Brown’s Mountain is near the Crane Prairie Reservoir. It had only been activated one other time by K7ATN and K7FOP back in 2019. They approached the summit from the East side via the Brown’s Mountain Loop Road. The report they published describes a very uninspiring experience. However, in researching alternative routed, Tim N7KOM, found a more recent peak bagger report from a hiker who had approached from the West and found a much cleaner and easier option.

We set off on a recon mission to see if we could find a way to drive into the area via the Brown’s Mountain Road off from near the intersection of the Cascade Lakes Hwy and South Century Drive, as the obvious route off of Browns Mountain Loop has been gated.

The route in is very passable in a passenger vehicle albeit heavily overgrown with manzanita in spots and our paint took quite a few pinstripes. We parked about .5 miles short of where we cut into the woods, however we could have driven most of the road to the point were there is a large tree blocking the way. I’d suggest continuing the drive up the road in the future.

The bush wack was not nearly as bad as described in the other reports, we found several wide open swathes that were probably either logging skid track or fire breaks from a time long past. Towards the top the going was a bit tougher, but mostly due to the volume of detritus on the forest floor.

The summit was pleasant, but not much of a view. There is a nice open area to operate with lots of trees to through wires or stabilize a mast.

Overall, I’d classify this as an easy hike given some navigation skills with your phone. Though not the prettiest of summits, it was pleasant enough. The drive in was the hardest aspect, though the roads are in ok shape, for unmaintained forest roads.