The small town of Powers, OR looks promising for SOTA. Within a few miles of this city along the Coquille river are three SOTA peaks, W7O/SC-149 (Woodby Mountain), W7O/SC-175 (Bingham Mountain) and the unnamed W7O/SC-342. Powers itself is located on Highway 242, about 18 miles south of Highway 42, as it runs near Coquille, OR.
As I usually do, I tried to scout these locations today. Each was either impassable or posted "No Trespassing."
On November 11, 2016 I was making a blitz trip from Boise down to City of Rocks to activate it in the ARRL’s National Parks on the Air program. I had always wanted to run up to Mt. Harrison and had just enough time in my schedule to do so. I had read W7IMC’s short summary of his 2013 trip, as found on the SOTA Summit Summary. A paved drive up to a 6 pointer! In Idaho! Hard to believe and it is likely the only one of its kind. Sure enough that is what it is.
Hyndman Peak, W7I/BL-001, It's a 10 pointer! Activated by Boyd-KF7DDT.
Left Boise about 10 am Friday.
Jeff-KF7NOZ had the privilege of activating W7I/CU-001 on Saturday August 4th 2013. This was the first activation of Idaho's highest peak. It was my second attempt activating this summit and I'm not sure I would have tried a third.
Sunday, January 15th, 2017 was my attempt to do Mt. Spokane (formerly referred to as Jump-off-Joe). I believe my activation is the first “winter” activation of this peak. As previously reported, there are several ways to access this summit, which even include taking the chair lift in the ski area! Previous activations from other have included driving to the top, hiking, and Mountain Biking. My attempt would be on a snow shoe trail that is well travelled.
Saturday, January 14, 2016, I attempted the first ever winter activation of Quartz Mountain. This summit intrigued me as I have previously skied on the cross country ski trails at Mt. Spokane. The trails, which many are on a Forest roads, create the basis for the cross country trail system. There is a warming hut in somewhat close proximity to the activation point. I believe it is possible to drive up to the summit during the summer. The cross country trail maps shows the road leading to the summit as “occasionally groomed”. It was unclear when or if this trail was groomed this year.
Tiffany Mountain’s 8242 foot summit classifies it as a 10 point SOTA summit. With only a few exceptions, 10 point summits in the W7W association are technical climbs, or exposed Class 3 or 4 scrambles.
Yellow Butte is south of Drain, OR and seems to be open. A topo map will show the roads to get there. Generally, heading south from Drain, find West Rd to Cedar Rd. This will lead you to Drain Section Rd. Turn left off of Drain Section onto Hayhurst Rd. Turn right from Hayhurst onto Skelley Rd. Follow this to a poorly marked Andrews Creek Rd. Follow Andrews Ck, staying on the generally "main" dirt road.
I had intended to activate this summit on December 30, 2016. Another off limits summit.
I tried to activate this summit on December 30, 2016. It wasn't to be.