Summary - At the end of a long drive along the ridge of the Toutle Mountains, a short hike brings you to the open summit with terrific views of Mount Saint Helens and Mount Adams. Bring HF gear and assume VHF contacts will be rare. ATT service is very good, as is APRS. The roads, up to the summit drive are 2WD friendly; the last bit requires high clearance and AWD or an additional quarter-mile of hiking.
Summary - Peak 4020 and Aurora Mountain, southwest of Mount Saint Helens (near Ape Cave), are easily accessible by 2WD. I did them as a seven mile RT traverse hike (two thousand feet of up) with a couple of short cross country sections. The summits are forested but the views of Goat Mountain and Mount Saint Helens along the way are terrific. From Portland, plan on spending roughly four hours round trip driving on good roads, have a backup plan if two meter contacts are sparse, and bring bug juice for Aurora. This is a fine hike and two peak activation.
Summary - The hike (at least from the north) through the burn area is a sufferfest of deep, continuous treefall, exposure, and route finding. The trail is mostly gone and you must have a GPS and map or be very good with compass and map to avoid missing several crucial turns. As with most summits in this area, plan on HF to activate unless you know there are other SOTA ops in the area. Bottom line: skip this one, at least from the northern trailhead.
Summary: This eleven mile out and back hike starts at the Douglas trailhead, which begins at the end of Wildcat Mountain Road (paved the whole way) and traverses the ridge between Wildcat and Huckleberry. The hike climbs roughly 2800 feet with a quarter or so of up reserved for the return hike. The trailhead is popular but few people head up to Huckleberry and fewer still to the high point of the ridge. ATT cell service is non-existent, APRS works pretty well, and 2M contacts are fairly easy.
Summary - There are two routes up from Zigzag Mountain Road (Road 27 from HWY 26). The longer route follows the West Zigzag and Zigzag Mountain trail and ends in a bushwhack up the northwest ridge of Zigzag Mountain (about 5.5mi OW). The shorter route follows Burnt Lake trail to Devils Tie to Zigzag Mountain trail and ends in a bushwhack up the north side of the summit. (about 3.5mi OW). I recommend the longer route, which meanders along the mountain ridge, and is less used. ATT digital service was spotty, APRS was full strength, 2M contacts aren't difficult.
CG2000, off of Foster Creek Road has a new gate and a "road closed" sign blocking access to the Rock Creek trailhead at 45° 43.3671' N, 121° 56.0531' W. The road is freshly graded, too, so I imagine that WA DNR sold the timber on the public land or the LLC that blocked CG2020 with a gate put this one up, too.
Access to the trailhead may be available via W-2000 on the west side of TRC.
TL;DR - Posts on official Multnomah county blogs indicate that E Larch Mountain Road is closed at the ten mile gate for 2023, see: larch mountain road closed and multnomah county larch mountain, so this hike starts at the gate. Note that it requires a 1.6 mile traverse along the road before turning onto FS road 315 (which intersects with trail
TL;DR - Cornell Mountain is on private property but the activation zone extends to the public right-of-way, so this is a side-of-the-street activation. You might be able to activate on HF with appropriate gear but expect the locals to give you the stinkeye if you spend much time loitering.
The recent update of the W7O ARM (Association Reference Manual) moved the activation zone of Frog Lake Buttes to the higher of the two butte summits, which gave me a reason to repeat one of my annual snowshoe hikes, notch another unique, and collect a winter bonus. This was my fourth trip to the summit (three in the winter, one in the summer).
Summary - Summiting Monte Carlo in the winter is easy as long as you are good with an eight mile round trip with a 3000 foot climb. The first three or so miles of the hike is on a maintained forest road through open, old forest. The remainder is the steepest and roughest part of the hike, with big tree fall and some cross country travel. Your reward for taking on the challenge is a quiet, open summit ringed by old growth trees. Drive time from Portland is about 80 minutes across the Hood River toll bridge.