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.
KD7QOW's blog
Saturday Rock
Having approached this area from both the West and the East, I strongly suggest that you get here from the East, by driving through Carson and driving up the 42 road to where it meets with the 53 road. The route from the West is technically shorter if you're coming from the Portland area, but unless you live in Battle Ground, it's not worth it. The roads from that direction are just too bumpy and grown over. It takes longer and it beats up your vehicle.
Sawtooth Mountain
Bring a climbing helmet for this summit! Even under the trees, you're in the kill zone for falling rocks!
Bare Mountain
This is another summit I activated with my mountain bike and in this case that turned out to be a mistake as the bushwhack to the top is very steep, very thick, and not at all fun to do in bike shorts and shoes with spd cleats in them.
Calamity Peak
The network of roads that accesses this summit are minimally maintained, and the final approach road isn't maintained at all as there is no active tree harvesting happening at the time I activated the summit. Expect the final access road to continue to degraded and grow over. When I activated this, I was able to ride my bike to the highest point on the road but had to lift it over a large blowdown that you won't be able to drive past or lift a motorcycle over. if you're feeling ambitious, you and another experienced sawyer could get it with a 24" bar.
W7W/LC-102
The mountains near Marble Mountain hold snow for longer at a lower elevation than other nearby mountains, so keep that in mind. Even at 2600 feet elevation, which is pretty low, there was still 2 feet of snow on the road all the way up to where I left the road to bushwhack the rest of the way to the summit.
There is a bridge out but someone has laid the guardrails from the old bridge across the creek and that works for crossing on foot. You could carry a bike across if needed.
Birkenfeld Mountain, October 22nd 2023
Getting There: DO NOT USE GOOGLE MAPS TO GET HERE!!!! Google maps will lead you straight to a gated road. Have your GPS open or a map next to you while you try to navigate this. From highway 14, turn North on Rock Creek Driver like you're headed to Skamania Lodge. Continue half a mile and then turn left on Foster Creek Road. Next turn left on Red Bluff Road which will become CG-2000. Continue a little less than a mile until you see the intersection with CG 2022 splitting up the hill to the left.
Short Hike if you park in the right spot.
After you've activated W7W/LC-080, head back toward Ape Cave and park at the bend in the road at these coordinates: 46.13329, -122.25105 a couple miles from LC-080. If you poke around carefully, you'll see that there is an old road grade that meets up with the road right where you're parked. If you see a bunch of vine maple and vanilla leaf, you've found the road grade. Follow it, or just bushwhack North through the woods for about 250 yards or so until you stumble across the Cinnamon Trail.
Easy Drive-Up. Road has been fixed and brush cleared.
The road is in good condition. It is driveable by a Prius. They also ran a brush mower all the way up the road very recently. The corridor is nicely cleared with all the attendant vegetative carnage 12 feet on either side of the road. Sight lines were good, too.
You can drive right into the activation zone where there is a nice, flat clearing with a fire pit in it. There is plenty of space to set up a 67 foot wire antenna.
Strawberry Mountain, WA July 2023
Getting there: from highway 12 , when you get to the town of Randle, turn South on state route 131. After about a half mile, there is a fork in the road. Stay to the right on highway 131. Do not take the left fork to Cispus road. After another half mile route 131 turns into Forest Service road 25. Drive about 10 miles down the 25 road until you get to the 2516, where you'll take a right. Here are coordinates for the turn: 46.34766, -121.97049.