No View From Summit

Just past Oregon wine country resides Sheridan Peak W7O/NC-009. This peak has an elevation of 3000ft and resides in the heavily timbered coastal range. For beginners to SOTA, this is perfect place to start and gain experience. This peak resides in the Nestucca Recreation Area, specially created to manage the impact of an extensive and wonderful network of OHV trails. There are specific restrictions within this area, so please check with the BLM before you camp or light fires.

Bobs Mountain is fairly close to Portland, and with a short respite from the rain, an activation plan was hatched. I had the company of Grover, KG7O for a joint activation. We had a good time on the short hike to the summit on a four-wheel drive road and had a sucessful first time activation for this peak.

2012-02-12 Tumtum Peak W7W/RS-059 CN96br59

I could not go out for a long time. I had a lot of problems and was afraid of avalanche danger. Previous weekend I went out for an expedition hike towards Ararat peak. Avalanche danger was low, with declining tendency. Despite this I still did not want to go on any steep open terrain. Many would not think that even a small amount of snow can kill you.

Even more updated here: http://www.pnwsota.org/blog/k7atn/2021-june-07/updated-monte-carlo-wa-june-2021

The trail was difficult at this time of year with significant blowdown from an ice storm in February. I actually turned back twice but then decided to give it one more try. (Well, two more.) The attached photo shows the obliterated trail - the blowdown went on for almost a mile. I also hit continuous snow at 2200 feet (Augspurger tops out near 3700). I eventually lost the trail again in the snow kicking steps and then was postholing for about an hour.

THIS Mount Scott (Scott, Mount in the ARM) is a volcanic cinder cone (extinct) southeast of Portland, Oregon.

Prune Hill is an extinct volcanic vent, 755 feet ASL, located in Camas, Washington, about 30 minutes from Portland, Oregon. This summit is in a suburban neighborhood with no public space near the summit itself. 

Let's start by making sure we are talking about Oregon's Larch Mountain and not one of the two Larch Mountains in Washington, and not the one in Idaho either.

This would be a great activation on a mountain bike - the single track looks like a good time. On busy weekends hikers might be outnumbered by bikes - however, for this early fall, late evening activation I saw no one on the trail. The trail is about 4.1 miles one way with about 0.3 miles of that cross country and 1300 feet of elevation gain.

There's nothing particularly interesting about Pete's Mountain - it's essentially a suburban pavement activation for one point. There's no public space so one ends up standing on the public right of way a few feet from the road, pretty much in someone's front yard. I was across the street from the actual 'summit' that's in the front yard of a large house.