Many people know about the Larch Mountain in Oregon. It can be climbed via Multnomah Falls - or you can drive to the top of it.
But few people know about the other Larch Mountain on the Washington side, which is probably not even 20 miles away. Larch is just to the SW of Silver Star Mountain.
I took one of my three sons in our new (to us!) Rodeo to find some 4x4 opportunities...and I started checking out maps and thought - hey let's see how far up Larch Moutain we can get - then hike up to the "summit'. Now Larch Mountain is the view out my son's bedroom window and we had always talked about getting to the top of it someday.
We were quickly up in the clouds, so when we finally got to a point where there was a break, Jason I and hopped out of the truck and snapped some photos. Ok, I so "break in the clouds" is a relative term!
Looking south from one of the forest roads. You can see the Camas papermill
Well, I knew this area was kinda a favorite for dirt bikers and atv'ers. I've also seen my share of cast-aside beer bottles and spent shells on previous trips into those parts.
For whatever reason on Father's Day it was a free-for-all up there. We must have driven my a dozen different groups of people who were shooting off guns. These weren't just hunting rifles. One guy was firing what looked like a 38 into a gravel pile (with his 12 year-old son at his side.)
We must have also had twenty dirt bikers wiz by our truck that afternoon. Everywhere we went it sounded like a hive of bees with chain saws! (accopanied by the pop-pop-popping sound of the guns all around us!)
So we quickly got back in the truck and continued for higher ground. I figured as the road got rougher and the elevation got higher we'd leave most of that stuff behind us.
End of the navigatable road. It was on-foot from here
We stopped at around 3000 foot elevation, where the road just got too rutty to continue. We got out and continued on foot uphill.
Now, the we didn't make true summit of Larch Mountain, but we made it to this butte just SE of the summit. Because it was so socked in, you'd never know it anyways! Thankfully the noise of guns and combustion engines were way off in the distance at the point
Bushwhacking through clear-cut. Yum!
The would-be summit
Beargrass at the top. You can see part of the dirt road we came up on
Made it!
Our view of Mt St Helens
Ok. So all-told, not exactly a premier hiking location, but the dog and the Rodeo got a chance to play in the mud and I got some rare one-on-one time with one of my boys - so not a total loss!  | 
