Lincoln County High Point Trip Report
Date: November 1, 2003
Author: Dean Molen
From McMinnville, the we headed west to do the twin high spots of Lincoln. Following the excellent trip
reports posted by Ken Jones and Bob Bolton, we found the open gate at the top of Murphey summit on the
south side of the highway 18 as it heads towards Lincoln City. The gate had a sign on it stating that the area
was open only on weekends and of course, for hunting season which was in full swing. We wore orange
caps to not look like deer to the men with the rifles and it seemed to work. The following contains no
individual mileage but the first HP is about 12 miles from highway 18.
The road gave the Subaru no problems as Trapper drove skillfully up Murphy road until it reached road 100,
a road that went to the south off of Murphy. Soon, another gate is reached and shortly after the gate is a
junction with road 300. To do the western highpoint, we stayed on road 100 until we reached road 200,
turning west on it until we reached road 230, once again turning onto this road. Road 230 passes the
eastern end of a loop road, 232 and you keep driving on road 230 until you come to the western end of road 232.
This road goes uphill to the south and we followed it around until we reached a 4 x 4 road heading west
(no number, but a sign designated it as a 4 x 4 road). Trapper drove up this road with no problems
and found a branching road that headed directly towards the HP according to our GPS. This branch road
peters out after a bit and you park at the point where it becomes too nasty for a Subaru (or most other vehicles).
From this point it is less than two tenths of a mile to the western HP and you use your common
sense to find the HP, first by following up the obvious road path until you have to make your way through
thick woods that thin out towards the HP. Hooray, we soon found ourselves on the highest point of land in
the forest with absolutely no view. After some photos and high-fives all around, we headed out of the
woods back to the vehicle to go after the eastern HP.
Reversing our course back to the junction with road 300, we turned onto it and followed it east and then
south until we found the spur road that heads up towards the HPp. Trapper drove his vehicle up this rocky
rutted road to a point where there was a good spot to park and from there we hoofed it up the remaining
part of the road to a point where it was a simple cross country effort to attain the eastern HP. More photos
and high-fives as it felt good to get this one behind us. From the top of this HP, we had views down to the
Pacific Ocean to the west as well as being able to see the FAA dome on top of Laurel mountain to the east.
A fire was burning towards Fall City and another also near Mary's Peak, also visible from this nice viewpoint.
Bob Bolton had been able to connect the roads from here to access Polk County's Laurel Mountain so that is
doable if a person wanted to connect both counties without backtracking. He spent a lot of time studying
the maps and planning in order to do so.
From Lincoln county, we returned to McMinnville.
photos