No View From Summit

Summary - An easy to reach trailhead (2WD friendly), a nice trail, easy bushwhack, and not much of a summit view. 2M contacts are likely to be difficult, APRS okay, and cell service marginal to nonexistent. The summit is small and brush covered; there are lots of places for putting up a HF wire. Stop in the meadow on the way back down to catch a view of Mt Adams. One of my favorite hikes in this area. By the way, you can ignore this sign at least as far as West Soda Peak:

Calamity Peak is a road walk or drive with a short bushwhack portion. Take Wind River Road north through Carson, WA. Turn west onto Hemlock and then north on Szydlo, which turns into NF-54. Follow NF-54 to the junction by the Soda Lakes trailhead, then go straight (rather than bearing left) to continue on 5407 to the junction with NF 324. Google Maps also gives good directions to this junction, 45.9118, -122.0982.

Summary - Northwest of Trout Lake, WA, Flattop Mountain is the site of a microwave tower and a couple of repeaters. While it is a driveup, the last section of road is best negotiated in a 4WD vehicle with good tires. There are no views and little open space on the tree covered summit. As with other hills in this area, ATT cellular and APRS coverage are both very good while making 2M contacts is hard.  Flattop is not on my peaks-I-must-visit-againlist, though I would probably include it in a multiple day peak excursion. 

Summary - Peterson Ridge is a relatively easy bushwhack and an unremarkable summit, without a view or open space. The pleasant hike in on Service Trail 35 includes a modest climb and is mostly under the trees. There are trees for antennas, ATT cell service was five bars, and two way APRS messaging worked. I had no luck on 2M, even with a yagi. The drive can be done in a passenger vehicle and there is plenty of parking at the trailhead. One caution: This is a busy part of the forest and this trail is frequently used by motorbikers.

Squaw Butte in Washington is a good beginner bushwack hike. I met up with Tyler ND7Y at the Tillicum Campground and we parked our cars in a campsite near the trailhead. Tyler had found word of an old cattrack that leaves the Squaw Butte trail and heads to the summit. Overall this is an easy hike. The bushwack is manageable and the distance/elevation is reasonable. The trail to the cattrack is in good condition. Find the GPX track HERE. 

This summit became accessible to the public 2021 thanks to the hard work by a lot of individuals, Private Landowners, The Five Valley Land Trust, Nature Conservancy and the City of Missoula.  The summit is private property and contains numerous communications towers.  However, the new public access trail provides access to near the Activation Zone.  A short off-trail hike on City of Missoula Property following the east ridge, an old fireline to a point of talus and bedrock accesses the Activation Zone. See SOTAGoat and GaiaGPS images. 

Summary - Getting 4340 into the log requires a two hour drive, a short steep, brush covered cross county hike to the summit, and HF capability. A map and compass or GPS is a really good idea, as are trekking poles and long pants. There is no trail to the summit and on the way up you will encounter a lot of very large deadfall along with stands of manzanita and poison oak.  2M contacts are difficult unless other SOTA ops are working on nearby mountains, APRS works well, and ATT messaging sometimes.

This is a near drive-up in a carefully driven Prius, or perhaps a full-on drive-up in a vehicle with some ground clearance. There's nothing particularly scenic about this peak, but you will likely find it quiet, both RF and absent any other people.  

3820 Mt. Transponder involves a long drive on forest service roads followed by a very short bushwhack to the top of a forested summit that is deep into the western part of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.  This summit can be combined with nearby 3780 Top Loaded Mtn (W7W/PL-089) for an easy twofer.  The roads are easily tackled by a Subaru, but probably not a Prius.

Full Quieting Mountain was instead fully quiet at least on 2m FM. Maybe it should be called Evil Step Sister as it lurks unattractively above Sleeping Beauty. (Did fine on HF)

Looks like there may be a shorter bushwhack from the north when examining the map. However, I was invited to hike Sleeping Beauty by some friends. Answering the question why isn’t Sleeping Beauty a SOTA summit leads you to Peak 5060, which has the required promonance. 

So I started from the official Sleeping Beauty trailhead: