I hiked to Huffman Peak from Siouxon Peak ( http://www.pnwsota.org/blog/kj7eha/2022-july-24/siouxon-peak-wa-july-2022 ). The trail is very easy to follow, and traverses through a 2020 burn area. It is very wide. There was a lot of blowdown, but easy to step over and around. The summit itself has been burned and is exposed. In July 2022, the forest floor was showing signs of new growth tiny seedlings everywhere. The trail is a very interesting journey through existing forest, forest where only the undergrowth burned and the canopy remains, and total destruction.
Take the trail down from Siouxon and take a 180 turn to continue West on Huffman Peak Tr #129. Do NOT take the Wildcat trail at the junction, veer right to stay on Huffman #129. Around N45.98097° W122.15666° I left the trail and “bushwhacked” to the top. It is steep but very doable, good footing, you are not kicking up ash, there is a layer of dead pine needles on the forest floor with some grass shooting through. The forest floor is burned clear so there is no “Bush” to “Whack” through. Pics below. One short sketchy section with a rock ledge but I took it slow and had no issues with full pack. It is seven miles, 1370’ ascent and 2600’ decent from Siouxon Peak to Huffman Peak and then back to the trailhead of Siouxon.
The summit is quite narrow and runs East-West. I choose to activate just below the true summit to try and get my End Fed wire antenna to run North-South. There are some burned trees still standing at this location. I did not have great luck on SSB HF. I did not have ATT cell coverage, but APRS is full two way messaging so spotting on APRS works great. I got N7KOM on FM in Beaverton HT-to-HT at 5 watts. 5x9 to Salmon Creek and Vancouver.
Trail pics below. Summit pics on SOTA Atlas.
