Easy Trail

Start at the Lewisburg Saddle in the OSU research forest. Hike the Vineyard Mountain Trail shown on the maps provided at the trailhead or you can walk the Nettleton road. Trail was by far the better choice. while hiking you will pass mountain bikers on the way down as well as other hikers and this trip we came across some horseback riders. Roughly 2.5 miles to the summit. you can either go through the gate on the right side at the end of the trail and walk to the top past a private house. End of the road is a gate to the tower site. No trespassing signs are visible.

Dean Mountain, also labeled on some maps "Dear Mountain", as in Dear Mountain it's been such a long time, sorry I haven't written.

Vineyard Mountain is 2 miles north of Corvallis, OR. Its an easy,
summit for beginners.

From Corvallis, travel north on OR-99W till reaching the "City
Limits Store" at Lewisburg (red light). Turn left onto Lewisburg Rd.
for 1.3 miles. Then, take the right side fork onto Sulfur Springs Rd.
Go another 1.3 mi up to Lewisburg Saddle. At the Saddle, there is
parking for maybe a dozen cars. It's a popular and crowded place.
Go slow near there.

From the trailhead at the Saddle, head NNW on Nettleton Rd. #500.

Climb:                 3.3 mi, +2,461 feet

Approach:           6.4 mi., +874 feet, -535 feet

This is a fairly easiy ascess summit, good for a quick activation if in the area. Start by taking Parish Lake road off Highway 22 at (44.525530, -121.994293).

Continue down Parish lake road and turn right when you reach a three way intersection at (44.522143, -122.030406). Shown on maps as Scar Mountain Road.

Follow Scar Mountain Road and turn left at (44.550799, -122.044061), follow this untill you come to a large rock pit. (44.562897, -122.071521).

This summit is a complete Priusable drive up. The actual summit is a few hundred feet distant with about 40 feet of gain, so the road is in the activation zone. Getting to the top is an easy bushwhack through recently logged open forest. To get there find the Mckenzie River and highway 126 whch runs along it.

Turn off of the highway 126 at 44.2371, -122.05542 onto NF-2654 which is paved for a while.

Take a right at 44.2502, -122.0607 to cross Deer Creek.

Take another right onto NF-2655 at 44.2554, -122.0577.

Final right at 44.2584, -122.05348 onto 616.

USFS-Yakima Tribal lands bisect this summit.  Activate to the west to be on USFS properties.  See the attached map.  Beautiful views of Mt Adams to the north but an exposed summit, i.e. can be windy.

While we used motorcycles to get to this summer, a descent AWD car should have no problem with the road. There is enough space just to the south of the cow area to park one or two rigs and the hike is relatively quick. Not much in the way of shade so plan accordingly and bring extra water. This is pretty remote country but in the event of an emergency, you could likely get into the HiDARG Repeater on Sharps Butte [147.300+, T162.2]. Cell Service was good most of the time, there is a visible tower array just to the south of the Crane hot springs, which you can see from the summit

Just to add an alternate route if you don't have an Inland Empire Paper permit.

There is a gated access road that starts at the same Blanchard Hump parking area as previously mentioned.

Follow the road upwards which has quite a few switchbacks so the distance uphill is more like 2.75 miles OW.

The road is part of Hancock Timber IX and is posted for non-motorized access only.  Partway up, the land ownership transitions to WA DNR for most of the rest of the way to the top.

This summit is a good pairing with Cedar Mountain (W7I/NP-119), though a bit of a long hike around 8 miles RT for both.