Shady Trail

I did the first activation of Sheridan Mountain in July of 2015. I wrote up a quick trip report for the NASOTA group and planned to write a more detailed trip report later, but I lost my notes for the activation. Sheridan has not been activated again. I am writing this trip report now with the hope that someone will find it useful. Sheridan is not an easy summit to get to or climb, but it's not that hard either.

Let's sart with my original trip report and then I will add some commentary from memory.

Overview

For this activation, I followed the recommendation made by N7LF in

The 5140 summit is a pleasant one mile hike from FR-2610 in the Ochoco National Forest. The turnoff to FR-2610 is right off of Hwy 26 and about 22 miles East of Prineville.  I activated in the winter on snow shoes, I found a road bed for the hike up that may allow a near drive up in the summer.

I took my kids on a snowshoeing adventure this past weekend.  There were several SOTA activators scheduled to be out activating and we joined them for a fun time.  The distance is around 1.7miles one way but we had very nice snow conditions.

Traffic was very heavy heading up to Mt. Hood and several vehicles turned around but we persevered and it eventually improved.  It did add around 30mins to our arrival time.

Starting from the Frog Lake SNO-PARK and heading across the hwy slightly to the north is the Pacific Crest Trail crossing.

Bunsen Peak is an ancient volcanic cone characteristic of Yellowstone National Park. The peak is a very popular summit hike in Yellowstone Park near Mammoth Hot Springs. The trail is wide and even in October I found folks I could tag along with per the guidelines of not hiking alone in the Park.

Point 118 hosts a Missoula County communication site.  It is a rocky prominence with excellent views of the distant Selway- Bitterroot Wilderness’ rugged northern mountains.  Access is by foot or bicycle on a permanently gated road.  The summit is approximately 200 feet from this communication site.

Turner Mountain in northwest Montana is approximately 22 miles north of Libby on Pipe Creek Road #567.  Turner ski area opened in 1961. It is currently active with a mile long double chairlift with 2100’ of vertical rise. The 1.8-mile vehicle access road is closed in the summer but open to mountain bikes and foot travel. I borrowed an ebike and rode to the summit via the reasonable grade ‘jeep road’.

UPDATE March 2023: W7W/CN-024 has been retired and replaced by Frog Lake Buttes 

Canuck Peak is a forested summit in far northwestern Montana. The summit is identified only by three summit trails all heading downhill, a sign pointing to American Peak and a recently burned cabin. The trail to Canuck Peak is part of the Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail system Congressionally designated in 2009. The one-mile trail portion to Canuck Peak is a well-maintained easy grade.

Kinney Mountain is close to Applegate Lake and many other summits. The road was pretty good all the way to the starting point of the hike. No trail. Hike through the timber. The brush is not too bad. There is enough open space to get most of the way up and back without bushwhacking. Worst is at the very summit, at least where I landed. Thick oak that you have to push through to get to true summit. Might be able to set up below but I wanted to be facing east as much as possible. Good view NW and SE through the timber/brush.