This summit, 5580, is located in the Ochoco National Forest approximately 30 miles east of Prineville, OR. It has been activated regularly since 2018 as it was easily accessible via an old logging track. Sometime in the relatively recent past the forest service closed the logging road, requiring a less direct approach via FS 300. The road is in decent shape, though it does show some signs of water damage and some larger potholes. I think it would be passable by a careful driver in a passenger car.

I was out for a day on my Kawasaki duel sport motorcycle, which made easy work of the road in. I first tried to come in from the south but quickly ran into road blockades so I turned back along FS road 300 for a couple of miles. I parked the bike at the blockade on the north end of the access road and walked the 1/2 mile to the Summit along the road then up through the woods. The off trail portion of the hike is straight forward, as documented in other reports.

The summit is unremarkable but not without views. There are plenty of Juniper trees to throw a wire into. I setup under one and got started chasing S2S. I was able to qualify the summit within several minutes. I spotted on 40M and worked a few stations then went back to chasing S2S. After about 30 minutes I packed up and headed back to the bike to get on to the second summit of the day.

This is an easy summit, the biggest challenge is getting there. It is also fairly remote and cell service isn’t great. I was able to get 2 bars of LTE, enough to get a spot out and use SOTA Goat to chase S2S. The hike is short and simple with some interesting patches of ground that I believe were areas that elk had been sleeping or rummaging.