Tillamook County Highpoint Trip Report

Date: April 22, 2006
Author: Ken Russell

I followed the directions from Ken Jones to reach the timber company gate on Gilmore Road. I have a couple of additional notes. After leaving the highway and crossing over the river, you'll want to take the next right. In a mile or so, turn left to avoid the ORV camp, then a short distance later bear right to continue up the North Fork Road.

From the gate, I followed Bob Bolton's directions up to the saddle near the center of section 16. I saw no sign of the shortcut trail. The road from the saddle to the west side of Rogers Peak has been recently rebuilt and is now wide enough for a Hummer. On this day, I hit snow just above the saddle and it quickly became more than 2 feet deep. Fortunately, an elk had followed the road sometime in the previous weeks and, by following the trail, I avoided sinking in more than 6 inches. By the time I reached the summit, the snow was too deep for my 3-foot ice axe to reach dirt. I traipsed around all the likely high spots and headed back to the truck. Round trip time was 3 hours but without the snow it probably would have been more like 2.