Ten miles from Tillamook and off Highway 6 there is a near drive-up summit – Blue Ridge. The road is a bit rough in places but should be okay in a carefully driven passenger vehicle. Don’t confuse this Blue Ridge with W7O/SC-202 Blue Ridge near Coos Bay. The hike is short but steep 0.2 miles.
A bit over 11 miles from Tillamook on Highway 6 you will find this easy drive-up summit – Peak 2300. The road was graveled smooth in early 2018 and would be drivable in a passenger vehicle, even if a little steep in a few places.
In early 2018 it was observed that a number summits in Oregon appear to have installed new RF equipment that have strong signals that block the receiver of even quality HT (Yaesu). Continuous S9 noise on 2m FM can sometimes be observed and sometimes the blocking signal appears to have a period of several seconds. If you are calling CQ on 2m FM and really are expecting folks to answer you (for a planned S2S, for example), but you hear nothing - your receiver might be blocked. Open you squelch and observe the signal strength meter.
“Bah,” said Scrooge, “Humbug.” At least that was what we thought to ourselves as we looked at the weather forecast for the weekend. The Weather Channel splashed the headlines of a series of epic storms that were lashing the west coast. Regardless, the lead sherpa was determined to get the family out of the house. There would be no sour moods for us! “There is hiking to be done, geocaches to be found, and a summit to be activated!” she proclaimed.
Scrambling much of the Rocky Mountain Front’s limestone summits keeps you looking for good footing as well as viewing the many ancient fossils of life when these high mountains were an ocean floor some 300 million years ago. The fossils are common and so are trails of big horn sheep and mountain goats. The views are outstanding of surrounding rugged SOTA summits and to the east, the vast plains of Montana.
0.25 miles, 374 ft
Crater Mountain is a quick, but rewarding off-trail hike. The summit has nice 360-degree views, including the Scapegoat Wilderness to the North. Trailhead access is suitable for most vehicles so long as it isn’t too snowy. This would also make a nice winter summit – with an additional 2.6 miles of skiing from Stemple Pass – much of which is along the “North Meadow Loop” ski trail.
Triangulation Point is a nice place for a couple of activators to set up 2 HF stations(where I set up). I didn't go all the way to where the equipment was. There was a sign warning of RF levels so I didn't go past it.
3.0 miles, 1,900 ft
Looking over the map for peaks in the Tillamook State Forest, it was noted that a named peak hadn’t been activated. “That’s odd,” I said to the sherpas, “it’s right in the middle of a bunch of other peaks that get somewhat regular attention. Something must be going on with that one.” We mapped out our route and decided it would be an excellent adventure on a beautiful weekend with a lot of the usual suspects activating nearby peaks.
To get to Wolf Peak:
Homer Youngs Peak is a great hike/scramble over mostly good trail. The final ascent is in open terrain and somewhat arduous bouldering. It is typical of high alpine in the area and the views, barring summer wildfire smoke can be tremendous. Several alpine lakes are visible and other high summits that you’ll deem ‘gota get’. A good base camp is at Miner Lake, a popular, but underutilized US Forest Service Campground with good facilities and a fine grayling lake fishery.