Any opportunity to hike the Pacific Crest Trail for SOTA is a welcome one - and this may be one of the best we've experienced of this lovely national treasure of a trail. While only a bit less than five miles round trip and 1000 feet of gain, there is a challenging steep bushwack (Mode Sanglier - On!) that takes a bit of the shine off of the trail experience. A GPS will be important to successfully identifying the edge of the AZ.
This summit is a progressively more difficult climb as you ascend. The activation is challenging but rewarding. The route I took starts with an easy well trafficked trail, but the second part of the ascent has no trail and involves navigating through the Angell Basin which consists of areas of large granite boulders.
Aldrich Mountain in Grant County has two fairly accessible summits that make a nice pair to activate as part of the same day trip. These include Aldrich Mountain (W7O/NE-054) and 6401 (W7O/NE-205). Both are 6-point and located in the far western part of the Malheur National Forest, with access from Hwy 26 and Forest Routes 21 (Field Creek Rd) and 2150. Route 21 is paved while 2150 is a well-maintained gravel road. Plan for a 15 mile drive on 2150. There are campgrounds in the area.
This and W7O/SC-288 were detours after I got off work. I work overnight in the Applegate area and get done at 9am so had the day ahead of me and decided to check the area out. This summit was short hike but not easy. It was straight up in crumbly earth with slippery madrone leaves on top. I forgot my trekking poles and had to find a couple limbs to help me out. Once to the top, it was a peaceful little treed area, part of it a very old road. Easy set up.
This and W7O/SC-288 were detours after I got off work. I work overnight in the Applegate area and get done at 9am so had the day ahead of me and decided to check the area out. This summit was short hike but not easy. It was straight up in crumbly earth with slippery madrone leaves on top. I forgot my trekking poles and had to find a couple limbs to help me out. Once to the top, it was a peaceful little treed area, part of it a very old road. Easy set up.
Doris Peaks is my name for a set of peaks above Doris Lake.
My stats:
Distance: 9.1 miles
Elevation Gain: 2000 ft
On trail: 6 miles
Off trail: 3.1 miles
Difficulty: Arduous
Quick search of sota summits finds 30 Goat Mountains, exclusive of my favorites: Old Goat Mountain and Scape Goat Mountain. Can unfortunately relate to both of those.
There are six in W7W and 2 in W7W/LC. This blog is about W7W/LC-035. The plan for this trip was found on summitpost: https://www.summitpost.org/goat-mountain/153737. Andrew, K7AHR, and I followed those directions to a successful activation.
Yainax Butte, or as the surveyor pin says, “Yonna”, was a mountain I was hoping to drive up to the lookout and do a quick activation on my way to SOTA campout/"expedition" in the Fremont NF west of Lakeview. The roads were awful. There are a couple ways to get there, just follow the maps but once you get to the main access road to summit, it is extreme 4wd rutty, rock crawl for about 3 or 4 miles. We ended up going all the way but I do not recommend it. It would be better off as maybe a day hike up rather than drive.
After my success over at Break In Pk., I continued on to Lone Butte to give it another go, after my previously failed attempt. Access remains the same, only take the road in if PNW pinstriping is something you like to adorn your paint.
I referenced K7ATN's blog post from a couple years ago and found some revised signage, new road clearing efforts and noted some additional GPS turn coordinates. Here is an updated trip report for Monte Cristo HP in the Trout Lake area of WA. And here's the previous trip report: http://www.pnwsota.org/blog/k7atn/2018-november-16/monte-cristo-hp-wa-nov-2018.