SOTA - Raft River Hat Trick

In pouring over SOTA Maps a couple years ago, I noticed a location where three 8-point peaks were in close proximity:

• W7U/BO-002 - an unnamed peak "9335," 
• W7U/NU-045 - George Peak, and 
• W7U/BO-001 - Bull Mountain

After three attempts and hours on Google Earth, I finally figured out how to get up there. This post is an attempt to make the directions more clear for others--with luck, this can be a 24-point day!

I first activated George and Bull back in 2018. Didn't make it back until ARRL's 2020 Field Day, when I activated 9335 and George the day before Field Day, and participated in Field Day from Bull Mountain (until the wind hit sustained gusts over 40 mph and thunder and lightening "appeared" in the imminent forecast).

The Route

Google Maps and most of the other online maps really don't understand how to get here. Plus, jeep trails and routes on maps in real life end up either 1) completely faded and overgrown or 2) on private land. So finding a safe, feasible, legal way to get up there was a challenge! In short, it's a series of Forest Service roads as you leave Standrod, UT:

1. From Snowville, UT head west to Standrod
2. From Standrod, take FS 005 south
3. At the "T" take FS 011

FS 011 is not for the faint-hearted and absolutely requires 4WD (4L, in fact). At times, I locked my rear diff to get through steep sections with loose rock (rock, not gravel - rock). 

"9335"

As you hit the top of the mountain, you'll see 9335 in the distance. Park anywhere that's safe (there's a lot of undergrowth, so don't take risks and cause this place to burn), and head up to 9335. This is the view from 011 about 1/2 mile south of where I parked to activate 9335 in 2020.

 For 9335, you're above treeline so mostly it's sagebrush, grasses, some flowers, and a whole lotta cow pies. The hike up is just walking over, around or through sage. There is a fence line that cuts the actual summit off - I was on the "wrong" side of the fence line but well within the 250' activation zone, so I activated just west of the actual summit.

George Peak

Your next adventure will be George Peak. You'll still be in 4L for this, for sure! Continue east on 011 until it turns south. It'll connect first with 022 and then with 009.

Follow 009 to the southwest all the way until you hit George Peak. You'll come to a gate (might be closed, might be open) and signs about a private hunting club. You are allowed to pass through but you must stay on the road. 

The route is mostly road, with a lot of grass and sage. 

The views are, however, amazing -- you can see the Great Salt Lake, Promontory Point, even Antelope Island off in the distance.

If you've programmed the coordinates into your GPS, you'll find George Peak easily. On the map, the flat spot on the ridge appears to be the same altitude as the peak in the distance, so it's unclear which is the actual peak.

This either is, or is not, George Peak.

And yet this either is, or is not, George Peak. For the sake of SOTA (and since Bull is literally a drive-up), I activate the craggy peak each time.

One geological survey marker is good, but...

Two must be better :)

Panoramic view from George Peak looking from west to north to east (panning from 270 to 0 to 90 compass degrees). Not a lot of trees up here, but very green.

Bull Mountain

The final "peak" in this hat trick is Bull Mountain. I'm always torn up about this one - honestly, the road literally drives across the summit--how do you consider it activated? It's a moral dilemma but for the purists, you can park somewhere and hike a ways in.

The area around Bull Mountain is incredibly beautiful, with plenty of grassland and some wildflowers.

Not a bad place to watch the sun set!

Bull Mountain itself? Not so much special, just a grassy area where cows like to munch.

This is my SOTA setup for Field Day 2020. I lasted about 6 hours in this spot, after moving here around 10 am. By 3 PM the winds were blowing my antennas down and literally lifting half of my rooftop tent. Tuning into the Weather Service forecast, it was obvious I needed to beat a hasty retreat!

Overall, this 24-point "hat trick" is a fun trip with a couple nice peaks and a flat area that's amazing for propagation. There are other peaks nearby, so the area still has some opportunities for exploration. It's neat to have first activations on all three summits but I hope these directions help other SOTA enthusiasts get out and visit this range. Let's not make it too popular, but more people should have the chance to enjoy the incredible views up here!

- 72 de K7JTO

Sena SMH10R

Let's begin by way of explanation... I live in Utah. Almost everything is built on a grid square - it's one of the great things the pioneers did. Every major city settled by Mormons has a church building of some sort as its center--Salt Lake City's building is an LDS temple whereas many other cities were "centered" around a tabernacle - a large building (much larger than a standard congregational building). From there, streets were numbered in 100's for every block north, south, east or west. So someone who lived on, say, 52 South 400 East lived on the street 400 East, about a half a block south of the central building's cross-road. And 400 East runs north-to-south.

Confused? No matter - it's not the subject of this blog.

Not all of Utah is a snap to follow. For instance, who knew there was a Naples, UT--or a Bluff? Who knows how to get to Hovenweep National Monument (without a map)? I'm often fumbling for directions and I like to drive (and ride) as distraction free as possible, so I usually have Google Maps running (my car is 12 years old - fantastic sound system and a good navigation system, but the maps are old and missing a lot of more recent roads - my house, for instance, is not on a 'digitized road' as the navigation system likes to remind me). It's all the more important to me on the bike that I have good directions readily available. This is one reason I bought a Sena SMH10R Bluetooth headset.
 
