Good Parking At Trailhead

Peak 1980 is on Washington State DNR land approximately 1 hour, 15 minutes north of the Portland Metro area and about 6 miles south of Cougar, WA. This land requires a WA Discovery Pass.

The summit is a drive-up, but the last .75 miles is rough and a mid-clearance vehicle with AWD or better is recommended. See SOTL.AS or Sota Maps for the route GPX file.

There are a few trees remaining for a wire and open space for a vertical. I made one contact on 2m into the Portland Metro during a weekday morning using a half wave whip. You should do better on the weekend.

NOTE: The historical trailhead north of the fire station on Salmon la Sac road was closed to public access during 2024. This is an alternative route that can be used when USFS roads are still snow bound.

See KJ7LSM's nice writeup of this summit. I'll only add that, in March 2025, the gate to the last leg of the road is closed (see the southernmost point of the hike,below, resulting in an 800 foot, 1.7 mile walk up the remaining gravel road. There's room for one or two vehicles at the Y in the road while still providing passage if someone with access wants to pass through the gate.

The hike to Bob’s has almost doubled. From just over 3 mi RT to just over 6 mi RT. Elevation gain increased 400ft from 1100 to 1500. The Washington DNR has placed a new gate at 45.64596, -122.20734. There was no signage and I am not sure if the gate will always be closed. But seems prudent to plan on the longer hike. There is plenty of parking near the gate. Hopefully this will cut down on the amount of trash on the hill, which was always the down side of doing this peak.

For my first activation in the Pacific Northwest, I chose South Tiger Mountain. It was a "suggested first summit," a short drive from home, and a relatively easy hike. It was also a 2-pointer, another first for me. 

UPDATE: the instructions given by Bill WJ7WJ in A Good Hand of Pinochle are still accurate.  However, when I was up there last week, there were several trees that had blown over the road and only some of them had been cleared.  I had forgotten to bring the chainsaw and they were too thick to cut with my bow saw.

With a slight gap in my family duties, the time finally came for one last 2024 SOTA adventure on

Here’s a near drive-up 2-point summit that might be part of your plan to visit the Redwoods in SW Oregon.