Blogs

Getting there: The road to the top is decent gravel and readily passable in a Subaru. There are some sections of big ruts and large loose rocks, so I'm not sure I'd want to attempt this with low clearance or only 2 wheel drive. It's a drive-up with good clearance and/or bravery, but otherwise it's a 1/3 mile walk up the rest of the road to the top from the obvious camping area.  

There is no bushwhacking required.

There are plenty of trees to hang a wire from. 

There is plenty of room for a 67 foot wire. 

This is the Elk Mountain east of Gray's River, WA, just off WA Highway 4.

Turn off is exactly at mile marker 22 on WA 4; turn south onto a broken asphalt road and in about 1/4 mile you come to the Hancock Forest Management gate.  There is nothing prohibiting non-vehicular entry--just no camping and no campfires. Plenty of parking near the gate.

How about a trip report for a failied First Acitvation? I was planning on attempting Elk Mountain (the one down south by Brookings, OR) after activating Mt. Emily.  I took NF-1983 down from Mt Emily and the plan was to take NF-1205 & NF 010 towards Elk Mtn. Then see if NF-010 connected with Winchuck River Road to the south. Then I'd take that road back to 101 and head north back to Brookings making it a giant loop.

After activating Palmer Butte, I crossed the bridge over the Chetco River on 101 and headed East on Chetco South Bank Road to attempt the first activation of Mount Emily. I posted the GPX track of the drive up and hike.  The gravel roads are in decent shape. You could get all the way to the final access road without high clearance. There is a closed gate shortly up the final road so you wouldn't have to hike much further.  

Straightforward nine-mile drive-up summit from Brookings. Posted GPS track to Sota Maps.  Sections of final ascent are deeply rutted and need high clearance. You can park a little lower and walk slightly further.  If high clearance there is a small parking spot outside the gate and a short walk to where all the radio towers are. 

1570 is a simple drive up summit not requiring high clearance. There is a small access road that takes you very close to the true summit. Very easy one pointer.

From Hwy 12 take Winston Creek Road which turns into Salmon Creek Road turn right at 46.471728613082036, -122.5290032382229 and head up to 46.47704583163132, -122.54678976860303 and turn left on the small access to the summit. 

Crazy Man Mtn is an easy drive up summit with the road in the AZ. See KL0NPs SOTA Atlas pics for true summit. I opted to stop where the clear cut was to enjoy the beautiful views of St Helens and Mt Adams and the morning sunshine. I was so sore from a previous double activation of Sunrise and Jumbo peaks theprevious day that I welcomed an easy drive up.  

Posting GPS drive route to SOTA Maps. This is doable without high clearance.  

Chapeau to WJ7V, Jeff for discovering and documenting this trail.  A couple notes on activating this summit via Mountain Bike.

- The road surface has some sections with quite large (3-4") gravel which makes traction quite challenging. 

- There are some hike-a-bike sections, but overall a fun biketavation

I attempted Winters Mountain on June 29th 2025 and ran into closed gates. There is an old trip report on Peakbagger for this summit but it looks like Weyerhaeuser has now closed access to recreational use permit holders. You can do Crazy Man Mountain and 1570 (W7W/PL-152) as easy drive ups from the Salmon Creek and "Camp Nine" roads.  I posted trip reports for those to PNWSota.

Gate photo and driving route shown below (purple is planned route, cyan is actual drive).

See http://www.pnwsota.org/blog/k7agl/2025-june-30/jumbo-peak-wa-june-2025 for the write up of Sunrise and Jumbo Peaks double activation.