Wonderful hike for a sunny, breezy day! Quite chilly on the summit with the gusty winds. No trees or rock formations to take shelter under.  I spent 2.5 hours on the summit and had constant radio traffic! I had planned on working 2M and 70cm, but had so much traffic on 2M, I couldn't find time to check out 70cm - so my appologies to those who listened for me on 70cm.

From the summit, there are incredible views of Puget Sound, including the entire Seattle area, and up into Vancouver Island and Canada.

A Gem of a Hike and Activation in the San Gabriel Mountains of Southern California.  6+ Miles round trip with 1,200 feet elevation Gain.  Summit Elevation is 8,038, and the views are fantastic! 

In recent years, our family has transitioned from tradition material gift giving
to giving that is more relationally based. My oldest son Andrew had noticed that
I kept talking about activating Hayrick Butte but was a bit reluctant based on
the looks of it from the map and in person. He took notice and did a bit of
research. On Christmas morning 2014 I got an interesting relational gift of a
winter-time summit attempt and activation of Hayrick Butte.

Hayrick Butte is an interesting geological feature. Hayrick Butte is a tuya

I was off work today and all the kids were at school. I had a doctor's appointment at 0915 and did not have anything else planned for the remainder of the day. I decided that I would head down and recon this unnamed summit in the South side of Capital Forest. Capital Forest has a handful of one and two pointers and this is the last one that I had not activated. Capital Forest is a State Forest that has opportunities for everyone; horseback riders, off road ATVers, hikers, bikers etc.

A fun evening activation. Here is the blog to the activation: http://kf7pxt.blogspot.com/2014/12/w7wso-081-sota-activation-and-other…

With the continuing warm weather, I went out this weekend to finish out the
trio of Coffin, Buck and Bachelor Mountains. I headed for Bachelor this weekend.

To reach the Bachelor mountain trailhead, follow the directions I gave in the
Coffin and Back mountain activation. However, when reaching the #450 road,
continue further for about 0.5 mile and take a left at the intersection. After
about 0.6 miles, the road comes to a end at the trail head. I found only
a post where I suppose the trail head sign used to be.

I made an attempt at this summit on 13 December 2014. I was hoping to get a few bonus points along with an activation of an unactivated summit. Steep Climb and a short day prevented me from making it all the way to the summit.

See my blog here for the whole writeup:

http://kf7pxt.blogspot.com/2014/12/copper-mountain-w7wso-009-attempted…

Since the weather has continued warm and wet, I thought I'd go grab some solitude
and winter bonus points. I had been eyeing three summits close to each other and
to OR HWY 22. These peaks are Coffin Mountain, Buck Mountain and Bachelor Mountain.
I hoped to summit all three this Saturday but only managed two due to a number
of equipment problems.

To reach Coffin mountain, follow OR 22 east from Detroit Oregon. About 19 miles
east of Detroit, turn right onto FS 11 also known as Straight Creek Rd. It is

Blue Mounds State Park is an easy drive up summit about 30 miles east of Madison, Wisconsin. It's a state park that has camping, picnicing and two observation towers (one at each end of the summit) that would be great for VHF contacts.

Take County Road F north from US-151. You can easily follow the signs less than two miles to the park. At the summit there is a large loop with picnic areas - the summit proper is at the center of the loop so anywhere would be in the activation zone. There is also a wooden observation tower on the east side of the summit. 

Nice activation.

Story and Blog at: http://kf7pxt.blogspot.com/2014/11/larch-mtn-w7wso-067-tuner-hill-w7wso…

Was able to spot with SMS.