Decent tree cover for most of the trail
No vehicle access to this peak now. A gate has been added since this write up: http://www.pnwsota.org/blog/k7atn/2019-november-17/peak-2260-or-november-2019
There is no signage at the gate. The gate is a bit up the road from the highway and there is room to turn around or park, but we parked just off the highway.
Three of us did the hike: Eteinne, K7ATN, Guy, NS0TA, and myself.
Skalkaho gets its name from the area in Salish meaning ‘many trails’. Unrelated to the name, the summit does have several trails converging near its summit. I chose the trail coming from the west off FS road #364. This trail has many views of other SOTA summits and to the west the much higher elevation Bitterroot Range.
The trail is well defined and approaches within ¼ mile of the summit, an easy off-trail scramble.
Four curious mule deer greeted me near the summit and hung around. Interested in CW, I thought?
Palisade Mountain is a popular hike east of Corvallis, MT. The trail system is well maintained to within 500’ of the summit. The summit is a large talus rock pile with a several oddly-located whitebark pine trees. Evidence of the 1930s lookout still exist as some rock work and old trails in the talus. The main trail does not go to the summit though a semi-improved travel way in the talus on the west side does. Excellent views exist from the summit including a large expanse of the Stony Mountain Roadless Area.
Dome Shaped Mountain is a scenic and lightly traveled trail near Hamilton Montana. Much of the hike overlooks a large portion of the Stony Mountain Roadless Area. Alpine larch dominate the summit with brilliant yellow fall color in early October contrasting with green whitebark pine. Most of the trail system is in unburned forest with large wildfire burned areas to the east. Two unsigned trail junctions are worthy to note as they could be easily missed on the return trip. See the directions narrative.
Summary - Birkenfeld Mountain from the east side is a steep, mostly pathless, ridge bushwhack to a brushy forested summit. The approach via CG2020, is a logging road with some very steep sections that can also be used to reach Greenleaf Peak. Drive time to the trailhead was about 90 minutes.
Peak 6100, which I am calling Lemcke Peak, as the only thing near it with a name is Lemcke Spring.
Summary - Butler Butte is part of a three summit group on Weyerhauser land that is about two hourse from SE Portland. Getting to the summit requires a short hike from a logging road. The summit is small, densely forested and without views. Don't count on two meters to make your four QSOs, cell phone service is marginal at best, and APRS pings get picked up. It can be done as part of a three or four summit day if you plan carefully.
East Crater Summit can be accessed from the Northwest via PCT (See http://www.pnwsota.org/blog/k7ahr/2020-october-10/east-crater-wa-september-2020 ) or from the east side via East Crater Trail #48 (https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/giffordpinchot/recarea/?recid=31748). This report is for the east side access. It is 4.7 miles round trip with 1350 feet of vertical gain.
In my continuing series on easier/shorter approaches to summits, I found a back-side social trail to Barlow Ridge summit.
Originally I was just going to bushwack it (0.6 mile and 400' elevation gain) but upon arrival I discovered this path.
