We had grand plans for the weekend and then saw them all melt away after a couple of received phone calls. By Sunday afternoon, the sobering reality of a totally adventureless weekend was weighing heavily on us. As my hope faded, Mrs.
I read up on K7ATN's activation from 2015 and spent a fair amount of time looking at the maps. It seemed like there was an easier way to the summit than the highly rutted road that he had taken. Sure enough, there are good roads all the way to the bottom of the approach. Take Bacona Road out of the little town of Buxton until you come to Buxton Lookout Road that turns off to the right. Follow Buxton Lookout Road upwards until it reaches the closed yellow gate.
Access to Saturday Rock summit is via NF-42 which begins at Sunset Campground at the end of NE Sunset Falls Road. The road is well graded, though peppered with its fair share of chuck holes. Follow NF-42 for approximately 9.4 miles to the intersection with NF-53. Continue on NF-53 for another 2.4 miles to the intersection of NF-53 and NF-38. Plenty of room to park at the intersection off the main roads.
Peak 4816 is a near drive-up summit a bit east of Mount Hood, accessed mostly on paved Forest Service roads. The summit area has an small but interesting rock pinnacle. You should consider this summit in the Mount Hood 2m FM "dead zone" as we were not able to raise anyone on 146.52 except a sked with a nearby S2S.
Peavine Mountain is a drive-up summit a bit east of Mount Hood, accessed mostly on paved Forest Service roads. You should consider this summit in the Mount Hood 2m FM "dead zone" as we were not able to raise anyone on 146.52, even after begging on the Mt. Hood repeater.
Travel on Highway 6, and turn north onto Cedar Butte Road between milepost 17 and 18. Drive over the bridge and continue straight at the Muesial Creek Road junction (0.1 mile). There are signs at each junction that direct you to Cedar Butte, however, mark your mileage here and watch for posted signs. The trailhead is 5.7 miles from this point. At 2.0 miles turn right at the “Y” intersection. At 4.8 miles, the Cedar Butte Road veers left. Continue another 0.7 mile to the trailhead.
Here's a drive-up summit a few miles off Highway 26 when you are on your way to the coast. Not from from the well-trod Saddle Mountain, W7O/NC-004, it's one more point for the ambitious activator. The roads are easily traveled in a passenger car.
This summit had never been activated and I now know why! The USGS maps would have you believe there is a road to the summit. There actually was a road when the forestry lookout was standing, but the last 1-1/2 miles of road is now overgrown and would take some guts and a great off-road 4-wheeler to traverse it. These same last miles are steep and unrelenting, though completely forested. When the so-called road ends. there are a few hundred feet of vertical trail required to reach the summt.
On June 7, 2017 my wife and I were in the region east of Canyonville, OR. After enjoying Pickett Butte, we headed to Acker Rock, another rock outcrop with a lookout perched on top. Both of these are 2 point summits.