Three Wild Turkey Winners! On a springtime outing to the Spokane, Washington region, we activated three (3) SOTA Summits in the mountains north of the City of Spokane. The reference to Wild Turkeys is on account of seeing numerous of the large wild birds that almost became the National Symbol of USA. See: http://www.nwf.org/News-and-Magazines/National-Wildlife/Birds/Archives/2007/Americas-First-Bird-Controversy.aspx . We chose this area, as there were several SOTA Summits that were easily accessible from the 2 alpine ski resorts north of Spokane: Mount Spokane Ski and Snowboard Park and 490 North Mountain Resort. This is report 2 of 3, detailing the Activation of Quartz Mountain.
Having Activated Mount Spokane in the morning, we set our sights on Quartz Mountain, also in Mount Spokane State Park. See: http://parks.state.wa.us/549/Mount-Spokane . Quartz Mountain lies about 4.90 miles SSE, as the crow flies, from Mount Spokane summit. The two mountains are not connected by any climbable ridge, and it is necessary to descend to the TH for Mount Spokane, and drive to the TH for Quartz Mountain. Quartz Mountain is accessed via X-C ski trails system (logging roads primarily) that virtually cover the area between Mount Spokane, Quartz Mountain, Shadow Mountain and surrounding terrain. See: http://www.summitpost.org/quartz-mountain/412938 .
The starting point for Quartz Mountain is a great ski hut named the Selkirk Hut. It has a very large parking area, pit toilets and serves as a base for X-C Skiing in the area. See: http://www.mountspokane.org/images/MtSpokaneNordicTrails2014.jpg . See Also: http://www.mountspokane.org/images/MtSpokaneNordicMap.pdf .
Pay careful attention to the X-C trail system as the trails can be a little confusing. Following the X-C trails, and sometimes having to crawl over or under the many blown down trees, we none the less reached the summit in about 1 hour. The distance was approximately 2.25 miles each way, with an elevation gain of approximately 700 feet, with a few minor up and down sections.
By the time we reached the summit of Quartz Mountain, the wind had picked up considerably, it was a little cool, and a few darker clouds were starting to drift by. None the less, it was a wonderful place to soak in the great views. I decided to stick to 2M FM at first, and switch to HF if necessary. It was 3:15 PM when I started calling CQ on 2M FM. In just under ½ hour, I made 6 contacts on 2M FM, and was getting a little cold. We decided to call it a very good day and head down. En route to the TH, we stopped in at the Nova Hut, another of the wonderful huts that support the X-C skiing at Mount Spokane State Park. See Photo. Based on what we saw, we determined to return in winter, and try our hand at X-C skiing in the area…and perhaps winter activations of Quartz Mountain and Mount Spokane. We made it back to Spokane Valley, and our hotel by about 6:00 PM, having had a wonderful double activation day in Mount Spokane State Park.
I worked: KD8DXC; KG6JXM; K7TXO; KF5JWR; KE7SBW and KG7GPM. Thank you to all the Chasers, and those that I worked. I value each and every SOTA contact!
