Horse Creek Butte doesn’t appear as classically defined buttes nor typical of buttes that characterize many Idaho and Montana landscapes.  It has a highly fractured ridge of boulders capping the summit, but with little geological relief from the surrounding subalpine fir, and lodgepole and whitebark pine forest.

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.

The Oregon SOTA database has been updated. W7O SOTA summits have been revised, including deletions, additions and changes. One example that many will be familiar with is Frog Lake Buttes - did you ever wonder why it was plural?

Cline Buttes is a moderate hike/ride, depending on your approach. The traditional mtb route is to start off the quarry road on the east side and climb the Cline Butte XC Trail around the west side interconnecting with FAA access road to the summit. There is a short cut near the summit that keeps you on the west side of the butte and drops you out right at several big rocks that are in the AZ and can provide some wind protection. 2M can work well but having had one failed activation for lack of 2M contacts, I highly suggest bringing and HF rig as well.

Baldy Peak was a wonderful and pleasant surprise. I recommend it. The minimum hike is 1.2 miles round trip with about 650’ vertical.  The hike can be extended by parking a bit further down B-1000 and hiking up the Buck Creek trail. 

 The route I took to 2700 – Circuit Peak was 3.6 miles round trip with 1100’ vertical.  It was a combination of forest road walking and moderate bushwhacking. I think it may take a few activators summiting to get the best route to the top identified. There are smaller ridgelines and drainages not shown on the topo maps, and it may be possible to follow the old roadbed nearly all the way to the summit.

Last year’s very successful and fun W7O Campout S2S Party (hosted by Amy AG7GP) was the inspiration for this campout. I live in the Vancouver, Washington area and frequently visit the Columbia Gorge and Gifford-Pinchot National Forest. One of my favorite areas to hike and do SOTA activations is the Trout Lake area, which is just north of Hood River, Oregon on the Washington side of the river. There are so many peaks in the area that you can visit dozens of times and still not hit them all!

Summit 2260 is located in the Tillamook State Forest (TSF), 4 miles NE of Bay City.  There are other summits in the NC region with the same name, so this is specific to W7O/NC-101.  I completed it’s first activation in February 2023.  

Summary - Summiting Monte Carlo in the winter is easy as long as you are good with an eight mile round trip with a 3000 foot climb.  The first three or so miles of the hike is on a maintained forest road through open, old forest. The remainder is the steepest and roughest part of the hike, with big tree fall and some cross country travel.  Your reward for taking on the challenge is a quiet, open summit ringed by old growth trees.  Drive time from Portland is about 80 minutes across the Hood River toll bridge.

Lava Butte is closed to vehicles in the winter, but open for hiking. You can park at the closed visitor center, or there's an option to pull off 97 near where the Lava Butte road passes the highway. From here there's a very short trail through the brush and you're on the road. We did this option which puts the hike at about 1.2 mi and 540' gain. 

The road was mostly clear of snow and ice, with just a handful of spots that had it. We did not need the microspikes we brought in our packs, but had the temps been colder, they would've been neccessary in some spots.