With the reopening of FR 45 in the Mt. Hood National Forest Clackamas Ranger District in Oregon, a set of previously closed peaks are available to activators again just in time for the summer SOTA season! I chose to activate Wanderer's Peak, along with South Fork Mountain (W7O/WV-030), in a single day double. The area was previously closed due to wildfire damage from the 2020 fires.
With the reopening of FR 45 in the Mt. Hood National Forest Clackamas Ranger District in Oregon, a set of previously closed peaks are available to activators again just in time for the summer SOTA season! I chose to activate South Fork Mountain, along with Wanderer's Peak (W7O/WV-052), in a single day double. The area was previously closed due to wildfire damage from the 2020 fires.
Hager Mountain, W7O/CE-028 is a moderate to hard hike depending on the length you choose. It can be done as either an 7.5,6 or 4.5 mile RT depending on where you park. Parking at the trailhead on FS RD 28 is the easiest access with longest hike, but if time or energy is a concern driving up the 28-000012 road a couple of miles is worth it. Bring plenty of bug spray and extra water... also some kind of shade if you have it, summit is pretty exposed. There is a picnic table, vault toilet and the fire lookout on summit.
Tallowbox is nice easy summit. <.5mi hike up a gated road. There is equipment, camera lookout, etc up there and I did not get any interference this trip on 20 and 40 with my MTR3B. The drive up is very nice too, paved part way. Great 360 views. de AG7GP
W6/NW-388 is a pretty summit with views of Shasta Bally to the West and Lassen/Mt Shasta to the East. It overlooks the Whiskeytown Lake to the west and the greater Redding area to the east. Simple route finding and around a 3 mile round trip made me wonder why it hasn’t been activated more frequently, I being the second.
We spent the night at Elk Lake Campground. Highly recommend it if you can get a reservation. We were in spot 11 which had great views at sunset.
From Bend take Cascade Lakes Highway to the Lucky Lake Trailhead. Fill out the free day use permit here (and put your Northwest Forest pass in your car window), then head up the trail. It's an easy 1.3 miles to Lucky Lake. There was some blowdowns a cross the trail as it's early season and they haven't been chopped yet.
This was the first activation of Gollaher Mountain. The USGS marker at the summit calls it Gollyer Mountain, though all maps and other information uses Gollaher. Someone has placed a register in a glass bottle under some rocks at the summit. A lot of people have signed it. The drive to the summit is relatively straight forward, though somewhat long and requiring 4wd/high clearance (not Prius friendly/Subaru Outback’s may have issues with the deep ruts).
June 2023 Update: NF 9402 has been gravelled and runoff strips installed. In all other respects, previous reports still apply, however.
The last stretch of this driveup, on NF 9402 was previously reported as deep dust and silt. I'm happy to report that this road has been gravelled and water runoff strips installed for erosion control. This makes the drive pretty manageable.
I was driving back to Portland from Northern California and taking Highway 97 for the scenic beauty. There are a number of 4 and 6 point summits in the region with easy-ish access, so I thought I'd try one or two along the way. A forest service employee recommended Orr Mountain, which has great views, a nice open area at the top and an active fire lookout.
TL;DR - Posts on official Multnomah county blogs indicate that E Larch Mountain Road is closed at the ten mile gate for 2023, see: larch mountain road closed and multnomah county larch mountain, so this hike starts at the gate. Note that it requires a 1.6 mile traverse along the road before turning onto FS road 315 (which intersects with trail