Big Mountain is part of Whitefish Ski Area and in the summer you can take the chairlift to the top ($20) and hike, ride bikes and activate Big Mountain. The communication towers that sit atop the summit are easy to see from the top of the chairlift and it's only a short quarter mile walk up the graded road to the top.
I went to Bend to visit my in-laws over the weekend and had time for one summit. Figured I would get my monies worth and go for a ten pointer I knew I could activate, Mount Bachelor.
I activated Mount Bachelor in 2018. For that activation I took the lift to the Pine Marten Lodge and hiked to the summit from there. I told myself the next time I activated this one I would start my hike from the bottom.
This summit is a progressively more difficult climb as you ascend. The activation is challenging but rewarding. The route I took starts with an easy well trafficked trail, but the second part of the ascent has no trail and involves navigating through the Angell Basin which consists of areas of large granite boulders.
We went up to Parker after activating Soda Mountain. This was a drive up summit, not sure if it always is, but the ODF lookout was being manned by a really nice guy Terry who welcomed us to the top to enjoy the view. Nice view of the surrounding summits in the Ashland/Klamath area. One of my favorite parts of going up to a new summit is viewing and identifying the different mountains I had activated or wish to. This lookout was a neat view of some of the near and far summits we have been to. Plenty of room to park and trees and rock to use to set up.
Here's a nice summit with a trail to the top, about 5 miles RT and more elevation gain that you might have wanted at 1800 feet - but know that it's worth it. A bit obscure perhaps outside of huckleberry season, you might not see many folks at other times. The views of Mt. Adams are fabulous.
Elk Mountain is in the Olympic National Park and accessible from a well-maintained forest service road named Obstruction Point Road. The road is not open all year, so check park conditions before you go. The summit is attainable by taking the Obstruction Point Trail and then making the easy traverse up to the base of a large rock formation. A quick stairstep up the rocks brings you to the summit. Total hike from parking to summit is about 1.5 miles.
Summit 5645 (Hurricane Ridge) is in the Olympic National Park and accessible from a well-maintained forest service road named Obstruction Point Road. The road is not open all year, so check park conditions before you go. There is no established trail to this SOTA summit, but it is quite straightforward to follow the ridgeline to the summit and does not require bushwhacking.
Doris Peaks is my name for a set of peaks above Doris Lake.
My stats:
Distance: 9.1 miles
Elevation Gain: 2000 ft
On trail: 6 miles
Off trail: 3.1 miles
Difficulty: Arduous
Quick search of sota summits finds 30 Goat Mountains, exclusive of my favorites: Old Goat Mountain and Scape Goat Mountain. Can unfortunately relate to both of those.
There are six in W7W and 2 in W7W/LC. This blog is about W7W/LC-035. The plan for this trip was found on summitpost: https://www.summitpost.org/goat-mountain/153737. Andrew, K7AHR, and I followed those directions to a successful activation.
We built extra time into our schedule in case of an unexpected delay, but I never thought that delay would be a cattle drive. In the drive up to the Pine Mountain Observatory, Mark, W6IA, and I waited as two cowboys and at least one dog herded cattle off the road. We hung back just behind the well-trained border collie while he and his team did their work, and eventually it was clear. [See photo below.]