Here is a lovely hike in the south reaches of the Clackamas watershed. The hike is about 6.5 miles round trip and 1000 feet of gain. Although about two hours from Portland, it's also a nice drive to the trailhead with good signage along the way. Only the last half mile or so would be challenging in a passenger car.
An easy one pointer in the Coast Range with a very short hike - using a GPS may help you find it in the maze of roads that is the Tillamook State Forest.
Rogers Peak is the highest point in Tillamook County and the highest also in W7O/NC. It's fairly easy to access, given a good road that is fine for passenger cars, a road walk after a gate, and a final ascent using an overgrown cat track that leads you almost directly to the summit.
I was skunked today on my activation attempt for Round Top, due to fire risk closure. Here's a quick note to myself and other future activators concerning this.
Although Stimson maintains fairly open (hiking) public access rules for their property, they do close access entirely during Industrial Fire Protection Level (IFPL) II or higher. If you are activating in a Stimson propery area during the summer months, check the website ahead of time.
Stimpson western (Oregon) public access rules:
John, Ralph and myself (Eric) made the trek to the summit of St Marks. The hike is very popular with 200+ on the trail on a nice week-end. The first half of the trail is well groomed and easy walking. The trail improvement stops about half way and from there on the trail is easy to follow but it is very root infested and so one needs to be constantly watching where one steps.
Signal Butte has been on my watch list for over a year and I was finally able to summit and activate it today. This peak had never been activated. Thanks to Nick KI7PTT for humoring me and coming along.
Approxamatly 1 1/2 hours out of Boise. Reasonably passable roads. (all wheel drive Volvo XC-90).
BC-074 is first on the ridge line and has a nice open summit. Good views down into Pionneerville to the North and Horse Shoe bend to the South. Walk up to the summit is about a 1/3 of a mile and not to bad. I used a large pine tree to hang my antenna from but there is also a pole on the summit; however it does not have a halyard.
After a major delay in starting a planned morning activation, I started looking at more local peaks – mostly just to get outside and talk on the radio. Since there was no pressure and no one knew that I was going out, I thought it would be a good chance to go explore an unactivated summit.
North Coast Peak 2748 was selected as the target and after a little bit of research, I headed off west into the Tillamook State Forest unsure what I would really find.
Directions: Take Sunset Falls Road east of Battleground to Sunset Campground. Turn right and cross the East Fork Lewis River on FS Road 41. Stay on FS 41 for approximately 9 miles to a large parking area atop McKinley Ridge. This is NOT the summit.
Sections of the gravel road beyond Sunset Campground have large and deep pot holes and a few graded drain dips. Cars with low-clearance may not be suitable for this drive.
W7O/NC-113 (“good ‘ol 1783” as they say) is a small coastal peak in USFS Siuslaw Forest land. From Hwy 101 take the turnout at (45.065829, -123.948579) — Google calls it “Cascade Head Trail - North Trailhead” as it’s the road that leads to the trailhead. This is forest road NF-1861 and is nicely graveled and easy to drive with a passenger vehicle.
Note: this road is closed by the USFS from Jan 1st to July 15th, effectively making this summit inaccessible during that time.