Long Mountain - Columbia Co. High Point

Oregon County HP: #13
Difficulty: ⭐️ (on a scale of 5)
Summit Elevation: 2,265 feet
Mountain Range: Oregon Coast Range
Ancestral Lands: Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla, Kalapuya, Clatskanie, Atfalati, Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, and Confederated Tribes of the Siletz

PLANNING DETAILS

Location: Long Mountain is located on the eastern edge of the Oregon Coast Range approximately 40 miles northwest of Portland. The closest small town with services is Vernonia, Oregon.

When to Visit: Long Mountain is the lowest of the county high points in Oregon at 2,265 feet. It rarely sees any snow or seasonal closures. The bigger challenge for visitors is its location within a patchwork of Bureau or Land Management (BLM) and private logging land. Thus, visits should be limited to weekends when there is no logging or quarry traffic.

Fees/Permits Required: None, provided you approach the high point on foot from the south. See detailed information at the end of this trip report pertaining to Weyerhaeuser access.

Getting There: Long Mountain is only publicly accessible on the high point’s southern side. The remaining three sides are closed due to active logging operations. There is no trail leading to the summit. However, visitors can ascend the peak on foot via some older logging roads and some minor cross-country travel (~ 1.2 miles roundtrip).

Directions from Portland:

From I-405, take US-26 (exit 1D) toward Beaverton, and drive west on US-26 for 28 miles.
When you see the road signs for L.L. Stub Stewart State Park and Vernonia, make a right turn onto OR-47, and follow the highway north.
After 4 miles on OR-47, you will reach the entrance to of the state park. Continue north on OR-47 for one more mile until you reach Hoffman Road.
Turn right onto Hoffman Road and follow this dirt logging road east for 2.1 miles.
Turn left onto NW Bacona Road and continue east for another 4.2 miles.
At the three-way junction with NW Bacona Road, Hershey Road and Corral Mainline, you will encounter a metal gate spanning Corral Mainline. This junction is the parking area, and the hiking route to the summit begins at this gate.

Directions from Astoria:

Head east on US-30 (Columbia River Highway) and drive 33 miles to the town of Clatskanie, Oregon.
Once in downtown Clatskanie, turn right onto OR-47 (Mist-Clatskanie Highway) and drive south 38 miles toward L.L. Stub Stewart State Park.
Turn left onto Hoffman Road (approximately 1 mile north of the park’s entrance) and follow this dirt logging road east for 2.1 miles.
Make a second left onto NW Bacona Road and continue east for another 4.2 miles.
At the three-way junction with NW Bacona Road, Hershey Road and Corral Mainline, you will encounter a metal gate spanning Corral Mainline. This junction is the parking area, and the hiking route to the summit begins at this gate.

Parking: There is no designated trailhead or parking for this high point. However, there is room for at least 6-8 vehicles on Corral Mainline just outside the gate blocking access to the logging road on the high point’s southern side.

Pets Allowed: Yes. However, all animals should be under your direct control to ensure they do not wander onto logging land.

Kid Friendly: Although the route up to this high point is relatively short, it includes off-trail navigation, logging debris, and other hazards that may be unsuitable for children.

Hiking Distance: ~ 1.2 miles round-trip

The Summit: Long Mountain’s summit has a narrow gravel road atop it, and may contain some stationary heavy equipment. There is no geodetic survey monument nor signs marking the summit, but the gravel road bisects Long Mountain’s highest natural point.

TRIP SUMMARY

Date Visited: April 14, 2024

Route Used: Corral Mainline route – roughly 1.2 miles (round-trip)

At 2, 265 feet elevation, Long Mountain is the lowest of all the Oregon’s 36 county high points and perhaps the least impressive one too. I’m 100% convinced the only people walking up to its lackluster summit are Weyerhaeuser employees and a handful of dedicated highpointers hoping to tick this peak off their CoHP list.

I chose Long Mountain my first Oregon CoHP of the 2024 season just because I was itching to get outdoors this spring. A recent trip report from a fellow highpointer let me know the roads were in fine condition and I set off early on a Sunday morning in mid-April with hopes of a highpointing two-fer. I planned to tag Long Mountain first, then continue on to nearby Saddle Mountain (Clatsop County’s high point) afterward.

On my drive up toward Portland, I made the last minute decision to head to the high point through Scappoose, Oregon, and approach from the northeast rather than of looping around by L.L. Stub Stewart State Park (on the peak’s western side).

In hindsight, this alternate route wasn’t the best plan, and it took me down some rougher logging roads that slowed my progress significantly. I did however, discover the Crown Z Trail, a 23-mile biking and hiking trail that parallels the Scappoose-Vernonia Highway. So that was a bonus!

Departing the Scappoose-Vernonia Highway at the Nehalem Divide Trailhead, I drove south onto the logging roads and was pleased to find everything in pretty good condition. That is, I turned west onto Hershey Road. From there, the remaining 4 miles toward the Corral Mainline was slow going as I navigated around muddy potholes that took up half the road and baseball-sized rocks. It a frustratingly slow drive, and I knew I would definitely be look for an easier way back to the highway rather instead of returning on this route.

