Forested Summit

This old Forest Service Lookout site has only a crumpled outhouse, concrete anchor blocks and a few pieces of rusted metal remaining.  Young trees have grown up and have limited somewhat the view of the surrounding landscape.  It is a short, but steep hike very typical of the ‘ridge access trails’ climbing out of the Selway River.  Along the trail though are many old ponderosa pine with large rectangles of missing bark on their boles where the historic Nez Perce people peeled back the bark centuries ago to remove the underlayer of sweet cambium, the growing part of a tree (see photo below). Peoples footprints have been on this area for thousands of years.

Indian Ridge is accessed by trail beginning on the Selway River near Indian Creek Campground. This US Forest Service primitive campground is famous from the humous outdoor book INDIAN CREEK CHRONICLES where the author, college student Pete Fromm spent a winter watching over an Idaho Fish and Game artificial salmon rearing channel. The well- marked summit trail climbs through towering centuries-old ponderosa pine open-forest and some recent fire snag forests.

University Mountain with an adjoining lower non-SOTA summit, Mount Sentinel overlooks the city of Missoula.  Access is by three main routes, a road (closed to motor vehicles) or two trails.  It is a communication site for several Agency repeaters and a popular summit in summer and winter for hikers, mountain bikers and cross-country skiers.  The subordinate summit to the west is a launch site for hang gliders.  Visitors can be expected on any of your SOTA activations here.

This must be one of the all time easiest summits to get to.  The dirt road is graded with no gravel.  The only way to know you're not on asphalt are the occassional potholes.  The summit is very large and surrounded with trees that obscure any view of the surrounding vistas.  There is a lot of trash scattered around from clay shooting with a large fire ring indicating a party destination.  The actual summit is a small knoll to the west of the flat area where I set up both a 2m "J" pole and a random wire HF antenna.

When the plans for the weekend fell through, the sherpas jumped into action and planned something to do before telling me. Fearing that a free weekend would lead to a trudge up some hill hauling a heap of radio gear they seized on the moment to make a unified plan and then make a joint announcement. But they are compassionate souls - as they planned their day of geocaching and photography, they sought to placate the old man by finding a location with a nearby, albeit more mild, summit. And thus the great scheme was launched.

Patterson Mountain is a 4460’ asl summit a few miles west of Oakridge, OR. It is rated at two points. To get there, drive east on Highway 58 for 24.7 miles from I-5 Exit 188A. Between mile posts 24 and 25 turn right on gravel Patterson Mountain Road 5840 and drive  five uphill miles to a fork at Patterson Saddle.

Birkenfeld Mountain is a summit that can be done as part of a challenging three peak traverse that would include Three Corner Rock-W7W/LC-101 and Greenleaf Peak-W7W/LC-104.

Wind Mountain is a nice hike in the Gorge with good views (in clear weather). It's about 2.5 miles round-trip and 1000 feet of gain. There's no pass required at the trailhead and it's often less busy than nearby Dog Mountain.

Head east on Highway 14 from Stevenson, Washington about 6.2 miles to Home Valley. Then turn onto Wind Mountain Road for 1.0 miles to turn right onto Girl Scout Road and go about 0.6 miles. This leads to a large dirt parking area at the end of the paving near 45.7145°, -121.7533°. This is usually the best place to park.

4wd + Short Hike (0.9 Miles, +631 ft., -215 ft.)

Directions:

Exit east from Exit 85 on I-15

Drive 4.3 miles south on Hwy-91

Turn left on Burma Road – Continue 3.1 miles

Turn left on 2-track at Chokecherry Gulch (by gravel pit)

Peak 4005 is a near drive-up summit a bit east of Mount Hood, accessed mostly on paved Forest Service roads. You should consider this summit in the Mount Hood 2m FM "dead zone" as we were not able to raise anyone on 146.52.