Exposed Trail

With the continuing warm weather, I went out this weekend to finish out the
trio of Coffin, Buck and Bachelor Mountains. I headed for Bachelor this weekend.

To reach the Bachelor mountain trailhead, follow the directions I gave in the
Coffin and Back mountain activation. However, when reaching the #450 road,
continue further for about 0.5 mile and take a left at the intersection. After
about 0.6 miles, the road comes to a end at the trail head. I found only
a post where I suppose the trail head sign used to be.

Since the weather has continued warm and wet, I thought I'd go grab some solitude
and winter bonus points. I had been eyeing three summits close to each other and
to OR HWY 22. These peaks are Coffin Mountain, Buck Mountain and Bachelor Mountain.
I hoped to summit all three this Saturday but only managed two due to a number
of equipment problems.

To reach Coffin mountain, follow OR 22 east from Detroit Oregon. About 19 miles
east of Detroit, turn right onto FS 11 also known as Straight Creek Rd. It is

Blue Mounds State Park is an easy drive up summit about 30 miles east of Madison, Wisconsin. It's a state park that has camping, picnicing and two observation towers (one at each end of the summit) that would be great for VHF contacts.

Take County Road F north from US-151. You can easily follow the signs less than two miles to the park. At the summit there is a large loop with picnic areas - the summit proper is at the center of the loop so anywhere would be in the activation zone. There is also a wooden observation tower on the east side of the summit. 

Pearls On A Necklace – SOTA Adventures in W6/CT. Strung along the Angeles Crest Highway (SR 2, Los Angeles County, California), which runs through the San Gabriel Mountains, on the stretch between the Pasadena / Glendale area the south, and the Apple Valley / Victorville area to the north, lie more than 20 SOTA listed summits.  Most are 6 to 8 point summits.

Directly across Hwy 20 from Iron Mountain at Tombstone pass is peak 5436, CM-127. Its really a part of Browser Ridge extending towards the northwest from the other Browser Ridge peak CM-056.

Access to CM-127 is via NF-15 which turns off US Hwy 20 about 1000m west of Tombstone pass. Take NF-15 to the trailhead for trail 3409 which is located right where NF-080 splits off.

 This could be the second of two 6-point peaks in the same day when you combine this with an activation of Union Peak (SN-082) - you'll want to cross Union on the way to Jove anyway! These peaks are located in the Mt Baker – Snoqualmie National Forest just east of Steven’s Pass off of Hwy 2. Access is via a Forest Service Road #6700 (Smithbrook) which is rough, but ok for passenger vehicles. Parking is off of a spur road, so a NW Forest Pass isn’t needed here.

This could be the first of two 6-point peak activations in the same day - just combine this with Jove Peak (SN-058) which is just a bit further up the same trail. These peaks are located in the Mt Baker - Snoqualmie National Forest just east of Steven’s Pass on. Access is via a Forest Service Road #6700 (Smithbrook) iwhich is rough, but ok for passenger vehicles. Parking is off of a spur road, so a NW Forest Pass isn’t needed here.

Dock Butte has great views of it's Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest home. There is plenty of antenna room on the summit and it's only a short 3-mile roundtrip hike. The trail is great - a bit steep and requires just a very short scramble near the top. It took us about an hour from the trailhead. 

No Joke on Jester Mountain, but Mr. Murphy (as in Murphy's Law) showed up. Fall is nearly in the air.  The flowers are long gone, replaced by late season berries and mushrooms.  Air temperature when leaving the car at 9:00 AM was 44 degrees F.  Crossing Snoqualmie Pass, the weather was rainly, foggy & windy.  It did not look promising, but the anticipated East Slope of Cascades Rain Shadow was in effect, and we had a glorious day in the Wenatchee mountains.

Get yourself to Keno, Oregon and you'll be within a few miles of a couple of good summits. Hamaker Mountain may be the only six point PAVEMENT drive up in Oregon. Keno is about 12 miles SW of Klamath Falls on the Green Springs Highway 66, or about half that distance to the NW from Highway 97 on the Keno-Worden Road from the wide spot that is Worden, Oregon.