Pole Mountain (W7M/HB-085) SOTA Activation
I often invite my kids to join me on my SOTA adventures. More often than not they say no, but when my middle son said yes to hiking Pole Mountain with me for a (near to) winter hike I was excited to get on the trail with him.
Getting There
From Basin, MT head up Basin Creek Rd for 2.5 miles. You will see a slight pull off on the left that is a camping area. Park there if available.
Parking is located at:
Summit Info:
The Hike
A snow covered rock field = careful traveling.
Aside from fording a stream at the beginning, this hike is pretty straight forward. When we we did this hike the creek was not completely frozen so we had to go up stream a little ways to find a narrow enough spot to hop across. From the parking area, find a safe place to cross the stream and head southwest up into the draw. Just before you reach the ridge of that draw make your way south and uphill. Just look for the path(s) of least resistance.
Son #2 taking aim.
There is not a designated trail so my son and I used the many elk paths to guide our way back-and-forth up the mountain. This is a shorter hike, less than a mile-and-a-half up, but you gain elevation quickly (i.e.: its fairly steep). Near the top it begins to level out and the trees are closer spaced so again we just followed the paths the many elk used to weave our way to the summit.
Me feeding chasers.
Once on top we found a nice spot by a tree to shield us from the slight breeze that morning. It was a clear blue sky day and the sun felt nice in our wind block. I got to setting up my radio and my son got to practice shooting with his BB gun. I could not raise anyone on 2 meters unfortunately. I hoped I might be able to get a knife edge refraction into the Helena valley but that did not work. I could hear stations from Helena but they could not hear me. Perhaps it would work with a directional antenna.
Since I only brought my Mountain Topper radio I got to work sending Morse code and gathered 25 contacts on 40 and 30 meters. I was able to work the west coast, Southwest and Midwest.
Radio Gear:
HF: MountainTopper 3-bander
Antenna: SOTAbeams 40/30/20M linked dipole.
HT: Kenwood DH-72; APRS work almost the whole hike up.
Cell coverage: Worked well once out of the creek valley and overlooking I-15.
73 and safe hiking!
AL