The trail has been reopened since the 2020 fire in the area. Logs have been moved from the trail, and it is in excellent condition. This hike is relatively flat, gently sloped, and beautiful, well worth checking out.
Calamity Peak is a road walk or drive with a short bushwhack portion. Take Wind River Road north through Carson, WA. Turn west onto Hemlock and then north on Szydlo, which turns into NF-54. Follow NF-54 to the junction by the Soda Lakes trailhead, then go straight (rather than bearing left) to continue on 5407 to the junction with NF 324. Google Maps also gives good directions to this junction, 45.9118, -122.0982.
Flagtail Mountain is not close to any population center. You can get to it from John Day by traveling south on US-397 and then turning west onto Izee Paulina Lane. Travel this paved road to 44.1618, -119.2511 and turn onto a good gravel road. Drive about five miles to an active lookout.
This peak is the quintessential reason I do SOTA. It is a nice hike to a scenic summit that I never would have visited without the activating imperative.
It is located near Dayville a mile or so west of the US-26 and OR-19 junction. It is part of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument.
An outing to Pine Mountain offers an opportunity to activate 3 summits: W7O/CE-058, W7O/CE-068, and W7O/CE-176. After Pine Benchmark, I drove back to HWY 20 and headed west. I turned left on Spencer Wells Rd to head towards the OHV area. This summit was a bit of a weird one. There is a road all the way to the top. My efforts to get TO that road were thwarted by private property and no tresspassing signs. Perhaps it is possible to reach that road and take it up, but I was unsuccessful today.
An outing to Pine Mountain offers an opportunity to activate 3 summits: W7O/CE-058, W7O/CE-068, and W7O/CE-176. After activating Pine Mountain. I drove up the road to Pine Benchmark. The road at 43.80666, -120.94173 is gated, but not locked. I drove through and closed the gate behind me.
An outing to Pine Mountain offers an opportunity to activate 3 summits: W7O/CE-058, W7O/CE-068, and W7O/CE-176. I started the day early with Pine Mountain. The main road up the mountain is heavily washboarded. Take 43.80066, -120.93746 and head up the good forest road. A sedan will have no trouble. I parked at the broad saddle and found a trail heading up the mountain.
Mount Baldy summit has a Forest Service Lookout tower and a multi-agency communication site for the NW corner of Montana. There are good views from the summit including high mountains of the Cabinets Mountains to the south, the Selkirk Mountains to the west and into Canada to the North.
KE7JWP and I did an attempt on Gambol Knob earlier today. For me this was like the fifth visit to the area of the summit.
Its located in Campbell Global land, so a recreation permit is needed. I have had a motorized permit for a couple of different years. My previous visits were the long way through Campbell Global land......
My last visit made me decide that I wanted somone with me to make this attempt. Lots of steep. Trees. Lots of slash.
UPDATE - K7AHR decided to check the ground conditions for these two peaks. Both are apparently accessible with the usual cautions regarding hiking in burn zones.
Hearing that the Big Hollow TH is again open, I began making plans to activate Timbered Peak and Sister Rocks (W7W/LC-064). Unfortunately, a BARC map (dated September 30, 2020) indicates that Timbered Peak was severely damaged in the Big Hollow fire. At this time, there appears to be no way to safely access either summit. More below...