Wagner Butte is a harder hike mainly due to distance, but is at the top of my list of favorites. It will be a good 10 mile hike round trip with about 2200' gain, if using the trail. (SEE UPDATE at bottom for alternate route).Wagner is part of our family cattle range and being familiar with the area we took a short cut through some NF up past the trailhead, to knock a couple miles and a few hundred feet elevation off the hike.
Follow road maps to Forest Creek Rd off of Hwy 238. Forest Cr will fork, keep left, there is an old schoolhouse on your right at this turn. Take this until will there is a large sign for Oregon Belle Creek Access Road. On google this is Isabelle Mt. Rd but there is no sign with that name. Road is worn through asphalt with plenty of potholes but very driveable. Drive until you reach Isabelle Saddle, info board and picnic table are present. Plenty of room to park here or to the right near the gate, just don't block gate.
March 21, I left the trailhead (Upper Dungeness, across from Tubal Cain trailhead) at 1230. My Prius had chains on for part of the drive, just barely enought clearance with the snow. The trail had snow starting at 4500 feet. Microspikes were sufficient. Real snow started at 5000 feet, and I wished I had my backcountry skis. I was postholing up to my knees consistently, but deeper sometimes on the east aspect in the shade where the snow was more powdery. But it wouldn't have been a good ski tour, as I would have had to take the skis off many, many times due to wind-swept bare areas.
Cougar Mountain is an easy drive up near Seaside, OR. Or is it?
The conundrum comes because of two gates. Both were open when I went up, neither had signs, not even the seemingly mandatory warning about closing at any time. I rolled the dice this time, but now that I know what's up there I'll bring a bike if I come back.
Here are the directions which work regardless of your mode of transport. That includes the carefully driven passenger car, although this route had less than the normal amount of potholes, so not so carefully? Watch out for log trucks anyway.
Update: I hauled my bicycle to the gate to do a biketavation of this summit. However, the gate was open and the sign restricting access was gone. This is as of 29-May-2021. Not sure what has happened but I drove up without incident. Missed the bike ride, but there will be others. Always a gamble driving past a gate.
You are in Vancouver for a short time, and want to activate a summit. Where to go? Burnaby Mountain!!
Burnaby Mountain Park is located just 30 minutes east of downtown Vancouver BC. The park offers scenic views, hiking trails, sculptures, and gardens. It also happens to be an easy one-point SOTA summit! It might be the easiest summit in Canada, eh? Most importantly it offers great views and interesting sculpture to keep your significant other / non-ham friends busy while you play radio.
Here is an easy drive up near Cole Mountain. Unpaved roads are good gravel with a few pot holes here and there. Should be alright in any vehicle as of this writing. My Garmin gps and google maps were worthless finding this summit. So here is my attempt to make it easier for the next activator.
Here's an unremarkable drive-up summit in the mid-Willamette Valley west of Salem.
I was looking for a reasonably tough snowshoe that could be accomplished in a day, and with few bonus point opportunities, and only so many sno parks, I kept coming back to my favorite mountains from last year. I decided to give this a try, and all things considered it went very well.
Cole Mountain is a drive-up in the Coast Range south of Highway 26 off of Highway 53. The road is passable in any passenger car and it's a radio quiet spot.