Summary - Butler Butte is part of a three summit group on Weyerhauser land that is about two hourse from SE Portland. Getting to the summit requires a short hike from a logging road. The summit is small, densely forested and without views. Don't count on two meters to make your four QSOs, cell phone service is marginal at best, and APRS pings get picked up. It can be done as part of a three or four summit day if you plan carefully.
Monte Carlo is a nice trail to an open summit near Underwood, WA. This appears to be the shortest and easiest way to Monte Carlo - a hike of less than a mile and about 800 feet gain.
On a recent camping trip to Riffe Lake, I activated this summit after activating Burley Mountain (W7W/PL-039). See my other trip report for directions to get there.
This was my 3rd summit while over in Bend area for Central Oregon S2S party.
I had activated Pine Benchmark and Pine Mountain earlier in the day and I drove from there. I took NF-2017 from the Observatory down to the valley. However, that road is in very poor shape and high clearance is needed if you go that way. (If starting at the Observatory, travel time going back to Highway 30 to Road 23 is likely similar to taking rocky NF-2017 south).
This was my second time to visit Huffraker. Last year, the property owner had closed the area due to fire danger. This year, it was reopened. However, last year I was able to drive all the way to the edge of Gifford-Pinchot NF and park. This year, there was an incredible amount of blowdown that had not been cleared which added another 4 miles to this hike bringing it to overall 6.3 miles RT. It may be that, due to the late season snow, once the mushroom pickers get busy some of the blowdown will get cleared.
Access and other info in my post on Quartz Creek Ridge
Continuing our hike from Quartz Creek Ridge, at the access trail junction Bill K7WXW and I retrieved my stashed water, had a small break from the aggressive climb up from the ridge saddle, and then continued north on the Summit Prairie Trail.
Activated Quartz Creek Ridge with Bill (K7WXW) this last weekend. This summit is easily doable with North Quartz Creek Ridge in the same day. Access for both summits is in the middle on a sometimes-not-mapped trail, TH at 46.24186, -121.72969 . This trail system is mixed-use. We saw ultramarathon runners (Dark Divide Ultra), mountain bikers, and dirtbikes. Prepare your ankles accordingly, the trail is often a narrow rut through the dirt because of the motorcycle traffic.
I headed out to do this one as a combo with W7O/CM-050; I did not due to heat and a boulder, but I recommend attempting it if you're in the area.
Depending on how much you like the paint on your vehicle, Quilcene Ridge might be a drive-up. Even so, where the slide alder starts significantly encroaching on the road it's only a quarter mile to the summit. So walking is an option.
This one-point summit is likely not worth the time driving 40 minutes RT on forest roads. In fact, the roads in this area are quite convoluted - I found it best to navigate using GPS with turn-by-turn directions. You may end up bushwacking through a tangle of coastal brush...or get lucky and find a way to the path visible on sattelite images that I found after the fact. Any "hike" might be less than 0.10 mile and several hundred feet of gain.