Good Views From Summit

I recently had the occasion to spend some time in Northern Idaho and while there I activated this summit.

The road up to the summit starts from Hwy 95, heading East on Hwy 54 and North on N Perimeter and East again on Bayview Rd to N Cherokee Rd and north following that up.  N Cherokee Rd is also shown as FS 297 on Google Maps.  The road condition is not great with many ruts down the middle.  I had to straddle the ruts in many cases.  A high-clearance vehicle is probably required.

Turn off ORE-62 Crater Lake Hwy onto NF-68, and then just follow NF-68: right at 42.8641, -122.5061; bear left at 42.873, -122.4977; and follow the pavement to the end; the turns are mostly obvious after here, Caltopo's map is quite good to Abbott Butte Trailhead; when forest management crews haven't closed the trail for fire and burnt tree hazard mitigation, you can combine this with that hike.

Drive Up – True Summit is 459 Feet from Vehicle, +23 ft

Driving Directions

1.3 miles, +1,083 ft

Driving Directions

Pine Ridge is an easy to moderate hike along a double track and easy bush wacking. Any passenger car should be able to navigate to the place we parked and many would likely have no trouble driving further up the 2 track if desired. We had plenty of activity on 2M and I wouldn't expect any trouble activating 2M only. The views of the Grasslands and Central Oregon Cascades are fantastic and the solitude is remarkable for the ease of access.

Full Report here

This Nevada peak was first activated on 29 November 2021 by KJ7WGM along with Hanks Peak. This is a very straight forward ½-mile hike with only 287 feet of elevation gain.  Follow the ridge line from where you park and head to a false summit.  You can walk over the summit or skirt around it on the south (recommended). The summit is very rocky and today was extremely windy.  I was able to find a rock outcropping that protected me from the wind on the NW side of the summit.

This is one of those activations that I will most likely not repeat! The peak was first activated on 29 November 2021 by KJ7WGM along with China Mountain. The hike is a bushwhack of only .35 miles, but with 627 feet of elevation gain, half of which is through a boulder field and thick brush.

AA6XA first activated Thunder Mountain on 14 October 2017. His write-up is a great description of the area and his ascent from the east of the mountain.  You can find the link to his write-up on the SOTAmaps Summit page. Ignoring his mention of “cliffs” I opted to plan a route from the west. The directions below describe the drive to the beginning of the west ascent.

Mount Pisgah is one of two Mount Pisgahs in Oregon, this one is near Prineville, the other near Eugene. The one near Eugene is a nice hike, this one is a tedious drive up.

The map shows several ways to get there. We drove on forest road 22 past Walton Lake. The pavement ends a bit after the lake. There is a connector road 150 and then we were on Summit Road, aka 2630.

Wizard Island was on my “Must Do” list since I learned it was a SOTA summit and it did not disappoint.