Forested Summit

Cougar Rock is a six point peak near John Day Oregon. It is 3 miles round trip with 750 feet of elevation gain. Roads are good to the trailhead at 44.5806, -118.7918. The start of the hike is a rough road that was closed to motor vehicle travel when we were there. The road walk is about ¾ of a mile, but doesn’t gain much elevation. So enjoy that part of the walk. We turned off the road at 44.5825, -118.8026.. It’s a bushwhack from there. There are some dead fall to step over, but mostly its just steep. The summit itself is a pile of rocks with filtered views.

This was the first summit we did at the start of our 5 night camping trip, combining SOTA and CQP throughout the week. We camped just below the summit on road 3615-011. It was a beautiful drive in across a very large meadow then into the timber. From 3615-011 turn left on RD 208 and it is up to your vehicle how far you can make it up. We parked about 42.29882, -120.25346. Easy trek up an old road then a short final climb off track. Only about .75 mi RT. Great views of east through the timber, a little bit harder to see other directions.

On a recent trip to Idaho, I had the opportunity to activate Bernard Peak which is a drive up 45min or so from Coeur d'Alene.

The drive up was uneventful, though some sections of the road have quite a few potholes and washboards.  I managed it in my wife's Toyota Highlander.

Summary - Butler Butte is part of a three summit group on Weyerhauser land that is about two hourse from SE Portland. Getting to the summit requires a short hike from a logging road. The summit is small, densely forested and without views. Don't count on two meters to make your four QSOs, cell phone service is marginal at best, and APRS pings get picked up. It can be done as part of a three or four summit day if you plan carefully.

This activation begins by getting to the Joaquin Miller Trail Head off of US-395 south of John Day Oregon. Interestingly Google Maps shows this trailhead and the roads to it, but does not provide driving directions to it. My Garmin road GPS did get us there and the driving directions are on the FS website here: https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/malheur/recreation/hunting/recarea/?recid=39958&actid=54 . Road is passable in the carefully driven passenger car.

In my continuing series on easier/shorter approaches to summits, I found a back-side social trail to Barlow Ridge summit.

Originally I was just going to bushwack it (0.6 mile and 400' elevation gain) but upon arrival I discovered this path.

On a recent camping trip to Riffe Lake, I activated this summit after activating Burley Mountain (W7W/PL-039).  See my other trip report for directions to get there.

The route we took after Burley was to continue on NF-77 from the junction with NF-7605 and follow it until the junction with NF-202 at (46.344296, -121.927806)  There is a spur at this junction (NF-7700201 that heads north a short 1/4 mile to the summit.

The activation zone is a small clearing surrounded by trees with no view.

This was my 3rd summit while over in Bend area for Central Oregon S2S party.

I had activated Pine Benchmark and Pine Mountain earlier in the day and I drove from there. I took NF-2017 from the Observatory down to the valley.  However, that road is in very poor shape and high clearance is needed if you go that way. (If starting at the Observatory, travel time going back to Highway 30 to Road 23 is likely similar to taking rocky NF-2017 south).

The summit is in pretty much the same shape as previous report linked by Etienne K7ATN.