An outing to Pine Mountain offers an opportunity to activate 3 summits: W7O/CE-058, W7O/CE-068, and W7O/CE-176. After activating Pine Mountain. I drove up the road to Pine Benchmark. The road at 43.80666, -120.94173 is gated, but not locked. I drove through and closed the gate behind me. From here the road is high clearance only with many rocks. It would not be terrible on a mountainbike, or even on foot if necessary.
I parked at the open area near the rock bluffs and headed up the unmarked, but obvious trail. It is a short hike (and only 160' gain) to the Pine Benchmark summit. The summit features a wind sock and boy was it windy. I got on 2m with my MFJ Longranger. With LOS to Bend, I was expecting a lot of action, but only managed 3 QSOs. The wind was getting stronger. Thankfully there is a wind shelter that is great to operate HF from. I managed a couple S2S and plenty more contacts on CW.
Wth a full logbook it was time to head down and drive out to the next summit of the day: Horse Ridge.
Close the gate behind you.
