Trailhead has limited or no parking
This summit is located 6 miles East of Lava Hot Springs, Idaho. Take Highway 30 East towards Fish Creek Summit and turn South approximately 1 mile from Lava Hot Springs onto Baldy Mtn Road. Stay on the main paved road which heads South and the turns into gravel/dirt road. Watch for a sign on your left that says State access 1.5 miles. You will come to a junction near 42.547° -111.900°.
Follow other blog entries for accurate directions to the access road. The first gate at FS60 road is gone, at least destroyed. A second gate about a mile in was also open but might be locked later in the season.
Normally, from FS60, this is a 3.3 mi/ 1600 ft elev gain hike but I was able to drive to with 1/2 mi of the summit where I hit snow drifts covering the road. I would expect these to melt out over the next 3-4 weeks or so, making the summit potentially a drive-up where parking would be available.
Fair warning, this one is a bit of a tricky one. This summit doesn't have a trail to the top at all. You could possibly access it from the Mountain lakes loop trail but it would be a very steep scramble over loose rock, it looked a bit too dicy to me when I did my scouting hike around the loop a few months earlier. I elected, instead, to use part of the old moss creek trail which was abandonded by the forest service but is still maintained by individuals. The old moss creek trailhead is located on land owned by green diamond and is only open to vehicle traffic
This summit is directly north across the township of Lava Hot Springs ID. located on state land. This summit is located above the Lava Hot Springs Idaho hot pools. It is a short 2 mile round trip hike. Sometimes snowshoes may not be needed but are nice to have just in case. This is mostly a bushwhack hike. After this hike enjoy the Hot Springs for a nice soak.
You can either hike from Lava Hot Springs or drive a short distance crossing highway 30 from the main exit into Lava and park next to the RR tracks near 42.622500,-112.011667.
I read Tim N7KOM's summit report from last week and decided to get while the getting was good. Things were still pretty much as he described from the previous weekend. The 2 trees were still blocking the road. The good thing about that is that there is a wide spot in the road just around the previous corner to park. There was only one other wide spot after that to park before the gate and nowhere to turn around.
Wind Mountain is a popular summit on the Washington side of the Columbia river gorge near Carson WA with wonderful views of the river and Mt. St. Helens I was a little worried about access given the recent snowstorms the area has had, but decided to take the chance. The trail was pretty icy, and for lack of crampons I found myself relying heavily on my trekking poles with ice tips.
I completed the first-ever activation of Wapato Peak today (Peak 3380). Wapato Peak has no official name in the SOTA database, but several sources mention this one so it's the name that I will use.
There is no established trail, but the hike is fairly easy, with only ~800 feet of elevation gain and a 1.5-2 mile round trip. It is steep at times, but I found it manageable with trekking poles and ordinary hiking boots even with an inch of snow on the ground.
Summary - Red Mountain is an easy two mile, 1400 foot climb from the gate to the summit along a poorly maintained road. There is a lookout tower and a couple of VHF/UHF installations on the open summit. The views are amazing! FSR6048, the road to the summit, is in poor condition but passable with 4WD and clearance. The gate location shown on the USFS maps is incorrect, it is actually at 45.920, -121.824. There is only room for one vehicle near the gate.
NOTE: Forest Road 9341 is blocked by a rockslide at 46.23071, -121.82871 and there is an additional 3 mi approach to the trailhead on pavement.
This was summit 2 of a 2 First Activation day.