 And I kid you not, I swear this thing is more complicated than the Space Shuttle... It has more options for pairing with other headsets, Bluetooth-enabled devices, etc. (there is even a Sena device that will connect to and control a two-way radio).

When I purchased my Sena, it connected with my Nexus 5x phone without any issue. Music was playing right off the bat, but I couldn't get turn-by-turn directions to play through the Sena device. Nor could I get it to work when I also connected my Nexus 7 tablet (which I intend to mount in the windscreen, just about the instruments, so maps are readily visible).

Some experimenting led me to the solution:

1. Connected the Nexus 5x
2. Went into settings for the Sena SMH10R bluetooth connection
3. Enabled everything
4. Went into settings for Google Maps
5. Selected "Play Voice over Bluetooth"
6. Shut down the device
7. Powered back up
8. Connected to the Sena SMH10R
9. Bingo - turn-by-turn through the Sena

Next, I connected my Nexus 7 tablet (which is also running the latest Android OS). The first time I did it, I connected it as a multi-point device as per page 15 of the Sena owner's manual. I could never get turn-by-turn directions to come through the headset, though. Finally, I deleted the Sena device in the tablet's Bluetooth connection panel, then put the Sena into phone connect mode (not multi-point mode), and then connected. Once I enabled "Play Voice over Bluetooth" in Google maps, I was happily hearing maps through the Sena device again.

So, recapping

1. Connect to the Nexus 5x phone as above
2. Put the Sena into phone connect mode (first option in the Configuration menu)
3. Connect the Nexus 7 tablet
4. Go into Bluetooth connections and enable the Sena Bluetooth connection for everything
5. In Google Maps' settings, enable "Play Voice over Bluetooth" 

Away you go...

Having trouble following that? No worries. This is the current Bluetooth connection settings dialog on Android OS:

And this is the options dialog for Google Maps:

 
Some people worry about the distraction of having a GPS connected to your helmet, but it's honestly not distracting. Having Google tell me well in advance where to turn, and in which direction, is actually quite settling. The voice is not intrusive, I can still hear traffic (if I'm not wearing ear plugs), and I'm not panicking trying to make a quick right across a lane of traffic. I call that safe.

Now - an electronic tablet will NEVER replace a good map--and I will always have a map with me. When I'm deep in the backroads, I'll also have an independent, battery-operated GPS unit to use with my map. The tablet's nice, but it's no guarantee. Nothing can replace good route-finding skills, especially the further you get from civilization.

The Sena offers 7 DAYS of 'standby' time (time where you're not talking), and 10 HOURS of talk time (which is great if you're paired with another rider in intercom mode). 

Meet Rever

I have been getting into adventure motorcycling. I bought myself a used Suzuki VStrom 650 right as the '15 season came to an end, and now I am planning for some trips next year. A coworker tipped me off to the Rever app--if Google Maps met Facebook and they had a child, it would be Rever. A very cool thing about Rever is that it is owned by the great folks at Butler Maps, makers of fine road and off-road back country Maps for motorcyclists--you'll see why that matters shortly.

When you think of Rever, think this way: you and some buddies want to ride somewhere fantastic together this summer. You're geographically dispersed, so you can't sit down face to face to discuss the route. Half the group want GPX tracks for the route, and the other half want to use a mobile device with offline capabilities. You want to build the trip easily, and you want some fantastic rides along the way. Rever does all that!

• Rever is a social hub--invite your friends and make a group.
• It features Google-quality street maps, with click-by-click route generation.
• It exports GPX format, but can be used directly on a mobile device.
• The mobile app tracks you on your route, with an offline map feature for remote rides.
• Finally, it overlays Butler route info, so as you are planning you can see the best rides.

I'll blog some more on this later--for now, check out the screen grab from my Nexus 7 to get an idea of what a ride looks like. As you can see, its mobile app interface looks like a pretty standard Google Maps experience, with a few control bars above and below. What's awesome is, as a premium subscriber, you get access to Butler Maps route overlays. You can not only see standard map data, but any Butler rides are super-imposed (with the familiar Butler color codes). Very handy!

Currently route creation is a PC browser activity--the mobile app is used during travel. That may change, who knows. Building routes on any mobile device other than a 12" or larger tablet is a bit tedious, so it may not matter. Still, I am really looking forward to using Rever for my planning and traveling this season.

One nice feature in Rever is the ability to track your ride. This is a ride I planned, but it also tracked it and recorded it for me. This is good for going back and finding rides again later, for determining distance and such, and also participating in challenges (you have to check out the site to learn more about challenges - I gotta give you SOME reason to go there!).

Scoot on over to Rever.co (yes - that is http://rever.co and not .com), check out the features (and trust me - the Rever team is hard at work adding new features all the time) and sign up!