Blogs

Flattop Mountain is a drive-up for those with capable high clearance vehicles. And maybe for those ready to buy new tires - which was required of us - as the road was steep with sharp rocks.

Here's a nice summit with a trail to the top, about 5 miles RT and more elevation gain that you might have wanted at 1800 feet - but know that it's worth it. A bit obscure perhaps outside of huckleberry season, you might not see many folks at other times. The views of Mt. Adams are fabulous. 

Elk Mountain is in the Olympic National Park and accessible from a well-maintained forest service road named Obstruction Point Road. The road is not open all year, so check park conditions before you go. The summit is attainable by taking the Obstruction Point Trail and then making the easy traverse up to the base of a large rock formation. A quick stairstep up the rocks brings you to the summit. Total hike from parking to summit is about 1.5 miles.

Summit 5645 (Hurricane Ridge) is in the Olympic National Park and accessible from a well-maintained forest service road named Obstruction Point Road. The road is not open all year, so check park conditions before you go.  There is no established trail to this SOTA summit, but it is quite straightforward to follow the ridgeline to the summit and does not require bushwhacking.

Doris Peaks is my name for a set of peaks above Doris Lake.

My stats:

Distance: 9.1 miles

Elevation Gain: 2000 ft

On trail: 6 miles

Off trail: 3.1 miles

Difficulty: Arduous

Quick search of sota summits finds 30 Goat Mountains, exclusive of my favorites: Old Goat Mountain and Scape Goat Mountain. Can unfortunately relate to both of those.

There are six in W7W and 2 in W7W/LC. This blog is about W7W/LC-035. The plan for this trip was found on summitpost: https://www.summitpost.org/goat-mountain/153737. Andrew, K7AHR, and I followed those directions to a successful activation.

Stark Mountain with its fire lookout looks to be an easy 4 pointer as it is an easy drive-to peak on well marked Forest Service roads. However.... the last two miles of the road is gated and the summit is currently closed to the public. See the photo. I did not push it today, being tempted to just walk the two miles. It's closed due to Covid so I'll respect that. Maybe next season.

We built extra time into our schedule in case of an unexpected delay, but I never thought that delay would be a cattle drive. In the drive up to the Pine Mountain Observatory, Mark, W6IA, and I waited as two cowboys and at least one dog herded cattle off the road. We hung back just behind the well-trained border collie while he and his team did their work, and eventually it was clear. [See photo below.]

North Coastal's double-oh-seven peak is a two-pointer reachable by a mild forest road hike and a slightly bushwhack-y final ascent. K7ATN has linked to posts on Peakbagger that give good descriptions of the summit logistics including routes, but here's a quick summary:

On-Trail, 2.5 miles, +2,240 ft

Baldy Mountain is a locally popular on-trail hike to one of the high points in the East Pioneer Mountains.  The foundation of the old fire lookout provides some shelter in the event of windy conditions.  We saw one other party on the mountain on a nice Saturday during the summer.