I've been up on Whale Head a few times and it looks like it's time to write up a trip report! This has been a "near drive-up" summit, however with the growth of slide alder into the road you may park and walk earlier that the gate.
We were successful following the directions of our GPS to take us right to the gate. Head about 15 miles on Highway 224 east of Estacada to Fish Creek Rd. (Note that you DO NOT get to Fish Creek Mountain W7O/WV-015, via Fish Creek Rd.) You'll cross a bridge and travel along Fish Creek for about 1.8 miles and then the road (FS 5410 and FS 5411) heads uphill for 8 miles to a large landing where four roads meet. From here it's about 2.1 miles to a gate where you can park - however, in late April we found several feet of snow on the road and walked that distance. For your nicer vehicles, you may find the road a bit narrow in places, so walking before you get to the gate may be a good choice. From the gate the summit proper is about 0.7 miles - we found it quite overgrown, although it might eventually be cleared so that the RF site at the top can be maintained. We've not experienced any QRM issues from this site.
Roland-K7FOP and I were able to easily make six 2m FM QSOs into Hillsboro and Vancouver from the AZ of Whale Head on this snowy and chilly April day.
