Category: sota
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Traverse Ridge W7O/NE-017
A tough week resulted in the hasty decision to head into the Wallowas of Eastern Oregon. We arrived at the Hurricane Creek Campground just before sunset on a Thursday evening to set up camp and crawl into the tent. Up early Friday we made our way to the “trailhead” along Lime Quarry Rd 45.37808, -117.35148…
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Peakbagging the Kettle Falls Range
Northwest of Spokane lies a pocket of summits I’ve been eyeballing for months—about a dozen SOTA-qualifying peaks in the 6000–7000 ft range. With some free time and an itch to chase points and elevation, I mapped out a three-day backpacking trip in early June aiming to activate at least four eight-pointers. With almost zero familiarity…
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South Lookout Mountain W7W/WH-206
Found myself up in the Bellingham, WA area for a work function over Memorial Day weekend, so why not take advantage of the North Cascades and bag a summit? South Lookout Mountain looked quite doable and literally right across the street (and down a long road) from the Airbnb. This is early in the season,…
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Tamarack Ridge W7I/NI-256
Miles: 2.66Gain: 497ftQSOs: 6Points: 1 A relatively easy summit to bag, the biggest cost was the time it took drive the Forest Service roads to get to the start. This is Idaho, so it should go without saying that there’s logging activity. I keep thinking I should nab myself a little CB radio so I…
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Bracken Point: W7W/WE-056
Miles: 5.76Gain: 1463ftQSOs: 4Points: 4 Almost immediately after leaving the parking lot, the ascent up the side of the ridge begins. It’s steep—gaining over 600 feet in the first quarter mile or so. The traverse across the ridgeline continues for another two miles, with plenty of additional climbing, until we topped out at the high…
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A Snowy Spring FA: W7I/NI-274
Summit: W7I/NI-274 “Hill 3860”Miles: 3.42Gain: 687ftQSOs: 6Points: 1 For April 4th the weather was prime, though I should’ve started earlier in the morning when it was colder—more on that later. The turn off for the FS roads/trails was completely snowed in (see photo), so I parked off of the hwy a hundred yards up at…
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First QSL Card
For the non-ham, a QSL card is basically a postcard-sized print copy confirmation of an on-air contact. Dating back to the days well before we were confirming contacts on the internet, QSL cards are a bit of a historical relic, or more appropriately, a tradition that is unfortunately not just modernly uncommon but also seemingly…
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Smoot Hill W7W/WE-033
It’s been a mild January thus far and this weekend, although windy, was a prime 42F. Running a bit short on time, a close-to-home hill would be on the menu and Smoot was today’s flavor. To be honest, I’m not exactly sure about the accessibility of this summit. Some fencing along the nearby gravel road…
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Smoot Hill
Another weekend with decent weather. Another first activation. This time it was Smoot Hill, super-close to home and the only reason I hadn’t tackled it until now: I wasn’t exactly sure anyone was allowed up there. It’s technically on WSU property as it is a nature preserve, but after speaking a cycling buddy who mountain…
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Dual Idaho First Activations
The temps have officially dipped and we’re in the shoulder season of unpredictable and generally unfavorable weather. Saturday looked to offer a bit of a window, so I dug out a rough plan to work two more unactivated W7I summits: NI-268 and NI-269. This pair was super close to one another and road access seemed…
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Two First Activations
Found a couple of not-yet-activated summits just north of me and across the state line into Idaho: Moses Mountain W7I/NI-207 and Tensed Benchmark W7I/NI-223. The two activation zones are only about 5.5km from eachother and the weather for this day was looking prime so I figured this would be a good opp for my first…
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Krell Hill
Popping up to Spokane to drop my mom off at the airport after her visit; might as well get in a SOTA. Krell Hill W7W/WE-021 was in a familiar area, I’ve hiked the Rocks of Sharon before and this AZ was just the next hill over from that. A quick 1.7-ish miles up (it was…