AG7GP's blog

Mckinley Mountain was my 3rd summit up on the Scott Bar ridge for the day. I was coming from the west and there is some very rough and narrow sections of road with steep banks, no shoulder, worst was driving around Deadwood Baldy Peak (not a SOTA). If you come up from Deadwood Creek Rd this may be avoidable, I'm not sure. Either way, this country is not meant for passenger cars and make sure you have good tires and a spare. The hike is about .8mi up a inpassable road from RD 45N28, with about 650' gain.

Indian Creek Baldy, I found out after reaching the top and reading the notepad in a jar, is the highest point of the Scott Bar Mountains. It is an amazing 360 view of the Northern California area, including Shasta, Scott Valley, Marble Mountains and more. It is a short but difficult climb up.

This was my first of three in one day in N. CA just west of Yreka in the  Scott Bar Mountains. It was a pleasant area to activate, forested knoll with some large open spaces to set up in and look down to Scott Valley to the SE. It was still early and we were in the clouds a bit so couldn't see the distant mountains such as the Marble Mountains and Shasta too well but probably you can on a clear day, and depending which side of the summit you are on.

For my 2 year SOTA-versary and birthday this week I wanted to do something special,a couple days early because the wx looked perfect, I decided to try Grayback Mountain (W7O/SC-001) the HP for Josephine Co and South Coast that had never been activated. This was also my 50th First Activation.

Nice little hike up a unusable road. Only about a 1/2 mi hike from where I parked on the west side where BLM RD 39-4E-17.1 pretty much ends. I enjoyed the short hike and the views driving up. There isn't much view from the top but just as you get at the fringe of the AZ there is a beautiful open view towards Mt. Mcloughlin, Brown, Robinson looking across Howard Prairie. I activated on the SW hump of the summit and wish I would have went to the true high point as I see now on my map it says "ruins". Could just be remnants of an old lookout. Easy set up.

Little Grayback has been another summit I have been eyeing for a while as I am slowly getting familiar with this area around Applegate Lake. I always looked at approaching it from the westside, near the lake but looking closer and after doing neighboring Baldy Peak and having no snow issues, I noticed that the eastside, Upper Little Grayback TH, looked much shorter and approachable. This is FS trail #921. KJ7GFN, Joell, and I did our planning for this pretty much the day before, both leaving from our off grid locations Sunday morning.

Another no-name summit with a pretty good view. Takes a decent drive to get up there. Short hike up an old logging road. Some of the area is thick with Oregon grape and brush but there is a clearing that made set up easy. There may be other options further down the road to access too but I didn't explore.

There are a couple ways to get to Baldy Peak and I think I took the longer route with more gain. I really wasn't sure if I would get this high with snow levels so didn't even pay attention to the other but when I was there a couple others were on trail too from the other side. You will have to go off trail to do the final climb which is a little crumbly and steep. I chose the ridge line partly in some vegetation so the ground didn't slide so much. It was overcast but I can tell it has a fabulous view. Wasn't bad even with the clouds. I took the Charlie Buck/Baldy Peak Trailhead.

This was an easy summit I was surprised I could get to and that it had not been done already. Some of the BLM land in this area is somwhat landlocked by private land and I was anticipating the same for this one but you could drive almost to the summit. Just before you reach the summit take the the time to go to the right to a clearing that looks over Sterling Creek area and you can see the beautiful Red Buttes. Great park like area to work from that is pretty flat with tall timber and some big logs to sit on. There is a jeep road that is not on maps that goes to the top.

I couldn't resist the perfect weather today and left to go activate Mt. Isabelle but when I got up to the parking area I noticed there was a road that went to Wellington Butte the other direction, to the left. I drove past this butte on 238 for 3 years going to work and I was under the impression it was a closed road, but I was wrong. I carefully made it through snow, ice and mud and had a lovely day.Spectacular view looking down at Applegate River, Ruch, the Siskiyous, Grants Pass, etc. Near 360 view. It reminded me of looking into a curved glass diorama.