Blogs

This summit is located off of Highway 30 Northwest of Soda Springs ID.  Turn North off of Hwy 30 at the Old Oregon Trail highway.  Take this road a couple of miles until you reach Windmill Flat Rd on your right.  Follow this road approx. 1.75miles stopping at the cattle guard. From here you will see an old 4 wheeler trail going up the fence line on your right which is now closed by the BLM.  Follow the fenceline until the corner posts.  Here you will need to bushwhack approx 1.3 miles to the summit.  There is approxiately 1000 ft lift in this bushwhack.

The previous trip reports have described driving up to South Fork Mountain, and I wanted to add that there is a trail to the top off of the well-maintained forest road 45, which is also on the way to/from Wanderers Peak. Thus it makes for a great second activation with no additional driving miles.

It was a bit surprising that this summit had not been activated. It is a fairly easy hike but it does require a back country permit for access in the Three Sisters Wilderness, which may have put some folks off. Also, Todd Lake is quite busy in the Summer tourism months and permits are limited, though we had no trouble getting one a couple days prior to our planned outing.

  This is a nice drive up summit with either a high clearance vehicle or ORV.  From Idaho Falls, Idaho, take Hwy US 20 past Rexburg ID and turn off at Exit 339 toward ID-33 Driggs/Jackson Hole exit.  Go through the small town of Teton and proceed East 16 miles to Canyon Creek RD on your right.  You will merge onto N Canyon Creek Rd and pass Green Canyon Hot Springs.  Stay on this road a couple of miles until you see a FS sign saying Relay Ridge trail 219 on your left.  Stay on 219 approx 9 miles on this 4 wheel drive/OVR road and it will take you to Ryans Peak.

There is already some written on Red Cone. I find a lot of the CLNP hikes difficult in the soft pumice which this is, most of the way. I am putting my 2c in on the AZ. I went alone and was told the first summit is in the AZ. When I arrived it sure didn't look like it so I walked the saddle, checked the low point in the saddle, and it seemed about 110' below the true summit according to all my GPS and topo lines on the map. I also used N6ARA's AZ app and it too says the first peak is not in the AZ.

Buckneck starts off by taking the Rogue-Umpqua divide trail from the west. The trail is pretty nice. There was one part I got off track due to many down trees and unable to tell which was trail. I tried to correct this with moving some branches and logs on my way back out. Even though this trail is nice, I still don't recommend this summit due to the final ascend of about 300'. You have to switchback off trail and ascend up the north ridge. It is all serious windblown burn scar that is being took over by young western hemlock.

This was short but very hard. Straight up off trail. Maybe there is an easier way but I doubt it. I started on the 1046B trail on the west side but it ends only about 500ft in so I just started climbing straight up. Soft, steep, forest duff that was hard to stay upright in and the I reached a outcropping of shale and boulder to carefully climb the final 150' before the AZ. Shaded. It is about 700' gain in .5 miles.No cell at all. I did decend through an open meadow which felt much safer, however, the plants started getting taller and taller and I got covered in burrs.

I did Fish, CS-159, and Buckneck the first day of my arrival preparing for the 2023 campout. I have been working on exploring the summits along the Rogue-Umpqua Divide. They are all HARD. Fish is about 1.8mi RT with about 1000'+ per mi gain. No trail, I took tracks from a peakbagger and hiked up the NW rim. It is a combination of navigating through the forest, rocks, and climbing. Half way up you will come to a plug I did not see coming but managed to navigate around the west side of it (to the right) and find a spot to boulder climb up.

After arriving Thursday afternoon at the W7O Campout, Ryan NN7M invited me to join him and his dog Tori for a hike to Tipsoo Peak.  This summit was recently added as a new SOTA summit in Feb 2023, and was excited to hear this would be a first activation (Mark K7MAS also activated the summit the next day...and was part of the first UTC day activation)

Directions:

The summit of Kaser Ridge is a drive-up radio site located on private property. Public access is restricted due to no trespassing signs and multiple gates. There is a radio site adjacent to Kaser Ridge. Service personnel have an easement to travel to the summit. I maintain equipment at this radio site. Access to Kaser Ridge is via Fifteenmile Road. The first gate has the risk of cattle getting loose on the county road (you don't want a rodeo on your hands). The extremely steep 4x4 drive up and down is not for the faint of heart. It's hazardous during mud and snow conditions.