Chapeau to WJ7V, Jeff for discovering and documenting this trail. A couple notes on activating this summit via Mountain Bike.
- The road surface has some sections with quite large (3-4") gravel which makes traction quite challenging.
- There are some hike-a-bike sections, but overall a fun biketavation
I attempted Winters Mountain on June 29th 2025 and ran into closed gates. There is an old trip report on Peakbagger for this summit but it looks like Weyerhaeuser has now closed access to recreational use permit holders. You can do Crazy Man Mountain and 1570 (W7W/PL-152) as easy drive ups from the Salmon Creek and "Camp Nine" roads. I posted trip reports for those to PNWSota.
Gate photo and driving route shown below (purple is planned route, cyan is actual drive).
See http://www.pnwsota.org/blog/k7agl/2025-june-30/jumbo-peak-wa-june-2025 for the write up of Sunrise and Jumbo Peaks double activation.
The double summit activation of Sunrise Peak and Jumbo Peak is under 9 miles RT and 3500 feet vertical climbing. My milage was off a bit due to probing for a south approach on Jumbo. There are a number of trip reports floating around on the web, I would rate this activation as an “advanced” SOTA adventure. I started from Sunrise TH 262. Google Maps routed me to this TH with no issues. It took me 1.5 hours to get to the trailhead departing from Mossyrock, WA.
0.2 Miles, +150 feet
This is an easy, pleasant summit. The road is suitable for most vehicles and the hike up is through an open meadow/clearcut.
Following is a description:
From Hwy-2 & the McGinnis Meadows Rd just east of the USFS Pleasant Valley Campground:
1. Drive 2.4 miles SE on the paved McGinnis Meadows Road. Turn right (west) on the well marked unpaved FS-6761.
Sleeping Bear Dunes Naional Lakeshore has a number of SOTA summits - Shauger Hill might be considered to be in the heart of the Lakeshore. Note That the official NPS map shows "Shauger Hill" (E on the map) quite a distance from the USGS coordinates used by SOTA.
Take M-109 off of M-22 and check in at the entrance station - this is a fee park. I recommend getting a copy of the Lakeshore map to follow the one-way Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive and the numbered features.
Dry Mountain is a drive up summit near the Burns-Hines area with a lookout tower and cabin. To get there I recommend this route:
Turn north off of US-20 at 43.5467, -119.0847 onto NF-47, aka Hines Logging Road.
At 43.64275, -119.2629 turn west onto US-41, aka Donelly Road.
At 43.7038, -119.3953 turn onto US-4120, aka Beaver Slide Road.
Stay on this road until you find a lookout tower.
The road is very good to good until the last half mile or so where it gets a bit rough. Possibly not Priusable, but easy in a Rav4 or higher clearance vehicle.
Years ago I tried to get to Bieberstedt but was stopped by no trespassing signs on an eastside road. Recently I tried to reach out to what Onx had as owner but no luck with a response. I decided to go up on the westside to see if it had signs. I heard it was a better road and the owner was different than 2020 owner. Sure enough, lots of no trespassing and keep out signs at entry. I called a number on the sign. No luck-wrong number. Emailed timber company, immediate response-they no longer own it and its an old sign, but he would forward my info to the owner.
Summary - This traverse starts from the Silver Star trailhead (45.78080, -122.24362) and links Silver Star Mountain with 3977 (Discriminator). Covering roughly 8.5 miles and 2800 ft of elevation gain, it has amazing views, some steep sections, and a bit of scrambling. Do 3977 first to get the toughest part of the hike behind you, enjoy the big views on Silverstar and have a mostly downhill walk back to the trailhead. From SE Portland to the trailhead is about ninety minutes. Caution advised when planning the drive: FR41 is not Prius-friendly.
Zigzag Mountain Road, aka Road 27, aka FR2627 is the access road to the Zigzag, West Zigzag, and other trailheads west of Mount Hood. The Forest Service road crosses two parcels of privately owned land and the owner has put a locked gate and no trespassing signs up at (45.32085, -121.89377), blocking accesss. Below you will find a couple of things you can do about this gate. Here is a map showing the location:
