Summit is forested and/or has ample tree cover.
Pilot Knob is a quiet peak inside the boundary of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, and a stone's throw away from the Pacific Crest Trail. The approach is just short of 2 miles one-way, with some travel on an old trail and some bushwhacking.
The drive is about 1 hour and 15 to 30 minutes from somewhere in Portland. The hike is about 2 miles one-way with 1300' elevation gain and took about 1.5 hours to complete in the dry season.
Maidenhead Mtn (W7W Summit 1930) is accessible with a 1.5 mile (800 ft vertical) hike up an abandoned Forest Service Road bed. The road bed is overgrown with trees that look around 8 years old. There is a trail that is established for about 50% of the way. The second half of the route has a significant amount of blowdown and really slows you.
The summit is forested with no views. I decided to try FM with a roll up J-pole and despite the trees had no problems getting into the Seattle area.
First of all Brian, AB6D was the first on this mountain. New updates and advanced accuracy apparently changed the true summit to the NE peak rather than the SW. I wouldn't have gone if I hadn't read his summary. Same mountain, nearly same trek, just a slightly different finish.
This was #3 of 4 summits in a day up May Creek. This was a little difficult set up. Crowded brush and timber. One thing to realize is the NE peak is also in the AZ, the saddle doesn't drop below the AZ mark. I just hiked up the this peak. It is steep country and once you reach the AZ it is very thick. Luckily the NNW ridge up the NE peak has been thinned and fuel break up to the BLM boundary so you can trek most of the way with little bushwhack.
This was summit #2 for the day after SC-102. You could do neighboring Black Butte also, I just missed the turn and went to this one first. Nice short trek up the forested west ridge from a wide parking/camping area with large fire ring. Only about .30 mi up. Plenty of space to set up. Pretty flat with timber. One interesting thing with the AZ here is all maps say this summit is over 3600', not 3580'. However the trek is so easy and short getting to the top is not difficult.
This summit gets its name from its other peak outside of the AZ, it is not Bald and pretty thick brush, skinny timber/madrone. Not the easiest set up but doable.Great road up, paved first miles on May Creek and then right on Bald Mt Rd. No sign, the turn goes over a the creek with a drain pond on the left, at least in April. Drive up to AZ and find a location up bank to activate.
Bald Mt was #1 of 4 in a full day of activation
de AG7GP
South of Bend is a little 2-pointer named Bates Butte. I had mapped out a route from the south side. Frome Bend take South Century Drive and make a left on Forest Lane, a paved forest road. Take a right at 43.80887, -121.50379 and make a short drive up a forest road. There was still a bit of snow when I was there, so 4 wheel drive recommended, but probably doable on 2 wheel drive when dry. I parked at 43.80536, -121.50776. From here look for a decent worn trail heading north up the butte.
I did the first activation of Sheridan Mountain in July of 2015. I wrote up a quick trip report for the NASOTA group and planned to write a more detailed trip report later, but I lost my notes for the activation. Sheridan has not been activated again. I am writing this trip report now with the hope that someone will find it useful. Sheridan is not an easy summit to get to or climb, but it's not that hard either.
Let's sart with my original trip report and then I will add some commentary from memory.
I took my kids on a snowshoeing adventure this past weekend. There were several SOTA activators scheduled to be out activating and we joined them for a fun time. The distance is around 1.7miles one way but we had very nice snow conditions.
Traffic was very heavy heading up to Mt. Hood and several vehicles turned around but we persevered and it eventually improved. It did add around 30mins to our arrival time.
Starting from the Frog Lake SNO-PARK and heading across the hwy slightly to the north is the Pacific Crest Trail crossing.