Treacherous Trail

There are a nice bunch of summits north of Carson, Washington - this one is a near drive up - as long as you have a high clearance vehicle. 

Dragontail Peak, near Leavenworth, WA, is a committed and remote alpine climb - it can't really be considered a hike. This trip report can only give an impression and some basic facts - you will need to prepare carefully and appropriately by reading guidebooks and climbing websites, and making sure you have the necessary skills, experience and equipment. You will need to be able to handle wilderness route finding, high angle snow ascent and descent, rock climbing, and challenging terrain. Adequate physical conditioning is critical to ensure success and safety.

A very long day to get ten points - the usual for the Northwest. Here in Oregon and Washington, we can't do several drive up ten pointers in one day - it might take 12 hours of hiking just to get to one ten-point summit and back down again.

We left Portland at 2:30am to drive to the trailhead at Marble Mountain Sno-Park off Road 83 a bit past Cougar, WA. Unusually great weather was predicted for this March day. For the majority of the climbing season, permits are sold advance. See https://www.recreation.gov/permits/4675309.

UPDATE: There may be No Trespassing signs on this approach now.

Re Horse Ridge Initial Activation 23 Feb 2014.

Ray KG7AV, Max KF7MAX

Easiest approach is Hwy 20 east from Bend. Proceed approx 30m to Horse Ridge grade.

1. Just after the summit, as you descend into Millican basin, you will
encounter a turnoff to the S before you reach the ODOT cinder pile.
This is labeled as Ft Rock Rd on Google Earth, I know it as BLM 2015,
and I show it at 43 54 23.87N 120 59 50.67W.

Tom, Dick & Harry Mountain is a nice late season snowshoe near Mount Hood. It's about 4 miles one-way and 1850 feet of gain to bag this four-point summit with iconic views of Mount Hood. It's a bit of work with some route-finding on snowshoes, but hopefully this trip report will help you get there. A Forest Pass is required from May 15 to October 1 - a SnoPark is required November 1 to April 30. 
 

These eleven miles (RT) seem much farther when you are on snowshoes - take that into account if you should decide to try this winter activation. If you have 4WD, very high clearance and nerves of steel, you you might consider driving a bad road in the summer - see the other trip report below.

The trail starts from Highway 35 - the trailhead coordinates: 45.3395  -121.5703. See the trailhead photo below with an unsigned post just north of a bridge over the Hood River East Fork.

A fairly short snowshoe near Mt. Hood gets you two points - in the summer this activation may be a bit more challenging in the bushwack. From November 1 through April 30 an Oregon Sno-Park permit is required - from May 15 to October 1 a National Forest Pass is required.
 

Enjoy bushwacking? Like to climb over (and under!) a maze of large, downed trees? We've got a great SOTA summit for you in the Clackamas River area. Well, actually, there are probably dozens like this, but here's one with directions.

It has been foggy around here all week long. Today was a good day to rise above it all and find some sunshine! Anderson Mountain's good access, gentle trail, and easy scrambling made for a rewarding summit to play radio on! Having plenty of time on top for a change made this a very pleasant activation.

. Discovery Pass is required for this area

Wow... there must a lot of easier ways to get a 4-point activation. I knew there wasn't a trail to this peak and there would be some bushwacking involved because not many folks go there. But oh my gosh, this trip turned into an ordeal!

The Eaglet is located near Mount Pilchuck between Lake 22 and Heather Lake. The way to this SOTA adventure travels up the Heather Lake Trail (an extremely popular 2-mile hike) for about a mile which gets 600' of elevation gain out of the way. Then you leave the trail behind and the fun stops and the ordeal begins.