Getting there: I rode my mountain bike from Sherman Pass, activated Columbia Mountain, and then continued on to Wapaloosie Mountain before backtracking and descending Jungle Hill. Trails are in decent enough condition and there is nothing about the tread that would make them difficult to hike. I did drive the roads to all the trail heads and the road to this one is in good condition. I found it quite passable in my Subaru Forester.
Jumpoff Joe is a short bushwhack in the Malheur National Forest off of US-395 between Burns and John Day. Start of the hike is decommissioned forest road 1601-084 located at 44.07619, -118.81145.
I will not tell you how to get there because there has to be a better way. We were on FR 902 and FR 879 coming from the south. Those roads had bad water damage and were at the verge of navigability. We eventually hit road 3930 which was good gravel. Try to come in on that road.
Gold Hill is a short steep BW off of US-395 between John Day and Burns. To get there turn west on NF-31 a mostly paved road at 43.8136, -118.9831. turn right at 43.9528, -119.0760 on to FR 3765. then right again at 43.9710, -119.0594. onto NF 62. Arrive at 43.97597, -119.03468 and BW up to the summit. Note that it is a bit steep, but there is a cat track most of the way and it is open forest in any case. Forested top with no views, but plenty of shade which was welcome in August.
There is no poison oak on this summit, at least not that I was able to identify, and it is my mortal enemy, so I've gotten pretty good at predicting where I'll find it and identifying it from an appreciable distance. I just wanted to clarify that as a previous post claimed to have encountered poison oak.
This summit is a horrible bushwhack, and like many of the summits in this part of the Gifford Pinchot, it's barely worth the points considering the effort it takes to climb it. It's steep and brushy and about the only nice thing I can say about it is there's no devil's club to contend with. You would think, upon finally obtaining the activation zone, that the return trip would be easier, but it is not. It's worse because you can't see where you're putting your feet.
Here is a shortcut to Big Huckleberry relative to that described here: http://www.pnwsota.org/node/371
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 .
Summary - This is another one of my traverse hikes, linking 4180 (LC-071) and Big Huckleberry (LC-069) over the Pacific Crest Trail in the GPNF. After a ninety minute drive (with a toll bridge) from Portland to the trailhead, you'll find both an easy forest road hike and bushwhack to the summit of 4180 and a PCT hike over to Big Huckleberry. You will cover about eleven miles with 1700 feet of gain, do an easy if steep bushwhack on 4180 bushwhack, and collect big views on Big Huck.
