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.
Bad or No Parking at Trailhead
Pinnacle Peak, OR - June 2023
Pinnacle Peak is quite a drive, at which there is no real parking, and no trail, which I suspect is why it hadn't been previously activated - that and the two points. Fun nonetheless, a sense of accomplishment, and some good views to the east.
Monument Peak, OR - May 2023
Parking for Monument Peak summit (aka Peak 4740) is on Monument Peak Road (MPR) about 7.5 miles up from the Monument Peak Trailhead at the south end of Gates School Road. Gates School Road is at milepost 33 on OR-22 east of Salem. I recommend parking here: (44.6966, -122.3343), the junction of MPR and what is now a washed out logging road - 2WD vehicles need not apply.
cornell mtn or (the long way) | april 2023
TL;DR - Cornell Mountain is on private property but the activation zone extends to the public right-of-way, so this is a side-of-the-street activation. You might be able to activate on HF with appropriate gear but expect the locals to give you the stinkeye if you spend much time loitering.
Lick Benchmark, OR | Sep 2022
Lick Benchmark is a six point summit located near John Day Oregon. It is a bit more than ½ miles round trip and 420 feet of elevation gain. So a bit steep. Trail starts at 44.5755, -118.7617. There is a wide spot to park and turn around there. There is an old jeep track that turns into a trail for a bit and then disappears. It is not a bad bushwhack though, in terms of whacking bushes. The benchmark is on a rock outcropping at the summit.
Ingle Mountain, OR | Sep 2022
Ingle Mountain is a six point summit near Mt. Vernon Oregon. It is a little over 4 miles round trip with a total elevation gain of ~1100ft, but it seems a bunch more. That is because net elevation gain is only about half of that. So one keeps seeing false summits followed by saddles followed by false summits …
Treasureton Hill , Idaho, 10/03/2022
This summit is on BLM land but is landlocked by a large private ranch. I lucked out and talked to the ranch manager and explained SOTA to him, and since it has never been activated, he had his ranchhand escort me to the summit to activate it. He emphasized, in a very nice way, but in no uncertain terms that no one, including myself would activate it again since the access to it is on the ranches property.
*as a side note, they have and will prosecute trespassers so be forewarned.
Thanks,
Bill- de N0DNF
Davis Mountain, WA
Davis Mtn could be activated with Purcell, W7W/PL-057, via the same access Davis Creek Road. Davis Creek Road goes north from SR12, a few miles east of Randle. Davis Creek Road becomes NF63 which is easily driveable by street vehicles, i.e. "priusable" for about 8 miles. Turn right at 46.58361, -121.81340 onto a high-clearance, at least an AWD, heavily rutted road.
4097 Troposphere Pk, WA | Aug 2022
We headed up to Tropo after getting some excellent pointers from Etienne K7ATN. He and Darryl WW7D were also up here a few days ago.
The route we took started from Morton, WA on Hwy 7 northbound. Unfortunately, Google Maps wants to route through private gated property. So we continued on north until NF-74 and turned off there. We followed NF-74 to the crossing with NF-295. Beyond that point, you will need to disregard your vehicle's paint job. The scrub brush is very ingrown on the next section of NF-74.
Huffraker Mountain, WA | Aug 2022
This was my second time to visit Huffraker. Last year, the property owner had closed the area due to fire danger. This year, it was reopened. However, last year I was able to drive all the way to the edge of Gifford-Pinchot NF and park. This year, there was an incredible amount of blowdown that had not been cleared which added another 4 miles to this hike bringing it to overall 6.3 miles RT. It may be that, due to the late season snow, once the mushroom pickers get busy some of the blowdown will get cleared.