Bad or No Parking at Trailhead

The summit is in the middle of a Christmas tree farm owned by Fox Farms.  There is a graveled road (about ½ mi) to the top.  There is several commercial comms at the summit and all protected by cameras.  The access road is “generally” wire rope gated.  The property is not posted.

NT3S/Nick sleuthed down the owner and does receive access permission with the barter exchange being a trash pickup.  Nick, because of his earned relationship with the owner, should probably be the focal point for access. 

This is a burned-over scattered forest summit with few live trees.  Parking at the trailhead is limited but several places within 200’ exist.  Finding a place without snags limited parking to a couple of areas west of the trailhead at the curve in the road.  The one above the road is near an Idaho/Montana boundary post.  That post was placed in 1905 at mile 393.121 per information received from W7LIX. 

From Pocatello Idaho go South on I-15. Turn off onto Highway 30 towards Lava Hot Springs.  Proceed to the Lava Hot Springs golf course and take Smith Canyon Rd South approximately 3.2 miles until you hit the Forest Service Boundry at 42.54653, -112.06385. There is no trailhead so you will have to park safely on one of the nearby pullouts.

This summit is located off of Highway 30 Northwest of Soda Springs ID.  Turn North off of Hwy 30 at the Old Oregon Trail highway.  Take this road a couple of miles until you reach Windmill Flat Rd on your right.  Follow this road approx. 1.75miles stopping at the cattle guard. From here you will see an old 4 wheeler trail going up the fence line on your right which is now closed by the BLM.  Follow the fenceline until the corner posts.  Here you will need to bushwhack approx 1.3 miles to the summit.  There is approxiately 1000 ft lift in this bushwhack.

Pinnacle Peak is quite a drive, at which there is no real parking, and no trail, which I suspect is why it hadn't been previously activated - that and the two points. Fun nonetheless, a sense of accomplishment, and some good views to the east.

Parking for Monument Peak summit (aka Peak 4740) is on Monument Peak Road (MPR) about 7.5 miles up from the Monument Peak Trailhead at the south end of Gates School Road.  Gates School Road is at milepost 33 on OR-22 east of Salem.  I recommend parking here: (44.6966, -122.3343), the junction of MPR and what is now a washed out logging road - 2WD vehicles need not apply. 

TL;DR - Cornell Mountain is on private property but the activation zone extends to the public right-of-way, so this is a side-of-the-street activation. You might be able to activate on HF with appropriate gear but expect the locals to give you the stinkeye if you spend much time loitering. For a driveup activation, check out the other Cornell writeups here.  However, I wanted to do this one on foot, with a fair bit of up...

Lick Benchmark is a six point summit located near John Day Oregon. It is a bit more than ½ miles round trip and 420 feet of elevation gain. So a bit steep. Trail starts at 44.5755, -118.7617. There is a wide spot to park and turn around there. There is an old jeep track that turns into a trail for a bit and then disappears. It is not a bad bushwhack though, in terms of whacking bushes. The benchmark is on a rock outcropping at the summit. Outcropping is low enough that one does not have to operate on it, although there was a good spot.

Ingle Mountain is a six point summit near Mt. Vernon Oregon. It is a little over 4 miles round trip with a total elevation gain of ~1100ft, but it seems a bunch more. That is because net elevation gain is only about half of that. So one keeps seeing false summits followed by saddles followed by false summits …

  This summit is on BLM land but is landlocked by a large private ranch. I lucked out and talked to the ranch manager and explained SOTA to him, and since it has never been activated, he had his ranchhand escort me to the summit to activate it. He emphasized, in a very nice way, but in no uncertain terms that no one, including myself would activate it again since the access to it is on the ranches property. 

*as a side note, they have and will prosecute trespassers so be forewarned.

Thanks,

Bill- de N0DNF