Shady Trail

Bring a climbing helmet for this summit! Even under the trees, you're in the kill zone for falling rocks! 

This is a fairly easiy ascess summit, good for a quick activation if in the area. Start by taking Parish Lake road off Highway 22 at (44.525530, -121.994293).

Continue down Parish lake road and turn right when you reach a three way intersection at (44.522143, -122.030406). Shown on maps as Scar Mountain Road.

Follow Scar Mountain Road and turn left at (44.550799, -122.044061), follow this untill you come to a large rock pit. (44.562897, -122.071521).

Summary - Mount Beachie, on the edge of the Beachie Creek Lionshead burn, is hiked from a trailhead above Elk Lake.  The fire burned over the top here, so it is a little desolate on top. 2M contacts, with a better-than-stock antenna, are possible. I did not turn on APRS.  The trail is rough the whole way and by turns, steep, rocky, buggy, boggy, and overgrown.

This summit is a good pairing with Cedar Mountain (W7I/NP-119), though a bit of a long hike around 8 miles RT for both.

This summit was a bit of a drive up from Highway 95.  Turn east onto E Ohio Match Rd and follow until E Forest Service Rd 1552.  This becomes gravel and then dirt and then rather rutted dirt.  A car might be able to navigate the ruts with careful driving but a high clearance vehicle or 4x4 would be better.  The upper portion of the road gets better.  Park at (47.87615426731026, -116.63432109643475) and follow the spur road around to the summit.  Hike is around 2 miles and 800' elevation OW.  The spur road had a couple tank traps in it and appears to dwindl

1.3 mi, +513 feet

This is a super pleasant hike on nice trails.  It would also be a great winter activation with skis or snowshoes.  There is a very nice enclosed warming hut near the top (within the activation zone) with a wood stove and a picnic table.

The Spence Mountain Trail climbs about 1800 ft in 7 miles. Its not ever terribly steep but climbs steadily without much relief. There are plenty of gorgeous views to the South and West. The summit has plenty of space for multiple operators, with trees to throw a wire up into.

Full report here

Starting from State Highway 231 northbound towards Chewalah and turn right on Hafer Rd.  The turn left on Cottonwood Creek Rd and then right on Horseshoe Lake Rd.  Finally, there is a left turn on Mud Lake Rd.  This is somewhat rough and I would not do it after a heavy rain.  Alternatively, follow 231 into town and turn right on Flowery Trail Rd to the other end of Mud Lake Rd.  In any case, you can park at the Quartzite Mt Trailhead.  There are several spots available up and down the road.

The weather this week was looking like it would be good, so I wanted to get in my March summit. I wanted to make it a challenge of some sort, so I decided to go for my first first activation. The Olympic Peninsula has a fair number of unactivated hills still, and a lot of them are on USFS land. I started exploring and found Peak 1620.

Due to the recent relocation of Frog Lake Buttes from one butte to the other earlier this year, I was anxious to do another double activation on New Year's Eve.  See my previous report for details on the route.  The only difference is you must continue on from the radio towers down to the saddle and on up the other butte.  Still very worth it for 14 pts.