Treacherous Trail

Brundage Mountain is short, but punchy. Don't let the distance to summit fool you. It goes from a road to a double track that fades into the brush. We mostly followed the gps track from K7MK. His track yields a good spot to cross the creek and keeps you out of the thickest brush. Where we deviated was on dealing with the block below the summit. We opted for climbers right on the ascent and climbers left on the descent. The right side is more rocky and feels like a stairmaster. The left side is more dirt, so more slipping. Pick your poison I suppose, both are steep. 

Today I dragged my Dad, my kids and their cousins up to Gracie Point summit.

I had read about the southern approach, from James WA7JNJ, which was listed as 5 or so miles one way and a rather steep hike.  I figured that was a bit much for my crew so we went around back to the northern approach.  Starting on N Wenas Rd turning north onto Sheep Company Road.  

NOTE: A Washington DNR Discovery Pass is required. These can be ordered online the same day, if you forgot yours.

Bunchgrass Mountain is a bushwhack through meadows of bear grass (presumably its namesake), and trees and brush up higher. It eventually reaches an unavoidable steep push to the AZ, which rewards you with impressive nearly panoramic views of Wolf Rock, Latiwi Mountain, and others to the east. This is across the road from Wildcat W7O/CM-082, and across the highway from Iron Mountain, so they make a good pair or trio if you have the time.

2023 Update:

See latest update from Guy N7UN about DNR altering some roads in this area!

http://www.pnwsota.org/blog/n7un/2023-october-22/new-access-information-mt-mitchell 

2021 Trip Report:

W6PZA first activated this summit in May of 2020. I read his blog post  and it seemed informative on how to get to the summit. I attempted to summit using the directions from W6PZA from the East side on Forest Service Road 1270720. I attempted to find the grown over road that he used, but quickly found that it is even more grown over now. Bushwhacking is an understatement with this summit.

This is a decent stop-off on the way to the Marys Peak day use area. The easiest approach is from the west, which has the least gain and the shortest path up to the logging roads up there.

NOTE: This route is only available during ski operations of Mt Bachelor Resort. The Summit Chair ski lift only runs during winter and spring ski operations. 

Mount Bachelor offers one of the easiest 10-pointers in Oregon, if you want it. It is possible to buy a lift ticket and take the Summit Chair ski lift nearly to the activation zone. It is only a short hike to the summit proper from the top of the lift.

DIRECTIONS NOTE: Google Maps may try to send you on "Rd 20" off of HWY 26. Unfortunately the bridge that crosses Still Creek is CLOSED. Take Still Creek Rd, off of HWY 26. 

For the 2021 Willamette Valley S2S party I wanted something that would get my heart rate up and I finally settled on Devil's Peak (W7O/CN-033). After a detour in Rhodedendron (see above), I parked at the trailhead and started up. That's what this trail does. It goes up. 

NOTE: Conditions on Mt. Hood can change weekly, even daily. Consult up-to-date weather, avalanche, and beta reports. 

On March 31st, 2021 I took advantage of a weather window and reasonable avalanche forecast to activate Mt. Hood (W7O/CN-001) via the standard South Side route.

Shingle Mountain summit is a 5-mile out and back hike located Northeast of Dog Mountain and Augspurger Mountain north of the Columbia River accessed from a national forest road just before reaching the Moss Creek Campground. I marked both “Easy Trail” and “Treacherous Trial” above because like many SOTA summits, you get both on this one.