KD7QOW's blog

The mountains near Marble Mountain hold snow for longer at a lower elevation than other nearby mountains, so keep that in mind. Even at 2600 feet elevation, which is pretty low, there was still 2 feet of snow on the road all the way up to where I left the road to bushwhack the rest of the way to the summit. 

There is a bridge out but someone has laid the guardrails from the old bridge across the creek and that works for crossing on foot. You could carry a bike across if needed. 

Getting There: DO NOT USE GOOGLE MAPS TO GET HERE!!!! Google maps will lead you straight to a gated road. Have your GPS open or a map next to you while you try to navigate this. From highway 14, turn North on Rock Creek Driver like you're headed to Skamania Lodge. Continue half a mile and then turn left on Foster Creek Road. Next turn left on Red Bluff Road which will become CG-2000. Continue a little less than a mile until you see the intersection with CG 2022 splitting up the hill to the left.

After you've activated W7W/LC-080, head back toward Ape Cave and park at the bend in the road at these coordinates: 46.13329, -122.25105 a couple miles from LC-080. If you poke around carefully, you'll see that there is an old road grade that meets up with the road right where you're parked. If you see a bunch of vine maple and vanilla leaf, you've found the road grade. Follow it, or just bushwhack North through the woods for about 250 yards or so until you stumble across the Cinnamon Trail.

The road is in good condition. It is driveable by a Prius. They also ran a brush mower all the way up the road very recently. The corridor is nicely cleared with all the attendant vegetative carnage 12 feet on either side of the road. Sight lines were good, too. 

You can drive right into the activation zone where there is a nice, flat clearing with a fire pit in it. There is plenty of space to set up a 67 foot wire antenna. 

Getting there: from highway 12 , when you get to the town of Randle, turn South on state route 131. After about a half mile, there is a fork in the road. Stay to the right on highway 131. Do not take the left fork to Cispus road. After another half mile route 131 turns into Forest Service road 25. Drive about 10 miles down the 25 road until you get to the 2516, where you'll take a right. Here are coordinates for the turn: 46.34766, -121.97049.