With our dog, hiked up the Goat Mountain trail to soak up the views. The trail is in good condition the whole way. The start is about 1.5 miles ascending about 1900 feet, but after you hit the ridgeline, it is just a rolling single track trail with stunning views! The huckleberries are prime right now, and the wildflowers are still hanging on along the ridge. No water, until the lake if you go that far, so make sure you bring enough for you and your dogs! We had lunch at the saddle on the shoulder of goat mountain, enjoyed the views, and turned back there because the dog was a little hot and tired! 

Highly recommended for an easy hike with killer views if you’re in the area. 

Started the loop from Green River trail to Vanson Peak then Deadman's Lake and Goat Mountain. As it's summertime mosquito's are a given, not the worst but certainly prevalent for about 80% of the loop. To me the real problem were the flies that kept biting! The views of Rainer, Adams, and St. Helen's from Deadman's Lake to Goat Mountain were incredible and the wildflowers were stunning, certainly worth the bug battle. We started late Sunday and finished mid afternoon Tuesday and only passed one pair of day hikers towards the end of the trip but each campsite was full every night.

What I really want to note is if you park your car at the Green River Horse Camp be very careful about which trail you start on. I didn't pay enough attention and almost did the loop backwards. If using "Backpacking Washington" by Craig Romano as a reference book take note that even though you are going clockwise you are actually starting the trail to the right!

My first time hiking here. we went to Deadmans lake and stayed the night. gorgeous stites on the lake. Only passed 2 other pairs of hikers, one coming down. Trail was well maintained. Wildflowers were abundant the whole way. Trekking poles were a must for a novice like myself. First 2+miles of switchbacks gained 1800 ft. Brutal but well worth it. Mosquitoes were terrible once we started down off of the ridge. Thermal cell helped a bit. Saw one other camper. Lake was clear, we had amazing sunny weather, then clouds creeped in over the lake at night.

Reached the Goat Mountain trailhead at 3pm. 10+ cars, but plenty of space to park. Rd 26 from Randle was paved, but frequent chunks of missing pavement plus poor visibility meant taking it slow.

Followed the trail to the ridge, and set up camp off-trail, just north of Pt 5106. Continued along the trail to the saddle below Goat Mountain the next day before heading back.

Encountered ~10 parties on the trail, including two on bikes (going downhill fast), and one other party camping on the ridge.

The trail was in excellent condition all the way (nice pine needle or pumice gravel tread), no obstacles.

No water on the ridge, apart from a stagnant-looking pond NW of Pt 5106 (reachable via a bootpath that leaves the main trail at 4,800 ft; didn't investigate).

We parked at the Goat Mountain/Deadmans Lake parking lot, but walked across the road so that we started our loop Clockwise.  We chose to go up the Green River trail 213 the beginning of our hike since the weather was a bit overcast and we wanted to save Goat Mountain and the ridge for a clear day.   We camped at the Green River campsites which were about 6 miles from our starting point.  The mosquitoes were out, but not too awful.  

The next day we continued along the river trail and then popped over to Vanson Lake for a quick look.  The lake is nice enough, but not spectacular and we didn't want to linger with the mosquitoes.  We hurried up to Vanson Peak for lunch with a beautiful view of Mt Adams and Mt Rainer. Vanson Lake is your last water option before Vanson Peak and Deadmans Lake. 

We camped at Deadmans and fought mosquitoes with Deet, smokey fire, and whiskey.  We hurried off the next morning with mosquito nets over our head and gently climbed up to the ridge.  We were rewarded with thousands of wildflowers, spectacular views of Rainer, Adams, St Helens, and even Hood in the distance.  The wildflowers and views made up for slapping myself in the face from fighting off the bugs.  There is no water between Deadman's and the trailhead.  

We saw very few people the entire weekend except this last stretch.  Arguably the most beautiful and highly recommend as a day hike up Goat Mountain.  Our total mileage was about 22 with the little side trip to Vanson Lake.