Foley Peak is a short hike including a "choose your own adventure" bushwhack where there used to be a trail but there is no longer, up to the site of what used to be a fire lookout but is no longer. There might be ghosts.
Summary - West Twin Butte is another easy-to-reach summit and can be paired with Squaw Butte for a two peak day. The summit is small, flat, has trees for wires and good operating positions. As with other peaks in this area, two meter contacts are a challenge, cell service (ATT) works okay, APRS is good. Google maps gives good directions for the two hour drive from Portland.
Summary - About two hours from Portland, Squaw Butte is an easy drive, hike, and bushwhack to a forested summit. There are limited views, trees for wires, and a number of good operating positions. Two meter contacts are likely to be difficult, as is spotting with a cell phone; APRS works okay. Google maps gives good directions. Pair this one with West Twin Butte.
Summary -- The trailhead for 6001 is on Bennett Pass Road, about two miles from Windy Camp. It may be possible to hike it from Windy Camp on Gunsight Trail but we didn't test this assumption.
Summary -- Badger Butte is broad, treed summit, with a fairly easy climb from the road.
Summary - An easy to reach trailhead (2WD friendly), a nice trail, easy bushwhack, and not much of a summit view. 2M contacts are likely to be difficult, APRS okay, and cell service marginal to nonexistent. The summit is small and brush covered; there are lots of places for putting up a HF wire.
Summary - This Haystack Butte is easy to get to, if you don't mind the possibility of new pinstripes (and it is not the MC-070 peak). The bushwhack is about a quarter-mile, not steep, and mostly requires negotiating large deadfall. The summit is broad, flat, tree-covered and doesn't have much of a view. VHF contacts are likely to be difficult.
Peak 1650 is the highest point in the Drift Creek Wilderness area, a special area that preserves some of the oldest trees on the Oregon Coast and a nearly pristine ecosystem along the creek. To get to 1650, set your GPS to the Horse Creek North Trailhead at 44.4411, -123.9091. There are multiple paths through the paved and well-maintained gravel roads eventually getting you to the trailhead where you’ll find spots for five or six cars. Along the road you’ll get glimpses at the backsid
Lilly has been on my list for a while as Matt, KC7OOY, mentioned it was a beautiful mountain. I am so glad I finally made it. As with many summits in the area, what you see on a map isn't always the truth when it comes to roads so I didn't go the way I had planned but it was a beautiful hike with great window views of Scraggy Mountain, White Mountain and others around the Red Buttes Wilderness through the timber. Along the trek are some very fascinating rocks. Lots of quartz that looks like lumps of snow from a distance and shiney silver mica like stone.
This summit is a quick 1/2 mile hike up ~500' elevation gain along what one of the rangers described as "social trails" which is to say there is no maintained trail but folks have bushwacked up to the top. After parking in the Mowich Lake lot (pass required) and walking a short distance, I found a spot by the turn-around (and a no-parking sign) which has a section where one can get up off the road and into the forest. There is a short path that peters out but if you keep going upwards you eventually get to the peak. I availed myself of the SOTA Goat app to keep me pointed