Nearly an hour after departing the highway, I finally made it to the three-way junction where Hershey Road, Corral Mainline, and NW Bacona Road met. A metal gate spanned Corral Mainline, and this was my sign to get out and head off on foot.

I brought Heidi (our 1.5 year old boxer dog) on this trip, and wasn’t 100% sure if the terrain would be ok for her paws. I knew this peak was going to require some off-trail navigation and hoped the brush wasn’t too thick for her.

We set out together walking north up Corral Mainline and only had to walk a few hundred feet before Long Mountain became visible to our north. The peak’s entire southern side had been deforested and logged, but the ridge along the top of the mountain was still covered with a layer of trees – foreshadowing the lack of views that were in our future.

About 0.2 miles up Corral Mainline, the logging road curved around to the left, while an older abandoned logging road rose up directly in front of me. This old road was the route that other highpointers recommended taking as the most direct way to access the summit. It was pretty overgrown with new growth, but there was a definite path visibly heading upward as we gained elevation.

Another 0.25 miles later, we’d gone as far as the old logging road would go. It petered out into a small cul-de-sac on a hillside that sloped steeply upward into the trees. The rest of the route to the summit would be a “choose your own adventure” bushwhacking through the dense undergrowth to our northwest.

According to my GPS, we only had another 500 feet to the summit. But as with any off-trail adventure, we were weaving back and forth rather than making a direct line. There weren’t any obvious or defined game trails leading uphill to help us out, so it was a slow slog as we tried to avoid stepping on thorny things or anything else that would further impede our progress.

Eventually though, Heidi and I made it to the summit and emerged into an open, treeless area where a large piece of tracked equipment sat on a wide gravel road. “How the heck did that thing get up here?!?” I wondered. It certainly didn’t come up the same way we just did.

Taking in our surroundings, I could see this open area was probably the highest point on the mountain. There were no signs or survey markers nearby. Nor even any views. Just some dense forest growing around us at the same general elevation.

It was possible that the ridgeline to our east held a spot that was slightly higher in elevation, and I wondered whether it really worth exploring. Such a task would require more bushwhacking through dense forest with no visible path. And the chance that I’d find a higher elevation appeared negligible.

In the end though, I decided to go for it – just in case there was a geocache box or sign. hidden in the forest somewhere. We didn’t find anything in that tangle of trees and undergrowth. And we never trod on any spots higher than the small mounds of soil sitting beside that heavy equipment we first encountered.

As we made our way back to the equipment on the summit, I couldn’t help but thing that it would have been nice if the road that brought this piece of machinery up to the top also led us back down too. But that was too much to ask for.

According to my map, the gravel road wound northeast before swinging back toward Corral Mainline. Following the it down would take us directly into the Weyehaueser logging areas that we needed to avoid and add three unnecessary miles of hiking to our descent.

And so, we returned to bushwhacking down to the old logging road and hiking back to the car the same way we came in. Once back to the bottom again, I decided to head back to civilization using NW Bacona Road instead of following on the logging roads I came in on.

This was a much better (and faster) option back back to the highway, for sure. And the only hiccup we encountered on our egress took place about mile west of the high point. I was cruising down NW Bacona Road at about 20 mph when I spotted a house beside the road and two large dogs immediately started barking to announce my presence.

Neither of the dogs was restrained in any way. These were clearly “free-range” country dogs, and they came sprinting down the dirt road right toward my car, forcing me to slow to 5 mph to avoid hitting them. I managed to run their gauntlet without either hellhound jumping onto (or under) the car. But my own dog was none too pleased that I wouldn’t stop so she could go out and play with them.

Twenty minutes later, I was back on OR-47 heading west toward my second high point in the Oregon Coast Range.

BONUS MATERIAL

Permit Info: If you drive to this high point using the recommended route (NW Bacona Road), you will likely see Weyerhaeuser signs posted announcing that a permit is required for all access. These signs are posted on the gates of all the active logging roads.

These Weyerhaeuser signs are NOT posted on the gate at the south end of Corral Mainline, and a query on the Weyerhaueser website indicates that the parking area at the south end of Corral Mainline, and the summit area are all open to the public.

There appears to be a small area of a few hundred feet (where I bushwhacked) that is still logging land. Thus, it is critical to plan your visit to Long Mountain during the weekends when operations are paused.

Screenshot of the Long Mountain area on Weyerhaeuser’s website

Camping Nearby:

L.L Stub Stewart Park has a public campground located off OR-47, just west of Long Mountain. The state park offers 78 reservable campsites with full hook-ups, 12 walk-in tent sites, 15 cabins, flush toilets, showers, fire rings, picnic tables, and 25 miles of hiking trails. The campground is open year-round. Cost: $21-33/night per campsite/vehicle, $62/night per cabin.
Anderson Park is a public campground located on the Nehalem River in Vernonia, OR, and offers 20 reservable sites with full hook-ups and 15 tent sites, flush toilets, showers, playground, fishing, and horse corrals. Cost: $30/night for RV sites, $20/night for tent sites, $7/night for extra vehicles.

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