Trailhead has limited or no parking
Here's an out of the way summit south of Prineville, Oregon with nice views and plenty of quiet. The drive towards the summit on Highway 27 is along the Wild and Scenic Crooked River and is lovely in itself with nice camping opportunities.
This was a joint SOTA expedition with me, Bill WA7NCL, and Rich AC7MA. See photos here:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/JWPaWiE5l7v0Vmwm2
I received a note from Doug W7ZV letting me know that I had crossed private property on my hike to Wagner Mountain. In fact the SUMMIT of Wagner is apparently private property, owned by Young Life's Washington Family Ranch. The river map I was using did not indicate this, and there are no private property signs in this remote area. In short, I had no way of knowing that I would be entering private property on this hike.
Getting to Sabe Mountain is an experience traveling the Magruder Corridor road, a 100-mile narrow road much of which is over 7500’, high for Northcentral Idaho roads. The are no services (gas or other) available along this route and the adjoining roads for 130 miles. According to the US Forest Service brochure, the road, constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1930s has changed little over the decades. It shows. The narrow road is used heavily by snowmobiles in winter and 4-wheelers in summer.
Nez Perce Peak is on the historic Nez Perce route to the eastern bison hunting grounds. It was also used by prospectors and traders. It is accessed by a steep-unmarked trail approximately 3 miles beginning on the Magruder Corridor road along Deep Creek. The open grassland summit has excellent views of the Selway Bitterroot Wilderness and Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. There are trees for wire antennas or lots of open space for other antennas. Only a few wires, outhouse trail and stacked rock remain of the old US Forest Service Lookout.
This old Forest Service Lookout site has only a crumpled outhouse, concrete anchor blocks and a few pieces of rusted metal remaining. Young trees have grown up and have limited somewhat the view of the surrounding landscape. It is a short, but steep hike very typical of the ‘ridge access trails’ climbing out of the Selway River. Along the trail though are many old ponderosa pine with large rectangles of missing bark on their boles where the historic Nez Perce people peeled back the bark centuries ago to remove the underlayer of sweet cambium, the growing part of a tree (se
This summit had never been activated and I now know why! The USGS maps would have you believe there is a road to the summit. There actually was a road when the forestry lookout was standing, but the last 1-1/2 miles of road is now overgrown and would take some guts and a great off-road 4-wheeler to traverse it. These same last miles are steep and unrelenting, though completely forested. When the so-called road ends. there are a few hundred feet of vertical trail required to reach the summt.
W7O/CC-107 is a one point, unnamed 1780’ asl summit southwest of Crow, OR. It is in rugged logging territory. I tried to access it today (May 17, 2017), but I ran into obstacles. There is a locked gate where BLM road 20-7-4.1 branches west off of Oxbow Road. An accompanying sign forbids unauthorized vehicle travel.
On March 10, 2017, my wife and I were exploring summits to the south of Eugene. After activating Yellow Butte, W7O/CC-024, near Yoncalla, OR. We found a nice little hill south of Elkton, OR, Peak 1100, W7O/CC-135. This summit is on a private farm above the Umpqua River. The owner lives in a house about half way up. We spoke to her and told her about SOTA. She gave her permission (reluctantly, I think) for us to activate her summit. She said that she would prefer that others not come to activate the hill top summit. I told her that we would make it off limits in our data.
On a family vacation to the Lake Tahoe Basin in Nevada and California, I was fortunate enough to Activate 4 peaks in 3 days. This is a description of the Monument Peak Activation. Monument Peak is a 10,067 foot / 3,068 meter high, 8 Point SOTA Summit, which is the apex of Heavenly Ski Resort. It has been activated in winter, via ski lifts and skis, and in summer via trails. This was my second time ascending the peak, the first being in 2009, well before I got into SOTA." src="file:///C:/Users/Mark
