The Peak View Newsletter July 20th, 2026

[Rose Young]

The Peak View

Marys Peak Group - Sierra Club

P.O Box 863, Corvallis, OR 97339

http://oregon2.sierraclub.org/marys-peak

July 20th, 2026

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Hikes: 

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This Week! Thursday, July 23rd

Beazell Memorial Forest, Benton County

9:00 am – 12:00 pm

Distance: about 4.8 miles

Elevation Gain: 810 feet

Difficulty: Moderate

Pace: about 2 miles per hour

Registration required! The group is limited to 12 participants. To sign up for this hike and obtain further details, contact outing leader, Sheryl Thorburn, at thorbu...@comcast.net.

 

This is primarily an out-and-back hike. From the Beazell Memorial Forest parking area, we will take Plunkett Creek Loop to South Ridge Trail to South Meadow Loop; after completing South Meadow Loop, we will return via South Ridge Trail and Plunkett Creek Loop. (By taking this route, we avoid the descent along South Ridge Trail, which is a very rocky road and can be hard to walk on.)

 

We will follow Plunkett Creek Loop along the creek before reaching the switchbacks on South Ridge Trail. Until South Meadow Loop, the trail is a steady incline with some steeper sections. Once we complete the loop, the remainder of the hike is downhill, back to the parking area. The majority of this hike is shaded with mossy trees, ferns, and remnants of wildflowers; it includes multiple wide, wooden bridges over the creek. The route is mostly single-width dirt trail, combined with some short stretches on dirt or gravel road. There are multiple downed trees on the path. We will stop on South Meadow Loop for a short water and snack break and to enjoy the views. Wear sturdy shoes or hiking boots. Hiking poles may be helpful. 

 

Beazell Memorial Forest is about 20 minutes from Corvallis. There are several parking spaces and a restroom at the parking lot. I will send additional details and information about potential carpool options to participants closer to the date of the hike.

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New! Saturday, August 8th

Cone Peak Trail and Iron Mountain Lookout, Willamette National Forest 
9:00 am - 4:30 pm
Distance: 6.7 miles loop trail
Elevation gain: 1,850 feet
Difficulty: Difficult
Registration required! Contact the outing leader to reserve a spot and obtain further details. Leader: Randy Rasmussen, quietre...@gmail.com
Group limit: 12 

We’ll try again for this same hike that we were forced to cancel in late June as a result of cold and rainy weather. We’ll follow the Cone Peak Trail in clockwise fashion, starting with a very steep but largely shaded climb to the Iron Mountain lookout, where we can lunch and take in stunning views of the Cascades. At the summit sits a sprawling deck for viewing, the site of a former fire lookout. From there, we’ll head back down to the Cone Peak Trail and traverse northeast to the foot of Cone Peak, where we’ll continue southeast and largely downhill toward Santiam Highway. After crossing the highway, we’ll make our way up through trees and ferns to Tombstone Pass, which is a short distance from where we started.

Wear clothing appropriate for the weather, including possible afternoon thunder showers. Wear comfortable and sturdy shoes with traction. Bring water and a snack or lunch. Trekking poles are suggested. Our pace will be modest with frequent stops. We’ll carpool the 1.5-hour drive to the trailhead from Corvallis. The outing leader will provide information about where to meet and directions to the trailhead.

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Announcements: 

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The 2026 Frenkel Series is Now Available Online

All three webinars from the 2026 Liz and Bob Frenkel Spring Environment Series, with the theme of Listening to the Land, are now recorded on YouTube and are available to the public. Each of these webinars provide unique insights into both the history and current conditions of the land in the Willamette Valley. We encourage everyone to watch these recordings. The webinars are co-sponsored by the Marys Peak Group Sierra Club and the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library. The webinars honor the lives and environmental work of Liz and Bob Frenkel, who led the founding of the Marys Peak Group and the Oregon Chapter of the Sierra Club.

 

A Kalapuya Legacy: Oak Savannas and Prairies on OSU Lands

By Dr. Dennis Albert, OSU researcher

Learn how our local Oregon White Oaks and native herbaceous species on OSU lands reveal Kalapuya ancestral culture and about our conditions today.

Link to YouTube recording:

YouTube: A Kalapuya Legacy: Oak Savannas and Prairies on OSU Lands

 

What we can learn from Ancient Douglas-fir of the OSU McDonald-Dunn Forest
By Dr. Meg Krawchuck & Charles Drake, OSU Researchers

Learn how our local ancient Douglas-firs help us understand how ancestral Indigenous cultural practices, including fire, reflected and impacted the human experience and why it matters for current forest management.

Link to YouTube recording:

YouTube: Implications Found in Ancient Trees of the OSU McDonald-Dunn Forest

 

Lessons from the Land: Cultivating Abundance through Land-Based Education

By Marta Capriles, Corvallis Waldorf School Agricultural Arts teacher

Learn how a local schoolyard was developed into a dynamic farmscape in which the students tend the land and learn to work with its gifts through an Indigenized curriculum. Perhaps you can learn a few things about gardening/farming also.

Link to YouTube recording:

YouTube: Cultivating Abundance through Land-Based Education

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You Can Help Save the Wilderness
Take Action to Save the Roadless Rule!

One of the most important US Forest Service conservation policies is on the verge of being cut by the Trump administration. If the Roadless Area Conservation Rule is repealed, 45 million acres of pristine national forests across the country will be opened up for the first time in over 20 years to road building and the logging, mining, and extractive industries that come with that.

This policy was created by the Forest Service because it was ecologically critical, fiscally responsible, and overwhelmingly popular. Now the administration is repealing it, citing fire concerns and timber value - but neither of those justifications stands up to scrutiny.

Last year, over 600,000 people voiced their support for this rule, but the Trump administration is steamrolling ahead and ignoring the American public. Our goal is to continue to demonstrate how popular this policy is, and to raise more awareness about it, by submitting even more comments to the administration than last year.

Join your voice with thousands of others by submitting your comment today!

Note: The US Forest Service has not opened a comment period on this issue yet, but we are expecting them to only take comments for 14 days once the docket is open. To help show the broad support for the Roadless Rule, the Sierra Club will be collecting comments until the comment period is open, and then will deliver those collected to the US Forest Service.

Contact the Sierra Club at sc.org/roadlessrule and share your comments.

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General Notes: 

1) Newcomers to MPG outing events, please view the GENERAL OUTING POLICY on our MPG website, http://oregon2.sierraclub.org/marys-peak before pre-registering for or attending an outing.

2) Contacting Marys Peak Group:  Marys Peak Group contact information is obtainable at http://oregon2.sierraclub.org/marys-peak Listed are the Executive Committee members and the Administrative and Program Coordinators.

3) Minutes of the MPG Executive Committee (ExCom) meetings for the last 5 years can be viewed by clicking on minutes. The ExCom meetings are held on Zoom and occur quarterly. All current Sierra Club members are welcome to attend. Contact MarysPe...@Oregon.Sierraclub.org to get the Zoom link.

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OSU Forestry Recreation Updates:

cf.forestry.oregonstate.edu/recreation/forest-updates