Activation Report – July 2025 – W7O/CM-077

Sand Mountain is located on the Cascade Crest in the Willamette National Forest. It can be access from the Big Lake Recreation Area with a reasonably high clearance vehicle via the Old Santiam Wagon Road, FSR 2690-810. The route was used for hauling freight over the Cascades between Central Oregon and the Willamette Valley from the 1860’s to the 1930’s. It is quite sandy but it was passable in our front wheel drive Ram Promaster camper van with a 3″ lift. It is pretty slow going with many whoops from the sand and the OHV users of the area. Alternatively, FSR 2690-860 is a bit longer but not as sandy and with many fewer whoops to contend.

We took 810 in the ~2.5 miles from Big Lake to a parking area near the gate controlling access to the lookout road. Only fire lookouts are aloud to drive the very well maintained access road but it does make for an easy 1.75 mile hike from the gate to the lookout. The last .25 miles is the hardest bit, as it climbs up a steepish trail to the lookout.

Tim, the active fire lookout on duty, was very welcoming and full of good information about the area. Honestly, he was one of the friendliest lookouts we have encountered. He pet the dogs and let them sit in the shade while we setup our mast on the flag pole for our HF antenna.

Conditions were not great on our day, however we were able to get 1 2M S2S to Mt. Adams and several others on 40M SSB, and 1 on 60M CW, a first for me (thank you Jeff WJ7V). Regardless most of the action was CW due to the poor propagation and Randi – N7OLE, had to work extra hard to make her phone contacts.

While we got an early start because the dogs were with us, the lava based gravel heats up quickly and our descent required stopping in all the shady spots and doing some creative off track walking to prevent the doggos pads from getting burned. In hindsight, maybe leave the doggos behind if it is going to be a warm day.

Overall this is an easy summit, though it has few activations. This is likely due to the road access being a bit daunting. The views of the Western flank of the Central Oregon Cascade peaks was top notch and served as a great perspective for future trips to the west side of the crest.