The description by NR7Y is still accurate in 2024 for the approach from the south. I had some difficulty finding the correct road to the gate. Here is a gps track to the gate:
http://www.pnwsota.org/content/w7onc-007-drive-route
This is a drive-up summit in the Capitol State Forest, west of Olympia. Map to Coordinates: 47.0261, -123.1691. The road is a dirt forest service road with some potholes, but any car should be able to make it. You can drive right up to the activation zone. We walked about 25 feet from where we parked to get a little higher. There are stumps and tall grass with some small trees.
1820 is a relatively easily accessible forested summit in the Oregon Central Coast (CC) region near Lincoln City, OR. It sits entirely on Siuslaw National Forest land. 1820 was a First Activation for the crew, which consisted of Amy KC7JNU, Katherine KK7IUD, KC K1ZMA, Jason K7BXX and myself.
Getting there: The route is quite straighforward. As of October 2024, it is possible to drive the 1/2 mile up the brushed-in logging road from the 5800 road to where the old road grade peels off. There is parking for two vehicles at the start of the bushwhack.
I had set a SOTA goal a few months ago to activate all of the summits surrounding Lake Owyhee in SE Oregon and set out to tackle my first one yesterday. 4029 is right next to 3660 (W7O/SE-188) and are both accessible by a vehicle turn-around at the end of a jeep road. To reach this vehicle turn-around you have to spend about my 70-80 mintues driving over a few jeep roads from Leslie Gulch Rd. The 4WD driving is straight forward.
This summit can be reached via the Crooked Tree Trail, which has a listing in AllTrails here:
Posted as private property on 10/18/24 - see pics below. Activated W7O/SE-114 (Tub Mountain) instead - 1 hour / 38 miles north, 4WD required.
A drive-up on quite good gravel roads (see below), with great views in all directions (fully logged following forest fire a few years ago).
I came in from the West, leaving the paved road at 44.97599, -122.50586. These subsequent gravel roads were good enough for any passenger car. Just watch for big rocks on the road. There's not much to say about this road. There were very few gates, and I didn't notice any signage near them (unlike below).
From Lake Wenatchee, travel north on Forest Service Road 6200. The Carne Mountain trailhead is at the end of a 13-mile dirt road. The first 11 miles are rough, but the last 2 have recently been regraded and are quite decent. A high clearance vehicle is recommended, although we made it in our low clearance campervan. No pass is required and we slept at the trailhead to get an early start the next morning. The parking lot is small, and people park on the side of the road when the lot is full. It can be difficult to turn around if people park on both sides.
This turned out to be an easy activation. The road has some rutted sections where having a high clearance vehicle is nice but not necessary. Since we were hosting a S2S Party, 2M was no problem, but we also worked many locals on 2M. There are plenty of old Juniper snags to tie off a mast to for HF. Have fun!
See my full report here