Forested Summit

Solomon Butte on a map looks like it has roads going everywhere but it really doesn't. To get to a good start you will want to get to RD 4504 that somewhat circles the summit part way up. This is a jeep road with some tight pin striping opportunity in some areas and soft pumice your tires will sink in in other portions. We camped at 42.70679, -121.80856 with the idea we would go up a well used road FS4502-400 up the south corner but this road was being used as the exit road for logging trucks early morning and just too dangerous to go against them.

This was my second time to visit Huffraker.  Last year, the property owner had closed the area due to fire danger.  This year, it was reopened.  However, last year I was able to drive all the way to the edge of Gifford-Pinchot NF and park.  This year, there was an incredible amount of blowdown that had not been cleared which added another 4 miles to this hike bringing it to overall 6.3 miles RT.  It may be that, due to the late season snow, once the mushroom pickers get busy some of the blowdown will get cleared.

Activated Quartz Creek Ridge with Bill (K7WXW) this last weekend. This summit is easily doable with North Quartz Creek Ridge in the same day. Access for both summits is in the middle on a sometimes-not-mapped trail, TH at 46.24186, -121.72969 . This trail system is mixed-use. We saw ultramarathon runners (Dark Divide Ultra), mountain bikers, and dirtbikes. Prepare your ankles accordingly, the trail is often a narrow rut through the dirt because of the motorcycle traffic.

Fuji Mountain, gem of the central Cascades, and well-loved hike, is a fantastic choice if you're in the area. Only half an hour from the highway, and with a very pleasant and well-worn trail to the top, this is the easiest hiking of any of the SOTA peaks in the area that aren't drive-ups.

I headed out to do this one as a combo with W7O/CM-050; I did not due to heat and a boulder, but I recommend attempting it if you're in the area.

Depending on how much you like the paint on your vehicle, Quilcene Ridge might be a drive-up. Even so, where the slide alder starts significantly encroaching on the road it's only a quarter mile to the summit. So walking is an option.

This is the fourth summit I activated with my Dad while visiting Lemolo Lake KOA.

From the KOA, we drove across the dam on NF-2610 and right onto NF-2612.  Then left onto NF-700 and again left onto NF-920.

NOTE: when we were there, the road was blocked by tree blown down (43.325124, -122.176542) a few hundred yards from the point where you bushwack to the summit.  So we just pulled onto the side of the road and continued on foot.

This was another summit I activated with my Dad while staying at Lemolo Lake KOA.

NOTE: This one has a final section that could be hazardous to your vehicle's paint job.  The last segment after the turn off is a bit overgrown. 

To start with we turned off NF-2610 from the KOA and went up NF-200 until the unnamed logging road at (43.298183, -122.229812) and continued west on to the spur road.

NOTE: did I mention how many mosquitos this summit has?

I worked this summit with my Dad while staying at Lemolo Lake KOA.

The climb is very straightforward but I would bring a bug screen as they were alerted to our presence and followed us up the whole way.  Once we killed off all the brave ones and we cooled off, it settled down to a reasonable experience.

This one-point summit is likely not worth the time driving 40 minutes RT on forest roads. In fact, the roads in this area are quite convoluted - I found it best to navigate using GPS with turn-by-turn directions. You may end up bushwacking through a tangle of coastal brush...or get lucky and find a way to the path visible on sattelite images that I found after the fact. Any "hike" might be less than 0.10 mile and several hundred feet of gain.