This is a very nice hike (3.3 Miles, 2,900 ft.)
Drive west from Augusta towards Nilan Reservoir and Benchmark. Continue for 14-miles, turning right (Northerly) on the Willow Creek road towards Gibson Reservoir. Continue another 1.2 miles and turn left immediately after passing Scoutana – an old Girl Scout Camp. The turn is also signed as “USFS Administrative Site”. Follow this road and park where it is blocked by a gate.
Hawley Mountain is the second peak along the FS374 ridgeline north of the Harris Creek Summit. Harris Creek Summit (saddle) can be reached from Harris Creek Rd. which connects Horseshoe Bend and Placerville, Idaho. It is a dirt road in good condition.
From Harris Creek summit, FS374 is a resonably good single track road. SUV or other high clearance vehicle recommmended, but I did see a sedan parked at the base of Peak 7057! Minor rocks and ruts along the road so should be passable by most cars/trucks depending on your level of scraping desired.
The easy access to this hill is off of forest road FS-6081 (you’d want a high clearance vehicle) which was not passable for us. It leads to a spur road that goes almost to the top (this is also blocked to vehicles by windfall and some erosion). Good thing we had a plan B – which was to follow the PCT - Trail #2000, south from the nearby Crest Horse Camp.
A bit south of Cannon Beach there is this easy walk up a logging road. The sign at the gate indicates that hiking access is permitted. Starting in 2018 the landowner is requiring permits for access - see https://nncpermits.com/Permits/PermitDetails.aspx.
Park at the Marple Mountain Sno Park overflow area which is on the south side of SR83. Plenty of parking room in the non-snow months.
Follow FR8312 to the summit which is about 4 mi one way. Easy hike up an old logging road. The summit is a site of an old firetower but is now used as a USGS Mt St Helens monitoring site. Enough room at the summit for an EFHW. Good vistas of Mt Adams but St Helens is obscured by the forrested summit.
Park at the open gate where FR54 and FR5407 cross which is just west of the Trapper Creek Wilderness area. The TH is just across from the parking area where the Wilderness Permit box is located.
Three Wild Turkey Winners! On a springtime outing to the Spokane, Washington region, we activated three (3) SOTA Summits in the mountains north of the City of Spokane. The reference to Wild Turkeys is on account of seeing numerous of the large wild birds that almost became the National Symbol of USA. See: http://www.nwf.org/News-and-Magazines/National-Wildlife/Birds/Archives/2007/Americas-First-Bird-Controversy.aspx . We chose this area, as there were several SOTA Summits that were easily accessible from the 2 alpine ski resorts north of Spokane: Mount Spokane Ski and Snowboard Park and 49 Degrees North Mountain Resort. This is report 3 of 3, detailing the Activation of Chewelah Mountain.
Three Wild Turkey Winners! On a springtime outing to the Spokane, Washington region, we activated three (3) SOTA Summits in the mountains north of the City of Spokane. The reference to Wild Turkeys is on account of seeing numerous of the large wild birds that almost became the National Symbol of USA. See: http://www.nwf.org/News-and-Magazines/National-Wildlife/Birds/Archives/2007/Americas-First-Bird-Controversy.aspx . We chose this area, as there were several SOTA Summits that were easily accessible from the 2 alpine ski resorts north of Spokane: Mount Spokane Ski and Snowboard Park and 490 North Mountain Resort. This is report 2 of 3, detailing the Activation of Quartz Mountain.
