Summary - Roughly two hours from Portland, getting Mann Butte includes a steep bushwhack through heavy brush and deadfall and ends in a small, tree and brush covered summit. You can see Mt Adams through the trees but not much else. While you can drive to the base of the summit, if you value your vehicle's paint, you will hike the road in.
Black Pine Ridge is a drive-to summit on easy Forest Service roads just outside of Phillipsburg, Montana. The last mile of the road is rocky and I advise four wheel drive for the trek.
Getting there: From Phillipsburg, Montana travel north on highway 1 approximately 1.8 miles. Turn left onto Black Pine Road and go 2.9 miles. Take a left turn onto Forest Service Road 448 and travel 3.25 miles. Here, veer left onro Forest Service 178. Travel 6.0 miles to the summit.
An easy drive to the trailhead and a moderate 2.5 mile hike makes for a good day in the northwest corner of Montana. As with many summits up here, it's just a very remote area and it's quite a long drive from anywhere. Well worth it, however.
This is an easy summit to activate. It's just very remote. A large fire lookout is on top of the peak but was not manned the day I was there.
Driving directions: From Yaak, Montana drive 17.5 miles south on 58. Take a left turn onto FS Road 309 and drive 5.27 easy miles to the trailhead. Here there is a winter ski/snowmobile hut with toilets and a large fire pit. Apparently this is a popular winter headquarters for cross country skiing and snowmobiling. The summit is an easy but steep 0.75 miles past the gate on the Forest Service road.
Here's a wilderness peak where backpacking is a good choice - it's a long seven miles one-way and about 2700 feet of gain - it would be a lot to do in one day. It would even be possible to camp on the summit - but be ready to carry your water.
Squaw Butte in Washington is a good beginner bushwack hike. I met up with Tyler ND7Y at the Tillicum Campground and we parked our cars in a campsite near the trailhead. Tyler had found word of an old cattrack that leaves the Squaw Butte trail and heads to the summit. Overall this is an easy hike. The bushwack is manageable and the distance/elevation is reasonable. The trail to the cattrack is in good condition. Find the GPX track HERE.
This summit became accessible to the public 2021 thanks to the hard work by a lot of individuals, Private Landowners, The Five Valley Land Trust, Nature Conservancy and the City of Missoula. The summit is private property and contains numerous communications towers. However, the new public access trail provides access to near the Activation Zone.
What a weekend! 3 summits, 38 QSOs with 16 S2S, my first QSO with WG0AT, and a joint FA with ND7Y!
My YL and I headed out to Gifford Pinchot NF for some car camping. With some intel on campsites from Tyler ND7Y, I picked a location with good proximity to some short-hike SOTA summits.
Unless you're in extremely good shape (or just crazy) Sentinel Peak should be done as a backpack trip. The best way to activate is to hike to Aneroid Lake along the E Fork Wallowa Lake Trail (1804) starting at the Wallowa Lake TH.
To get to the Wallowa Lake TH drive to Joseph, OR and continue South on hwy 351/Powerhouse Rd. Once near the southern end of the lake take a left to stay on Powerhouse Road and follow it to the end. Parking is free and you do not need a NW Forest Pass for this TH.
In addition to the two routes to Huckleberry Mountain K7ATN describes, there is a third trail up, the Bonanza Trail. I chose this option for three reasons: I was intrigued by the fact that there was a mine shaft off the trail, it looked like it was a bit shorter than the Boulder Ridge Trail route and I thought that there would be fewer hikers taking this route on this busy Labor Day weekend Sunday.
Here is information about the hike that I used: