Shady Trail

Humbug is a great hike on the South Coast, even if it is a steep six miles round trip and 1700 feet of gain. Find the well-marked and large parking lot for the trailhead about five miles south of Port Orford, Oregon on the west side of Highway 101. No parking pass is required.

After you climb about a mile, there is a slightly shorter (and slightly steeper) option to take the West Trail - I suggest that you try both, as the West has some nice peak-a-boo views, and the East has some amazing old growth. All trails are well-graded and likely busy during the summer months.

After my first activation on Black Mountain VE7/GV-013 a week ago, I wanted another activation before the rain season starts. I chose Hollyburn Mountain VE7/GV-011 because it seemed just a little more difficult than GV-013. An extra 100m gain shouldn't be too much, right?

Had the day off from work and headed out to activate this summit with Dave, N7LKL. Turned out to be a great day with nice weather. 

We started off on 2m FM and each of us had at least 4 contacts in no time. And then proceeded to set up HF, where our good fortunes continued, reaching the East Coast. With the band conditions the way they are I consider that good DX, especially running around 4 watts from my MTR. 

This is a short one mile hike 400 feet of gain that you reach by driving about five miles on a poor road. There's some bushwacking required to make the Activation Zone. 

Here is a lovely hike in the south reaches of the Clackamas watershed. The hike is about 6.5 miles round trip and 1000 feet of gain. Although about two hours from Portland, it's also a nice drive to the trailhead with good signage along the way. Only the last half mile or so would be challenging in a passenger car. 

John, Ralph and myself (Eric) made the trek to the summit of St Marks. The hike is very popular with 200+ on the trail on a nice week-end. The first half of the trail is well groomed and easy walking. The trail improvement stops about half way and from there on the trail is easy to follow but it is very root infested and so one needs to be constantly watching where one steps.

W7O/NC-113 (“good ‘ol 1783” as they say) is a small coastal peak in USFS Siuslaw Forest land. From Hwy 101 take the turnout at (45.065829, -123.948579) — Google calls it “Cascade Head Trail - North Trailhead” as it’s the road that leads to the trailhead. This is forest road NF-1861 and is nicely graveled and easy to drive with a passenger vehicle.

Note: this road is closed by the USFS from Jan 1st to July 15th, effectively making this summit inaccessible during that time.

UPDATE March 2023: W7O/WV-069 has been retired. 

Blowout Benchmark is a short hike and cross-country summit near Detroit, Oregon. There are no views but you get to enjoy the quiet of a second-growth forest.

Peak 3700 is a bit of an adventure, but certainly do-able summit near Detroit, Oregon. You'll follow a long-abandoned logging road and head cross-country for the final ascent into the Activation Zone. There are no views and the final ascent is very rough, but you get to enjoy the quiet of a second-growth forest.

An easily accessed summit, that's easily access from the Nestucca River byway. A bunch of different roads will lead you into the area from nearly any direction. Probably the easiest is up Fan Creek Road from the Nestucca River. It is near enough to Boudary road to access several other nearby summits along the same ridgeline.