Good Views From Summit

Here is a shortcut to Big Huckleberry relative to that described here: http://www.pnwsota.org/node/371

Howlock Mountain had caught my eye during the 2023 W7O Campout. It was an unactivated summit off trail north of Thielsen and south of Tipsoo. For 2025, Adam K6ARK and Mark KD7DTS proposed doing the ridge traverse from Tipsoo (W7O/CS-195). After some VHF shenanigans on Tipsoo, we backtracked on the trail briefly before leaving it and descending south. 

Here is one of eight Lookout Mountains in Oregon (10 if you count Big Lookout Mountain and Little Lookout Mountain). This is a short hike of one mile RT with 600 feet of elevation gain. The trail is mostly good, but a bit overgrown in places. The drive is easy and can be accomplished with moderate clearance. You can get to within a mile of the summit with most other vehicles. Here are the directions:

Find the North Umpqua Highway (AKA OR-138) and travel to Panther Creek Road (AKA NF-4741) near Apple Creek Campground, 43.3060, -122.6772 .

This summit had only been activated one time, 10 years ago, so I was not sure about how well this activation would go. Short version: one of the best SOTA activation experiences out there. Worth the drive east of the Crater Lake area. Put it on your list!

For the most part all of K7ATN's blog post here(http://www.pnwsota.org/blog/k7atn/2019-september-06/eagle-cap-or-septemb...) is current and probably some of the best info you're going to get. One thing to note earlier in the summer is the possibility of snow. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the more direct approach, which I labelled 1 in the map, but much of the trail was under steep snow field.

4.4 Miles; +2,056 ft; -235 ft; On-Trail

Description

This is a pleasant on-trail hike with a gentle grade.  The final mile of the ascent is extremely scenic.  There is plenty of room for antennas within the activation zone.

Getting there: The road to the top is decent gravel and readily passable in a Subaru. There are some sections of big ruts and large loose rocks, so I'm not sure I'd want to attempt this with low clearance or only 2 wheel drive. It's a drive-up with good clearance and/or bravery, but otherwise it's a 1/3 mile walk up the rest of the road to the top from the obvious camping area.  

There is no bushwhacking required.

There are plenty of trees to hang a wire from. 

There is plenty of room for a 67 foot wire. 

This is the Elk Mountain east of Gray's River, WA, just off WA Highway 4.

Turn off is exactly at mile marker 22 on WA 4; turn south onto a broken asphalt road and in about 1/4 mile you come to the Hancock Forest Management gate.  There is nothing prohibiting non-vehicular entry--just no camping and no campfires. Plenty of parking near the gate.

See http://www.pnwsota.org/blog/k7agl/2025-june-30/jumbo-peak-wa-june-2025 for the write up of Sunrise and Jumbo Peaks double activation.

The double summit activation of Sunrise Peak and Jumbo Peak is under 9 miles RT and 3500 feet vertical climbing. My milage was off a bit due to probing for a south approach on Jumbo. There are a number of trip reports floating around on the web, I would rate this activation as an “advanced” SOTA adventure. I started from Sunrise TH 262. Google Maps routed me to this TH with no issues. It took me 1.5 hours to get to the trailhead departing from Mossyrock, WA.