The family (Delma, Lily (12), Brookelyn (7), Colten (6), Kimber (3)) and I decided to head out on a camping trip in Lewis County in the Randle, WA area. We love this area and a lot of the time the weather is a little bit better and we can get away from the puget sound rain. I saw that Iron Creek Butte was an unactivated 4 point summit in the area and it was likely that I could drive within about 1 mile of the actual summit. This looked like a great opportunity to get an activation in while we were heading out in the area. We easily made it to the parking area and I realized that I
had been in the area before. We made the easy hike up an
old forest road to within about 400 ft of the the summit. We had to cross country travel to get to the summit but it was a steep but easy trip. All of the kids were able to make it on there own power. This is a good place to say that if you had a chain saw to remove a few blowdowns and a narrower right then a Dodge Ram long bed then you could likely make it to with in 400 ft of the summit. There was some sign that others had been up there the year prior. We made it to the summit to find that there was a reason that no one had ever done a trip report on Peak Bagger or Washington Trail Association. There is absolutely
no
view from the summit. We had a great time and Lily did most of the radio. We tried to get some contacts using the Technician part of the band on 2m FM and SSB to get an activation for Delma (KK6AHS) but we had no luck. It was later upon returning home that I found out that the reason why was that 6m was apparently wide open and everyone was there. I wish that I would have given 6m a try as I am sure that I could have got something to tune up with the Elecraft T1 tuner. I will have to pay more attention the next time that I am up. After the activation we packed up and headed back down the trail the 1.6 miles back to the truck. By this time Kimber was getting a little tired and hitched a ride for the majority of the trip back down.
After getting to the truck we decided to make the trip up to Burley Mountain (W7W/PL-039). We were able to drive all the way to the summit. When we got there we met a lady that was staying the night in the lookout. I should have took pictures but the lookout is furnished with two bunks, some cabinet space, and a fireplace. Apparently you can stay the night there on a first come basis. It was cold up at the summit so we decide to activate this one at a later date. We made our way towards Lone tree mountain and found a nice camping spot within a couple mile of the actual summit. Another post will follow with the details of that hike.
Additional Information
APRS - I forgot the Kenwood TH-d72 at the truck so was unable to try APRS while at the summit. This could have been a bad mistake as cell data) verizon was iffy. I was able to make spots using SOTA goat. This could have been bad as late in the day as I activated.
Cell Signal - As stated earlier I was able to use my Verizon cell for data. I assume that I could have made calls from the summit but I did not try. I was able to get texts out to Doug (KY7S).
Repeaters - I was able to reach the gold mountain repeater 146.62 (PL 103.5)
After getting to the truck we decided to make the trip up to Burley Mountain (W7W/PL-039). We were able to drive all the way to the summit. When we got there we met a lady that was staying the night in the lookout. I should have took pictures but the lookout is furnished with two bunks, some cabinet space, and a fireplace. Apparently you can stay the night there on a first come basis. It was cold up at the summit so we decide to activate this one at a later date. We made our way towards Lone tree mountain and found a nice camping spot within a couple mile of the actual summit. Another post will follow with the details of that hike.
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