Goodnoe Benchmark is a unremarkable roadside activation - until you throw in the turbine blades whirring over your head. The summit proper is dominated by a wind turbine and the closest public place is only a fraction of a mile away - next to the gate for the property. Appropriately, the area is posted no trespassing, but there is a small pull off.
Happy Summer SOTA Goats! Now that we have the W7O Sota campout behind us, it is time to start thinking about the next High Desert SOTA event, the 2nd Annual PNWSota Central Oregon S2S Party, scheduled for Saturday, August 26th. I plan to camp up on Pine Mtn just below the Observatory starting on Friday Aug 25th. There are a lot of dry camping options of the dirt road that splits off NF-2017 @ 43.79365546734924, -120.94649652397455.
We are less than a month away from the 2023 Annular Eclipse that will cross Southern Oregon. Two 8-point SOTA peaks in Southeastern Oregon are in the path of totality: Drake Peak (W7O/CE-002) and
We detoured to Schonchin after going birdwatching at Lower Klamath NWR and Tulelake NWR, disappointed with so few birds and little water (Tulelake dry). It took a commitment to get over the Cascades from the Rogue Valley as there is a lot of snow, but once we reached the east side, the snow was minimal.
I activated these two peaks, NC116 and 118, during summer 2021. At the time, Weyerhaeuser had recently taken ownership of the parcel, and marked the area as open to public walk-in access. Unfortunately, Weyerhaeuser has now moved this land under a lease. Unless you can identify the lease owner and join their club for legal access, these peaks are no longer accessible to activators.
The recent update of the W7O ARM (Association Reference Manual) moved the activation zone of Frog Lake Buttes to the higher of the two butte summits, which gave me a reason to repeat one of my annual snowshoe hikes, notch another unique, and collect a winter bonus. This was my fourth trip to the summit (three in the winter, one in the summer).
Lenhart Butte is a drive-up or near drive-up just east of Sandy, Oregon. The access is via paved roads. Your GPS will guide you to the parking area, 45.34611, -122.1697, or at least mine did.
The parking area is also in the activation zone, but is also pretty much in someone’s front yard.
There is a gated road with a no parking sign on it. This road leads to a radio tower installation that is a tad higher and less than a half mile away. The towers are a bit more secluded.
Blue Ridge has moved a bit since it was NC-037. The vehicle access is the same as it was as written up here: http://www.pnwsota.org/blog/k7atn/2018-february-04/blue-ridge-or-february-2018
The Larch Mtn access road will be closed for paving "most of 2023". See https://www.multco.us/roads/webform/larch-mountain-road-paving-and-repair for the details.
Horse Creek Butte doesn’t appear as classically defined buttes nor typical of buttes that characterize many Idaho and Montana landscapes. It has a highly fractured ridge of boulders capping the summit, but with little geological relief from the surrounding subalpine fir, and lodgepole and whitebark pine forest. The summit route has good views of the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Area, remote sections of the Salmon-Challis National Forest and large areas of burned forest.