Treacherous Trail

This was #2 of 3 that I did outside of the town of Rogue River during a day trip. This one was a killer. When I click treacherous trail it is because there was none. I drove the main road (BLM 37 5 1) until what seemed to be the highest you could drive to on the north side but the bank is very steep and brushy so it was difficult to find a good starting point. And boy was it hard. This hill is mainly fist sized rock that is mossed over, crumbling beneath your feet, with a very steep angle to climb. It was difficult to stay upright.

TL;DR - Peak 3534 is a twenty to thirty minute drive from South Saddle Mountain (W7O/NC-002) over logging roads. You pass South Saddle to get to 3534 so a two summit, four point day is easy. 4WD, good directions, and GPS are really handy. Once you park, the short hike up is steep but no worries, there's a longer, gentler path, too. The summit has no views, a small open space, trees, good APRS signals, and is RF quiet. Not a summit for hanging out nor the best place for HF antennas but easy to activate with 2M FM.

Between our October 21, 2020 arrival in Sunriver, Oregon, and our October 30 departure, we were fortunate enough to have a spell of mostly cold and dry weather.  This allowed us to Activate 8 SOTA summits in 6 outings.  We also had the opportunity of doing 2 joint Activations with Ron, W6PZA, of Bend, Oregon - which was a lot of fun!  This report is one of a series, and deals with Mount Bachelor, W7O/CM-005.  The mountain is a Strata-Volcano, standing 9,065 feet in elevation.  It is in close proximity to the Three Sisters Wilderness, with its 3 namesake volcanos, all over 10,000 feet elevation.  Also in the vicinity is Broken Top, a collapsed volcano of over 9,000 feet elevation.  This nearby combination of peaks, together with a parade of many other strata volcanos from Washington State into Northern California, gives Mount Bachelor stunning vistas in all directions.

East Tonga Ridge is best paired with nearby Mt. Sawyer (KG-052). It is quite a bushwhack to get to the summit of East Tonga, but worth it!

The drive in from HWY 2 is very straightforward. I recommend you read WW7D's report for a good description:

http://www.pnwsota.org/node/610

A 'sorta' near drive-up in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest north of Carson. You can drive within a mile of this unremarkable peak and likely have a nice quiet time playing radio.

East Crater is a peak in the Indian Heaven wilderness. Three years ago, the south side and ridgeline of East Crater were completely burned by a fire that ended up burning about 500 acres in the area, and this fire caused the evacuation of the entire Indian Heaven wilderness area in September of 2017. Not much has grown back on the south side, while the north side, essentially untouched by the fire, is thick with trees.

Turn east off of Fields-Denio Road at 42.1606, -118.6033 onto Whitehorse Ranch Lane.

Turn off of that onto an unmarked road at 42.3111, -118.2625

Go past the right turn to Willow Creek Hot Springs to turn left at 42.2769, -118.2624

Park at 42.2463, -118.2392

Pueblo Mountain with 4x4.

Turn off of the Fields-Denio Road at 42.1447, -118.6038.

Make a sharp left at 42.1346, -118.6350.

Stop driving a start walking at 42.0996, -118.6686.

Brundage Mountain SOTA brings the thought of riding a chair lift at the ski resort to the summit.  In actuality, the true summit is a mile north of the ski resort are requires a bushwhack for most of the 4 mile round trip.  The views from the summit mostly make up for bushwhack and somewhat dangerous final ascent to the summit.

Any opportunity to hike the Pacific Crest Trail for SOTA is a welcome one - and this may be one of the best we've experienced of this lovely national treasure of a trail. While only a bit less than five miles round trip and 1000 feet of gain, there is a challenging steep bushwack (Mode Sanglier - On!) that takes a bit of the shine off of the trail experience. A GPS will be important to successfully identifying the edge of the AZ.