Late September 2025 Mike VE7KPZ and Jane VE7WWJ were offroading just south of Golden BC. On the must see list was the Jubilee fire lookout atop the 1680m Jubilee Mountain.
The road to access the mountaintop lookout was in great shape but included some extremely large water bars. Of course this was nothing for Mike and Jane's Unimog, affectionately named Ellie.
Once at the summit, camp was set up, dinner cooked and eaten, and then off to bed.
The next morning Mike looked in the SOTA Goat app on his phone and found that Jubilee Mountain was in fact in the SOTA system, ready to be activated for the first time. A recent SOTA mapping update of the VE7/CP region by Paul VA6MPM Mower had added the peak with designation VE7/CP-087. Thanks Paul!
While Jane (and Tao the dog) slept in, Mike climbed the lookout tower and setup his station. For this activation he would employ his QRP Labs QMX feeding an EFHW wire antenna hung from the lookout's railing. iFTX on Mike's phone would facilitate FT8 QSOs with 11 stations across North America on the 20m band.
As the sun rose above the Eastern side of the Rocky Mountain trench, Mike had to stop operating for a bit to take some photos (only one phone to either operate with or take photos with). He then continued on as there were quite the number of chasers still waiting for QSOs.
While drive-up summits aren't really the preferred way to activate SOTA, for those with mobility issues (and a good 4x4 vehicle) summits like these are a great option. You only need to walk a short distance from your vehicle up the lookout tower or over to the viewpoint bench for some great operating positions inside the summit activation zone. Visit this one.
It was fun,
73,
Mike VE7KPZ with Jane VE7WWJ, Tao the dog and Ellie the Unimog