Shady Trail

Travel on Highway 6, and turn north onto Cedar Butte Road between milepost 17 and 18. Drive over the bridge and continue straight at the Muesial Creek Road junction (0.1 mile). There are signs at each junction that direct you to the Cedar Butte Trailhead, however, mark your mileage here and watch for posted signs. The trailhead is about 5.5 miles from this point, although the sign says 5.7. At 2.0 miles turn right at the “Y” intersection. At 4.8 miles, the Cedar Butte Road veers left.

This summit had never been activated and I now know why!  The USGS maps would have you believe there is a road to the summit.  There actually was a road when the forestry lookout was standing, but the last 1-1/2 miles of road is now overgrown and would take some guts and a great off-road 4-wheeler to traverse it.  These same last miles are steep and unrelenting, though completely forested.  When the so-called road ends. there are a few hundred feet of vertical trail required to reach the summt.

This is a quick update on Grass Mountain, W7O/CC-002, near Alsea, OR. In the past, this trail to a grassy meadow with nice views of the valley below was worth the time and effort.

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.

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.

This is a fine hike that many should try at some point - it's 4.4 RT miles and 800 feet of gain for the 'short' version described here, with a summit pinnacle that makes for a fun scramble if you feel the need to get to the tippy top. 

Bull of the Woods is a pleasant and popular hike south of Estacada of about 6.5 miles and 1300 feet of gain. There's an unused (but locked) fire lookout at the summit, giving you a chance to be out of the sun (or rain) to activate by standing under the structure.