Here is a link to the route we (KC7JNU, KK7DAK, KK7IUD) followed to and from the peak as well as additional data; there is a screenshot below of the same route. As can be seen, we started and ended our route to the north of the peak.
Summary - A short but very steep scramble up game trails will get you to the top of this very visible summit in the Toutle Range.
Just east of Mount Rainier National Park and north of Highway 12 is this bushwack activation.
Summary - The hike (at least from the north) through the burn area is a sufferfest of deep, continuous treefall, exposure, and route finding. The trail is mostly gone and you must have a GPS and map or be very good with compass and map to avoid missing several crucial turns. As with most summits in this area, plan on HF to activate unless you know there are other SOTA ops in the area. Bottom line: skip this one, at least from the northern trailhead.
This was short but very hard. Straight up off trail. Maybe there is an easier way but I doubt it. I started on the 1046B trail on the west side but it ends only about 500ft in so I just started climbing straight up. Soft, steep, forest duff that was hard to stay upright in and the I reached a outcropping of shale and boulder to carefully climb the final 150' before the AZ. Shaded. It is about 700' gain in .5 miles.No cell at all. I did decend through an open meadow which felt much safer, however, the plants started getting taller and taller and I got covered in burrs.
I did Fish, CS-159, and Buckneck the first day of my arrival preparing for the 2023 campout. I have been working on exploring the summits along the Rogue-Umpqua Divide. They are all HARD. Fish is about 1.8mi RT with about 1000'+ per mi gain. No trail, I took tracks from a peakbagger and hiked up the NW rim. It is a combination of navigating through the forest, rocks, and climbing. Half way up you will come to a plug I did not see coming but managed to navigate around the west side of it (to the right) and find a spot to boulder climb up.
After climbing climbing Mt Thielsen (W7O/CS-002) with K6ARK our legs were feeling good, so we decided to try for the first activation of Hollys Ridge (W7O/CS-007). From the junction with the Thielsen climbers trail, take the PCT North. This will wrap east around the ridge line. Exit the PCT at 43.16113, -122.06537 and head down to the glacial stream. Here we crossed to the north side of the stream and bushwacked through the pines (not bad) towards the saddle between Thielsen and Holly. Here we made the mistake of going straight up the saddle.
Maidenhead Mtn (W7W Summit 1930) is accessible with a 1.5 mile (800 ft vertical) hike up an abandoned Forest Service Road bed. The road bed is overgrown with trees that look around 8 years old. There is a trail that is established for about 50% of the way. The second half of the route has a significant amount of blowdown and really slows you.
This was #4 of 4 in a day. Battle Mountain on a map looks like it is a drive up but it is not. It is mostly a burn scar and the original lookout road (lookout is gone) has been bermed. It is a very nice summit on top. Flat, open but big timber for shade and a view. Lookout ruins, footings. Getting up was not easy though.
I did the first activation of Sheridan Mountain in July of 2015. I wrote up a quick trip report for the NASOTA group and planned to write a more detailed trip report later, but I lost my notes for the activation. Sheridan has not been activated again. I am writing this trip report now with the hope that someone will find it useful. Sheridan is not an easy summit to get to or climb, but it's not that hard either.
Let's sart with my original trip report and then I will add some commentary from memory.