Shady Trail

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.

Follow any road map to Soda Mt. Rd or Hobart Bluff TH off of Hwy 66. You will follow the gravel road down past Hobart Bluff Trailhead, there is a parking area and restroom here. Go on past the trailhead aways until you reach the gated driveway for Soda Mountain on the right. It is a 1.5 mile walk up to the summit using the road. Minimal parking area as you will be in wilderness and there is very few pullouts to park in.

Henline is a relatively low traffic hiking trail in the Opal Creek Wilderness. It boasts rhododendrons, a mostly-well-maintained trail, and reasonably consistent gains. The hike is entirely on public right of way, and can be accessed via North Fork Santiam Road and NFDR 2207 from Hwy 22 out of Salem. Turn left on North Fork Santiam Road about 22 miles from I-5, then drive straight. Eventually this road turns to a moderate gravel road, followed by a fork between 2207 and 2209. Take the left fork and head uphill a ways. You'll pass the more popular Henline Falls Trailhead.

Here's a nice summit with a trail to the top, about 5 miles RT and more elevation gain that you might have wanted at 1800 feet - but know that it's worth it. A bit obscure perhaps outside of huckleberry season, you might not see many folks at other times. The views of Mt. Adams are fabulous. 

Doris Peaks is my name for a set of peaks above Doris Lake.

My stats:

Distance: 9.1 miles

Elevation Gain: 2000 ft

On trail: 6 miles

Off trail: 3.1 miles

Difficulty: Arduous

Quick search of sota summits finds 30 Goat Mountains, exclusive of my favorites: Old Goat Mountain and Scape Goat Mountain. Can unfortunately relate to both of those.

There are six in W7W and 2 in W7W/LC. This blog is about W7W/LC-035. The plan for this trip was found on summitpost: https://www.summitpost.org/goat-mountain/153737. Andrew, K7AHR, and I followed those directions to a successful activation.

Henry Peak is a two point summit overlooking Plains, Montana. It is due north of the intersection of highways 200 and 135. Please refer to the linked map below as I describe getting there. All forest Service roads in this description are good to fair and a four wheel drive is not necessarily needed but advised due to some bumpy and rocky spots.

0.5 mi, +200 feet

My second SOTA required a longer hike (~2 miles each way) than Mt. Electric but was also a lot of fun.

The trail to Spot Mountain is a typical multi-switchback route rising from the steep Selway River Canyon walls to long undulating ridges.  These ridges were used historically by American Indians as routes to bison hunting areas in the eastern plains from the lowlands of the Salmon and Snake river drainages that supported huge runs of salmon and steelhead. 

Indian ‘peel trees’ are still evident today on many large old Ponderosa Pine that dominate much of the area.