Exposed Trail

Today I dragged my Dad, my kids and their cousins up to Gracie Point summit.

I had read another activator who took the southern approach, listed as 5 or so miles one way and a rather steep hike.  I figured that was a bit much for my crew so we went around back to the northern approach.  Starting on S Wenas Rd turning onto Sheep Company Road.  Discovery Pass is required.

Turns out with an Expedition (or other 4WD vehicle) you can drive/bounce slowly all the way to the summit.

We passed a pair of does and a 4-5pt buck.

This is a SOTA gem! A landowner blocked access to the original trailhead in 2011, but a new trail has now been established. The new trail has some challenges but is easy to follow, with signs of regular maintenance. The summit offers a wonderful 360-degree panorama view with Mt St Helens looming large just North of the summit.

W6PZA first activated this summit in May of 2020. I read his blog post  and it seemed informative on how to get to the summit. I attempted to summit using the directions from W6PZA from the East side on Forest Service Road 1270720. I attempted to find the grown over road that he used, but quickly found that it is even more grown over now. Bushwhacking is an understatement with this summit.

Summit 4044 is a peak on tribal Indian land and requires a recreational use permit to legally hike. These are available most places in the area that sell fishing and hunting licenses. The permit is good for the entire year.

NOTE: This route is only available during ski operations of Mt Bachelor Resort. The Summit Chair ski lift only runs during winter and spring ski operations. 

Mount Bachelor offers one of the easiest 10-pointers in Oregon, if you want it. It is possible to buy a lift ticket and take the Summit Chair ski lift nearly to the activation zone. It is only a short hike to the summit proper from the top of the lift.

NOTE: Conditions on Mt. Hood can change weekly, even daily. Consult up-to-date weather, avalanche, and beta reports. 

On March 31st, 2021 I took advantage of a weather window and reasonable avalanche forecast to activate Mt. Hood (W7O/CN-001) via the standard South Side route.

This was the second activation of LC-001 for both WE7CAT and KL0NP.  The first year WE7CAT had just gotten her tech license and was too shy to talk on the radio.  The next year she activated it without me with using an Anytone 878 with stock rubber duck antenna and was able to do a S2S with me while I was on Mt. Townsend in the Olympics.  This year WE7CAT/AE had just passed her Extra Class exam, and was ready to make contacts. 

I was tipped-off by K7DJL that Salmo was nearly a drive-up summit not too far from our planned camp on Priest Lake. Turned out that it was a fun scenic drive through cedar and hemlock forest and over a couple of mountain passes. The summit looks into Canada so we decided to spend the night in the saddle between the 1960s era US Forest Service Lookout and the actual summit.

Here's an opportunity to do an easy summit if you are out in the Gorge for wine tasting, other summits or a hike at Catherine Creek. The road walk is short at 0.75 miles one-way and about 200 feet of gain. The road is Priusable the whole way but note that there are a number of "no turn turns" cited by our phone GPS on the way from Highway 14 to the trailhead - the directions below are general.

For those speedy hikers Rhodes Peak can be hiked in a day. For those like me, a trail sloth, a backpack camp at Goat Lake half-way there is a fine alternative for a multi-day hike to three nearby summits. The lake is within a scenic alpine basin next to W7I/NI-108 and looks across a valley to Williams Peak W7I/NI-003. Rhodes Peak is Clearwater County’s highpoint and is sought by those summiting every County highpoint in Idaho.