Patterson Mountain is a 4460’ asl summit a few miles west of Oakridge, OR. It is rated at two points. To get there, drive east on Highway 58 for 24.7 miles from I-5 Exit 188A. Between mile posts 24 and 25 turn right on gravel Patterson Mountain Road 5840 and drive five uphill miles to a fork at Patterson Saddle.
Forested Summit
Birkenfeld Mtn, WA | September 2015
Birkenfeld Mountain is a summit that can be done as part of a challenging three peak traverse that would include Three Corner Rock-W7W/LC-101 and Greenleaf Peak-W7W/LC-104.
Wind Mountain, WA | Oct 2017 Update
Wind Mountain is a nice hike in the Gorge with good views (in clear weather). It's about 2.5 miles round-trip and 1000 feet of gain. There's no pass required at the trailhead and it's often less busy than nearby Dog Mountain.
Head east on Highway 14 from Stevenson, Washington about 6.2 miles to Home Valley. Then turn onto Wind Mountain Road for 1.0 miles to turn right onto Girl Scout Road and go about 0.6 miles. This leads to a large dirt parking area at the end of the paving near 45.7145°, -121.7533°. This is usually the best place to park.
McCartney Mountain, MT| May, 2017
4wd + Short Hike (0.9 Miles, +631 ft., -215 ft.)
Directions:
Exit east from Exit 85 on I-15
Drive 4.3 miles south on Hwy-91
Turn left on Burma Road – Continue 3.1 miles
Turn left on 2-track at Chokecherry Gulch (by gravel pit)
Peak 4005, OR | August 2017
Peak 4005 is a near drive-up summit a bit east of Mount Hood, accessed mostly on paved Forest Service roads. You should consider this summit in the Mount Hood 2m FM "dead zone" as we were not able to raise anyone on 146.52.
SOTA Activation: Old Pass Hill - Chelan County / Kittitas County (on dividing line) - April 16, 2017
We finally got to Activate Old Pass Hill, after snowshoeing by it a number of times before. Old Pass Hill is a 4 point SOTA Summit of 4,885 feet elevation. In winter, the route is mostly avalanche free, and so is a semi popoluar snowshoe trip. A nice spring day, right before a change in weather, yielded a mostly sunny early morning, with increasing wind and clouds later in the mid day. The temperature at departure from the TH was 37 degrees, and the snow was firm enough to hike on without snowshoes. On the return trip, it had warmed up enough to require snowshoes, and we were gald we had carried them in. The trip is approximately 8.15 miles RT, with about 1,500 feet elevation gain, including many ups and downs along the ridge beween Swauk Creek & Scotty Creek in the Wenatchee Mountains, west of Blewett Pass. We only saw 2 other people the entire day.
SOTA Activation: Mount Watson, Placer County, California - August 17, 2016
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 Mount Watson Activation, number 2 in the series. On this Activation I had the pleasure of meeting up with a "local" Activator from Reno, Nevada, K1LB - "Woody" Brown, so that we could do a joint Activation of Watson.
Peak 4620, OR (Blue Box Summit) | February 2017
Peak 4620 (near Blue Box Pass) is a backcountry snowshoe activation that can be done in the winter if you don't mind using a GPS and are comfortable with off-trail navigation.
Eureka Peak, OR | March 2017
A first activation of Eureka Peak on snowshoes turned out to be quite a workout. The basic climb description is about 2.5 miles one way and 1200 feet of gain, but the real work is off the trail with the last half mile being particularly steep. Since there is no trail to the top this would be difficult to do without snow cover.
A failed activation of "Peak 3060" on Dec 1, 2016 by NS7P
Roger, ND7PA, reports that he reached this summit from a parking area along Marys Peak Rd. That route required a difficult bushwhack of a mile or so through the forest. Bushwhacks of this type in western Oregon can be very challenging, so I looked for a different route. The topo maps show a series of roads that approach the summit from the west.