No View From Summit

This was my 3rd summit while over in Bend area for Central Oregon S2S party.

I had activated Pine Benchmark and Pine Mountain earlier in the day and I drove from there. I took NF-2017 from the Observatory down to the valley.  However, that road is in very poor shape and high clearance is needed if you go that way. (If starting at the Observatory, travel time going back to Highway 30 to Road 23 is likely similar to taking rocky NF-2017 south).

This was my second time to visit Huffraker.  Last year, the property owner had closed the area due to fire danger.  This year, it was reopened.  However, last year I was able to drive all the way to the edge of Gifford-Pinchot NF and park.  This year, there was an incredible amount of blowdown that had not been cleared which added another 4 miles to this hike bringing it to overall 6.3 miles RT.  It may be that, due to the late season snow, once the mushroom pickers get busy some of the blowdown will get cleared.

Access and other info in my post on Quartz Creek Ridge

Continuing our hike from Quartz Creek Ridge, at the access trail junction Bill K7WXW and I retrieved my stashed water, had a small break from the aggressive climb up from the ridge saddle, and then continued north on the Summit Prairie Trail. 

Activated Quartz Creek Ridge with Bill (K7WXW) this last weekend. This summit is easily doable with North Quartz Creek Ridge in the same day. Access for both summits is in the middle on a sometimes-not-mapped trail, TH at 46.24186, -121.72969 . This trail system is mixed-use. We saw ultramarathon runners (Dark Divide Ultra), mountain bikers, and dirtbikes. Prepare your ankles accordingly, the trail is often a narrow rut through the dirt because of the motorcycle traffic.

I headed out to do this one as a combo with W7O/CM-050; I did not due to heat and a boulder, but I recommend attempting it if you're in the area.

Depending on how much you like the paint on your vehicle, Quilcene Ridge might be a drive-up. Even so, where the slide alder starts significantly encroaching on the road it's only a quarter mile to the summit. So walking is an option.

This one-point summit is likely not worth the time driving 40 minutes RT on forest roads. In fact, the roads in this area are quite convoluted - I found it best to navigate using GPS with turn-by-turn directions. You may end up bushwacking through a tangle of coastal brush...or get lucky and find a way to the path visible on sattelite images that I found after the fact. Any "hike" might be less than 0.10 mile and several hundred feet of gain.

Cady Mountain, W7W/RS-084 has been on my radar for a while. My wife's family owns a home in Friday Harbor so I have always wanted to activate this summit. I was bummed by ATN's report that it would be difficult to activate from the south side because of private property, so I did not think I could. I arrived here on Saturday and I started looking at GAIA GPS. I could see there was public property owned by the San Juan County Land Bank to the north of the summit that was still in the AZ. I could see a hiking trail just below it. I decided to give it a try.

I got on  here to correct/ edit my previous blog but realized I never did a first! I've done Burton a few times and it isn't that significant in features. Just an easy stroll through the timber. Plenty of area to set up. A nice easy trek, shaded summit but no view. No established trail but the dead end road you can continue on by foot and there are other cleared out areas from logging roads many years ago. For some reason I get discombobulated easily coming down Burton and sometimes come to far left nearly missing the spur. If you are like me, keep a tracker going.

The Nestucca River Byway is a very secluded and off-the-beaten-path route through the North Coastal Range, between HW6 to the North and HW18/HW22 to the South. It's paved from Carlton at least as far West as the turnoff South to Willamina, but not maintained in the winter, so the sign says when approaching from the East from Carlton.