10K Chaser Points

After nearly two years of less than dedicated seat time I was able to collect my 10,000 SOTA chaser points.  This is my 2nd set of 10K points.  The first being when I operated and chased as WA6RIC.  Moving to Oregon some three years ago, I gave up my W6 callsign for a W7.  I then made the decision to start chasing again in W7O land.  However, I soon found out that my QTH is not in the best location.  Being on the coast (Newport) I have the hills and the Coastal Ranges backing up to me.  That and low sunspots and generally bad band conditio

Grindstone Mountain

This summit had never been activated and I now know why!  The USGS maps would have you believe there is a road to the summit.  There actually was a road when the forestry lookout was standing, but the last 1-1/2 miles of road is now overgrown and would take some guts and a great off-road 4-wheeler to traverse it.  These same last miles are steep and unrelenting, though completely forested.  When the so-called road ends. there are a few hundred feet of vertical trail required to reach the summt.

Summit

Scar Mountain, Oregon, KF7SEY

Scar Moutain is a old lookout site. No trail to the summit which required some bush wacking. Start by taking Parish Road off of Highyway 22 east of Detroit at 44°31'31.88"N 121°59'40.09"W. Follow this for about 2.25 miles. Turn right onto NF-1164 at 44°31'19.71"N 122° 1'49.04"W for about 2.5 miles. Then turn left on NF-1161 at 44°33'2.95"N 122° 2'38.65"W. Follow this for 4 miles. Turn left at 44°33'56.79"N 122° 6'26.54"W. The peak is on your left. After I went left I parked on a wide spot on the road less then a quarter mile in.

Summit

Peak 6620 near Almo, ID

I was staying at The Lodge in Castle Rock State Park for a long weekend. This park is just north of City Of Rocks National Reserve which is a world class rock climbing destination. Though I am not a rock climber there are also a whole bunch of nice SOTA summits in the area. I picked CI-131 as I could see it from the front porch of The Lodge. In fact when I was on top, my wife, looking through binoculars, could see me waving at her. How often can your wife actually see you on a summit if she is not also with you?

Summit

The Devil made us do it

This was the last of four Elkton, OR area summits that we explored on May 21, 2017. With a name like that, we were a bit apprehensive, but we set off along a route I traced on a topo map. It starts by turning off of Highway 38 onto Wetherly Creek Rd. This took us into an intense logging area, but no one was working on Sunday.

Summit