Travel on Highway 6, and turn north onto Cedar Butte Road between milepost 17 and 18. Drive over the bridge and continue straight at the Muesial Creek Road junction (0.1 mile). There are signs at each junction that direct you to the Cedar Butte Trailhead, however, mark your mileage here and watch for posted signs. The trailhead is about 5.5 miles from this point, although the sign says 5.7. At 2.0 miles turn right at the “Y” intersection. At 4.8 miles, the Cedar Butte Road veers left.

Here's a drive-up summit a few miles off Highway 26 when you are on your way to the coast. Not from from the well-trod Saddle Mountain, W7O/NC-004, it's one more point for the ambitious activator. The roads are easily traveled in a passenger car.

This summit had never been activated and I now know why!  The USGS maps would have you believe there is a road to the summit.  There actually was a road when the forestry lookout was standing, but the last 1-1/2 miles of road is now overgrown and would take some guts and a great off-road 4-wheeler to traverse it.  These same last miles are steep and unrelenting, though completely forested.  When the so-called road ends. there are a few hundred feet of vertical trail required to reach the summt.

On June 7, 2017 my wife and I were in the region east of Canyonville, OR. After enjoying Pickett Butte, we headed to Acker Rock, another rock outcrop with a lookout perched on top. Both of these are 2 point summits.

I was staying at The Lodge in Castle Rock State Park for a long weekend. This park is just north of City Of Rocks National Reserve which is a world class rock climbing destination. Though I am not a rock climber there are also a whole bunch of nice SOTA summits in the area. I picked CI-131 as I could see it from the front porch of The Lodge. In fact when I was on top, my wife, looking through binoculars, could see me waving at her. How often can your wife actually see you on a summit if she is not also with you?

A bit of research showed several gems waiting to be Activated, while the high country is still buried in deep, unstable snow.  Tibbetts Mountain is a 4 point SOTA Summit, of a modest 4,115 feet elevation.  It has a fantastic vantage point, overlooking the beautiful Wenatchee River Valley, the City of Wenatchee, and several towns lying along SR 2, the major east / west highway connecting western and eastern Washington State.  We opted for the more reasonable north approach, which is mainly a very steep forest service road, with about 1/4 mile of easy off road climb along the summit ridge.  The total distance is 6.2 miles RT, with approximately 1,850 feet elvation gain.  A bonus was that the apple orchards in the Wenatchee River Valley were in full bloom, and the mountain flower were awaking from winter slumber.

We finally got to Activate Old Pass Hill, after snowshoeing by it a number of times before.  Old Pass Hill is a 4 point SOTA Summit of 4,885 feet elevation.  In winter, the route is mostly avalanche free, and so is a semi popoluar snowshoe trip.  A nice spring day, right before a change in weather, yielded a mostly sunny early morning, with increasing wind and clouds later in the mid day.  The temperature at departure from the TH was 37 degrees, and the snow was firm enough to hike on without snowshoes.  On the return trip, it had warmed up enough to require snowshoes, and we were gald we had carried them in.  The trip is approximately 8.15 miles RT, with about 1,500 feet elevation gain, including many ups and downs along the ridge beween Swauk Creek & Scotty Creek in the Wenatchee Mountains, west of Blewett Pass.  We only saw 2 other people the entire day.

On a family vacation to the Lake Tahoe Basin in Nevada and California, I was fortunate enough to Activate 4 peaks in 3 days.  This is a description of the Monument Peak Activation.  Monument Peak is a 10,067 foot / 3,068 meter high, 8 Point SOTA Summit, which is the apex of Heavenly Ski Resort.  It has been activated in winter, via ski lifts and skis, and in summer via trails.  This was my second time ascending the peak, the first being in 2009, well before I got into SOTA." src="file:///C:/Users/Mark/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.gif">

Second Time Was A Charm!  Almost exactly 2 years since my last ski trip / Activation attempt of Lone Mountain, Montana, I returned and was successful this time ...barely.  Winter Activations at this altitude (11,166 feet, 3,403 Meters), are certainly not trivial matters, even if Ski Tram access is available.  Lone Mountain is the apex of Big Sky Ski Resort, in Big Sky Montana.  See: http://bigskyresort.com/ for general information, and http://bigskyresort.com/Documents/The%20Mountain/W1617/Map_2016_TrailMap_v2.pdf  for trail maps during ski season.