Summit is exposed to wind, rain, sun (and good views)
Steep, but Priusable route for activating Peak 2905. A one way hike of about 0.9 miles and 100 feet gain. The AZ is on Stimpson Timber land.
Near Highway 26 milepost 30, turn south onto Shields Road. (About 1.3 miles east of the Sunset Rest Area.) Travel uphill on the main track for 2.1 miles.
May 28th, 2023. Trip #3 up Rocky Top for me and activation #2. But this time we were a party of 7, 5 of which were general class operators.
Dusk Point is a 1.8 mile round trip (500 ft vertical) hike off of FR-2364 in the South Olympics. Access is straightforward (once the snow melts!) but FR-2364 does require a high clearance vehicle. The summit is exposed with limited to no shade even though some trees line the perimeter. I did not have any ATT cell service but there is excellent APRS two-way messaging to enable spotting.
NC-128 is one of the "new" peaks added during the 2023 ARM update. It's on private Stimson land, but publicly accessible to walk-in during weekends and after 4pm on weekdays. The easiest access is drive-in/hike-in from the south via Turner Creek Rd past Barney Reservoir, but would also be accessible by long hike or bike via the north through the same roads as NC-066. If doing the drive/hike route, it's a 15 mile gravel road drive and a 1 mile gravel road hike to the summit. This is easily paired with Blind Cabin Ridge NC-031.
Davis Peak is very accessible to Portland Metro, with a half mile hike and offers an amazing view. The downside is a fair bit of RF interference from the installation sharing the peak with you.
The google directions were accurate, although I will note that the main road to the peak has 2 names, and signage alternates between them : "Aho Carson" and "Davis Peak Road". When google told us to take a right onto Davis Peak Road the sign at the turn said "Aho Carson".
Round top is drive + short hike on a logging road. It offers clear decent views with plenty of space to spread out your gear. The road became impassble due to snow about 1.5 miles from the summit (with an AWD Subaru). So this added about an extra mile trudging through snow (6-18") that we hadn’t anticipated, but it was a nice day and the walk up was quite nice really. Elevation gain for the hike was about 500ft.
We detoured to Schonchin after going birdwatching at Lower Klamath NWR and Tulelake NWR, disappointed with so few birds and little water (Tulelake dry). It took a commitment to get over the Cascades from the Rogue Valley as there is a lot of snow, but once we reached the east side, the snow was minimal.
Horse Creek Butte doesn’t appear as classically defined buttes nor typical of buttes that characterize many Idaho and Montana landscapes. It has a highly fractured ridge of boulders capping the summit, but with little geological relief from the surrounding subalpine fir, and lodgepole and whitebark pine forest. The summit route has good views of the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Area, remote sections of the Salmon-Challis National Forest and large areas of burned forest.
Cline Buttes is a moderate hike/ride, depending on your approach. The traditional mtb route is to start off the quarry road on the east side and climb the Cline Butte XC Trail around the west side interconnecting with FAA access road to the summit. There is a short cut near the summit that keeps you on the west side of the butte and drops you out right at several big rocks that are in the AZ and can provide some wind protection. 2M can work well but having had one failed activation for lack of 2M contacts, I highly suggest bringing and HF rig as well.
Summary - Summiting Monte Carlo in the winter is easy as long as you are good with an eight mile round trip with a 3000 foot climb. The first three or so miles of the hike is on a maintained forest road through open, old forest. The remainder is the steepest and roughest part of the hike, with big tree fall and some cross country travel. Your reward for taking on the challenge is a quiet, open summit ringed by old growth trees. Drive time from Portland is about 80 minutes across the Hood River toll bridge.