North of Entiat and south of Chelan, you'll find the small town of Winesap along the Columbia River, which is where you'll leave highway 97. Turn west onto Oklahoma Gulch Rd. After about 4 miles, turn left onto S Fork Mud Creek Forest Service 5340 Rd. After about a mile, park at the intersection at 47.78044, -120.26211. There is room to park a couple cars. Follow the motorcycle path (also called Steliko Ridge Road) west for a little over a mile, and then at about 47.76498, -120.26565 head off the road and bushwhack up the hill to the activation zone.

Bill's writeup for Cougar might instill fear to those activators who refuse to drive through open gates. Fortunately, there is a gateless route that makes this a pretty easy-to-access peak, and it deserves some more activations.

The gate-free route also applies to nc122 and Cole nc056; all 3 are easily accomplished in a day, and are Prius-able if you are willing to drive about 30 miles of gravel total.

Peak 1980 is on Washington State DNR land approximately 1 hour, 15 minutes north of the Portland Metro area and about 6 miles south of Cougar, WA. This land requires a WA Discovery Pass.

The summit is a drive-up, but the last .75 miles is rough and a mid-clearance vehicle with AWD or better is recommended. See SOTL.AS or Sota Maps for the route GPX file.

There are a few trees remaining for a wire and open space for a vertical. I made one contact on 2m into the Portland Metro during a weekday morning using a half wave whip. You should do better on the weekend.

NOTE: The historical trailhead north of the fire station on Salmon la Sac road was closed to public access during 2024. This is an alternative route that can be used when USFS roads are still snow bound.

After sleuthing some maps in Gaia GPS, a means of access was determined for Green Mountain. It should be noted that most mapping sites do not have good or accurate maps for this area. Prior reports cast some doubt but the route provided is all on public land, Washington DNR to be specific. On my trip, the outer gate was locked but the land is not signed as prohibited for access, so i hoofed it in. If you park at the gate, don't block it and bring your Discover Pass. 

See KJ7LSM's nice writeup of this summit. I'll only add that, in March 2025, the gate to the last leg of the road is closed (see the southernmost point of the hike,below, resulting in an 800 foot, 1.7 mile walk up the remaining gravel road. There's room for one or two vehicles at the Y in the road while still providing passage if someone with access wants to pass through the gate.

Directions to the trailhead

The Plan

This year I'm particularly interested in first activations. One of the few remaining unactivated peaks within a couple hours drive from Seattle was Ebey Hill near Arlington, due to the access issues described in this previous pnwSOTA post by WA7JNJ.

First-ever activation? Wait, isn't that private property? The answer to both of those questions is YES. But let me tell you a quick story...