Good Views From Summit

King Mountain is a drive up off of US-395 between John Day and Burns.

To get there turn east off of 395 at 43.7862, -118.8654 onto good gravel road 2820.

Stay on this road until the turn up to king at 43.7872, -118.8655.

It is now approximately 2.5 miles and 700 feet of gain to the top. We were able to drive all of it in our Rav4. Plenty of parking opportunities so you can drive as far as you and your vehicle are comfortable.

GPX for this road available at Sotl.as.

This summit is a horrible bushwhack, and like many of the summits in this part of the Gifford Pinchot, it's barely worth the points considering the effort it takes to climb it. It's steep and brushy and about the only nice thing I can say about it is there's no devil's club to contend with. You would think, upon finally obtaining the activation zone, that the return trip would be easier, but it is not. It's worse because you can't see where you're putting your feet. 

Sawtooth is a glorious peak; nice hike, interesting rocky summit and great 360 views.

There are multiple hikes to reach Sawtooth. I took a route from the west, following the High Divide trail to the Windy Pass trail. This was the approach with both the shortest drive time and hike (from Diamond lake). It was 4 miles and 1700ft one way. It does seem to be a less commonly followed route, though the trails are maintained.

Here is a shortcut to Big Huckleberry relative to that described here: http://www.pnwsota.org/node/371

Howlock Mountain had caught my eye during the 2023 W7O Campout. It was an unactivated summit off trail north of Thielsen and south of Tipsoo. For 2025, Adam K6ARK and Mark KD7DTS proposed doing the ridge traverse from Tipsoo (W7O/CS-195). After some VHF shenanigans on Tipsoo, we backtracked on the trail briefly before leaving it and descending south. 

Here is one of eight Lookout Mountains in Oregon (10 if you count Big Lookout Mountain and Little Lookout Mountain). This is a short hike of one mile RT with 600 feet of elevation gain. The trail is mostly good, but a bit overgrown in places. The drive is easy and can be accomplished with moderate clearance. You can get to within a mile of the summit with most other vehicles. Here are the directions:

Find the North Umpqua Highway (AKA OR-138) and travel to Panther Creek Road (AKA NF-4741) near Apple Creek Campground, 43.3060, -122.6772 .

This summit had only been activated one time, 10 years ago, so I was not sure about how well this activation would go. Short version: one of the best SOTA activation experiences out there. Worth the drive east of the Crater Lake area. Put it on your list!

For the most part all of K7ATN's blog post here(http://www.pnwsota.org/blog/k7atn/2019-september-06/eagle-cap-or-septem…) is current and probably some of the best info you're going to get. One thing to note earlier in the summer is the possibility of snow. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the more direct approach, which I labelled 1 in the map, but much of the trail was under steep snow field.

4.4 Miles; +2,056 ft; -235 ft; On-Trail

Description

This is a pleasant on-trail hike with a gentle grade.  The final mile of the ascent is extremely scenic.  There is plenty of room for antennas within the activation zone.

There was a fire lookout camp on the summit (c.a. 1941).  Some of the heavy 9-gauge galvanized telephone wire is still present near the summit.

Trailhead Access

Beginning at the Skyland USFS-569 junction with Hwy-2 (1.8 miles west of the Marias Pass Summit):

Getting there: The road to the top is decent gravel and readily passable in a Subaru. There are some sections of big ruts and large loose rocks, so I'm not sure I'd want to attempt this with low clearance or only 2 wheel drive. It's a drive-up with good clearance and/or bravery, but otherwise it's a 1/3 mile walk up the rest of the road to the top from the obvious camping area.  

There is no bushwhacking required.

There are plenty of trees to hang a wire from. 

There is plenty of room for a 67 foot wire.