Forested Summit

We finally got to Activate Old Pass Hill, after snowshoeing by it a number of times before.  Old Pass Hill is a 4 point SOTA Summit of 4,885 feet elevation.  In winter, the route is mostly avalanche free, and so is a semi popoluar snowshoe trip.  A nice spring day, right before a change in weather, yielded a mostly sunny early morning, with increasing wind and clouds later in the mid day.  The temperature at departure from the TH was 37 degrees, and the snow was firm enough to hike on without snowshoes.  On the return trip, it had warmed up enough to require snowshoes, and we were gald we had carried them in.  The trip is approximately 8.15 miles RT, with about 1,500 feet elevation gain, including many ups and downs along the ridge beween Swauk Creek & Scotty Creek in the Wenatchee Mountains, west of Blewett Pass.  We only saw 2 other people the entire day.

On a family vacation to the Lake Tahoe Basin in Nevada and California, I was fortunate enough to Activate 4 peaks in 3 days.  This is a description of the Mount Watson Activation, number 2 in the series.  On this Activation I had the pleasure of meeting up with a "local" Activator from Reno, Nevada, K1LB - "Woody" Brown, so that we could do a joint Activation of Watson.

Peak 4620 (near Blue Box Pass) is a backcountry snowshoe activation that can be done in the winter if you don't mind using a GPS and are comfortable with off-trail navigation.

A first activation of Eureka Peak on snowshoes turned out to be quite a workout. The basic climb description is about 2.5 miles one way and 1200 feet of gain, but the real work is off the trail with the last half mile being particularly steep. Since there is no trail to the top this would be difficult to do without snow cover.

Roger, ND7PA, reports that he reached this summit from a parking area along Marys Peak Rd. That route required a difficult bushwhack of a mile or so through the forest. Bushwhacks of this type in western Oregon can be very challenging, so I looked for a different route. The topo maps show a series of roads that approach the summit from the west.

The name Multorpor comes from Multnomah County + Oregon + Portland.

This unnamed peak is located west of Territorial Highway and south of Crow, OR. This one-point summit is located in the middle of a young and dense forest. Views are not expansive.

 This summit is not very noteworthy. It's best feaure is being only a few miles from Cummins Peak, allowing an easy two summit  activation. You are on a road right of way that is surrounded by forest. No views, but lots of trees to support antennas.

0.7 miles, +750 feet, 5.2 mile approach

Rock Island Butte is in the southern portion of the Absoraka-Beartooth Wilderness.  We climbed it from the Chief Joseph Trailhead as part of an extended backpacking trip, but it is also reasonable to climb it as a day-hike.  If camping overnight, there is an excellent isolated campsite on the south side of Widewater Lake near where the trail dips closest to the lake.  There are also numerous campsites in the Widewater-Big Moose area.

Rock Butte is a short bushwhack with no views or other redeeming qualities in the Activation Zone. It's just past Timothy Lake east of Mount Hood.