7ATN
I had set a SOTA goal a few months ago to activate all of the summits surrounding Lake Owyhee in SE Oregon and set out to tackle my first one yesterday. 4029 is right next to 3660 (W7O/SE-188) and are both accessible by a vehicle turn-around at the end of a jeep road. To reach this vehicle turn-around you have to spend about my 70-80 mintues driving over a few jeep roads from Leslie Gulch Rd. The 4WD driving is straight forward.
This summit can be reached via the Crooked Tree Trail, which has a listing in AllTrails here: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/washington/cle-elum-ridge-via-crooked-tree-trail. We followed the directions in AllTrails to the trailhead. From downtown Roslyn, turn right onto E. Utah Ave. and then left onto N. A Street. Take a right onto E. Nevada Ave. and drive to the end of the road. There is a small parking area that is unsigned and fits about 3 vehicles.
Posted as private property on 10/18/24 - see pics below. Activated W7O/SE-114 (Tub Mountain) instead - 1 hour / 38 miles north, 4WD required.
A drive-up on quite good gravel roads (see below), with great views in all directions (fully logged following forest fire a few years ago).
I came in from the West, leaving the paved road at 44.97599, -122.50586. These subsequent gravel roads were good enough for any passenger car. Just watch for big rocks on the road. There's not much to say about this road. There were very few gates, and I didn't notice any signage near them (unlike below).
From Lake Wenatchee, travel north on Forest Service Road 6200. The Carne Mountain trailhead is at the end of a 13-mile dirt road. The first 11 miles are rough, but the last 2 have recently been regraded and are quite decent. A high clearance vehicle is recommended, although we made it in our low clearance campervan. No pass is required and we slept at the trailhead to get an early start the next morning. The parking lot is small, and people park on the side of the road when the lot is full. It can be difficult to turn around if people park on both sides.
This turned out to be an easy activation. The road has some rutted sections where having a high clearance vehicle is nice but not necessary. Since we were hosting a S2S Party, 2M was no problem, but we also worked many locals on 2M. There are plenty of old Juniper snags to tie off a mast to for HF. Have fun!
See my full report here
Four summits accessed via Klickitat Trail #7:
South Twin Sisters W7W/PL-020
5780 Shortwave Mountain W7W/PL-021
Cold Springs Butte W7W/PL-025
Mission Mountain W7W/PL-028