Where to go on a holiday weekend with a mixed forecast? Someplace that would ordinarily not offer much shade. Someplace a little off the beaten track. Goat Mountain is an easy there-and-back overnight. It leads with a nicely graded climb that's rewarded with a ridgeline walk, and there's good camping at Deadman's Lake. The Gifford Pinchot NF seems to be less and less inclined to maintain its roads for passenger cars, so imagine our surprise at finding mile after mile of fresh new pavement and culvert engineering along the newly refurbished 26 Road out of Randle. You could run the Grand Prix on this one. The Goat Mountain Trail is mostly in good shape, despite the fragile pumice soils. It starts through a clearcut, but quickly enters an older forest with nice big trees and lots of moss. Theoretically, this would shelter you from the sun until you break out at the ridgeline, just in time to start drinking in the views. That would be if you were hiking up on a sunny day. With a split forecast, we had the advantage of seeing the blast zone in fog-ridden spookiness on Saturday, and sunny glory on Sunday. Under cloud cover, without any volcanoes to distract us, there was nothing to do but count the wildflowers (lupine, wild strawberry, paintbrush, orange agoseris, mountain arnica, wild rose, tiger lily, phlox, bunchberry). Later in the season, it looked like there'd be an ample huckleberry harvest to waylay even the most ambitious hiker. The next morning dawned with blue skies over Deadman's Lake, and the sun was already halfway up by the time we dragged ourselves out of the tent. A whole new world. In fact, it was a whole new trail: a crew from the Lewis County chapter of the Backcountry Horseman had brushed out the trail climbing up from Deadman's Lake while we were still eating breakfast (or perhaps even sleeping). We dropped our packs at the saddle and made a quick and easy detour to the top of Goat Mountain. More volcanic views: Rainier, St. Helens, Adams, Hood, even Jefferson. The hike back, although mostly downhill, took twice as long for all the times we stopped to stare at the surrounding volcanoes and to watch the steam plume from the new bulge in the Saint Helens crater. How long before she blows again?

We set out Saturday to hike the Goat Mountain trail and camp at Deadman's Lake in the Mt. St. Helens area. We drove down FS Road 25, but missed the turn on FS Road 26 at 8.7 miles from Randle. We continued 22 miles on Rt. 26 past 99, which heads towards the blast zone of Mt. St. Helens, before realizing we went too far. A check of our maps indicated we could cut back to 99 and meet up with FS 26 without having to go all the way back towards Randle. 7 or 8 miles later, we did find the turn for 26, but the road was closed at the trailhead for Norway Pass, about 5 miles south from the Goat Mountain trailhead. We decided to go back towards Randle to see if we couldn't get closer from the other side. On the return trip back down 25, we noticed that the signs for FS 26 were removed and there were no signs for Ryan Lake as mentioned in the guide books we relied on. That did not bode well. We followed 26 to another road barracade, and guessed we had about 3 miles of pavement to walk before we would even reach the trailhead for Goat Mountain. By now it was 2:30 pm, and finding another backpacking trip was pretty much out of the question. So we strapped on our packs, and went for it anyway. FS 26 wasn't too bad, except for the one washed out bridge we had to scramble through. The pavement and weather were very hot, the valley afforded few views and the direction was steadily uphill over the entire stretch. We finally made it to the trailhead at 4:00. Once on the Goat Mountain trail, it is up up up first through blast zone, then on the protected northside of the mountain where the trees provided much needed shade. When we got to the summit, the views finally arrived, with Mt. Rainier, Mt. Adams, Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Hood all making appearances. Although exhausted already, we figured the ridge hike, through another blast zone and downhill to Deadman's Lake would be worth the effort, so we continued until after 8:00 PM before arriving at our ultimate destination. Mosquitos were bad at the lake, but died down at dark. The fishbowl of the lake had an amazing echo, and no other hikers were to be found. The bark of a dog perhaps was the only indication of life somewhere nearby, but the crystal clear night and abundant stars kept us company. The return trip the next morning was even better, with temperatures being much cooler due to our earlier start. After climbing back to the ridge, we spotted a large herd of Elk down in the valley, slowly wading through the waters of another backcountry lake. But the flies kept us from lingering much, so we sped across the ridge and back down to FS 26 for our 3 miles of hot pavement on the feet. If the hike had only been from the trailhead, this would have been a great trip. Of course, we also wouldn't have gone the entire trip without seeing other hikers!

My friends and I started up the trail at 10:00 a.m. Saturday morning, and soon it was snowing, heavily at times. No accumulations though. After a strenuous climb to the ridge, we encountered snow patches but were able to find the trail and continue on along the ridge for a mile or so. At 3 and 3/4 miles where the trail begins to ascend to Deadman's Lake we came to a steep snow slope and after several attempts, turned back for the day. There were many wild strawberries in bloom, and many other wildflowers preparing to bloom. Give it a couple more weeks for Deadman's Lake trail. The road to trailhead (Ryan Lake) has a couple of short bad spots where the road has washed out and is temporarily repaired. Some people might find it difficult. Drive very slow, preferably in a high clearance vehicle. The bad spots are very brief but it reminded us that the whole road could go, if nature were so inclined.

Well we made the trip back up to Deadmans Lake, Goat Mtn, Vanson Peak area, which are now located in the Mt St Helens Monument, 20 years after my brother and myself had just left our camp at Deadmans Lake at 8:32 am Sunday morn May 18th 1980. This time the trip was a little less eventfull but a wonderful trip just the same. We tried to find the tree that we sat under for an hour with pumice, ash and lightening stricking all around us but the 20 year growth of the trees made it difficult. We came close just by judging how far we ran from lake trying to outrun the ash cloud coming behind us. We remembered how still and quiet the air was just before the eruption, not a bird was chirpping, not a wind was blowing. Then a 100' from leaving the camp our ears started feeling tremendous pressure just like you had shot up in the air about a mile. It was like the feeling you get when you take off in a big plane and start climbing only 10 fold. It was of course the large amount of air the landslide was pushing as it slide down the mountain. At that time we still had no idea what was going on. We had the shoulder of Goat Ridge between us and Mt St Helens. 10 seconds later we heard what sounded like a jet plane flying overhead. The sound then got more intense and my brother, who was ahead of me, turned around to comment on the situation and looked up behind me over Goat Mtn Ridge and saw the huge billowing ash cloud coming over the ridge. We both said a couple of choice words and started running up the trail heading north, full packs, cameras packed in our packs. Within 3 minutes ash and pumice began to fall on us and we realized that we couldn't outrun it so we found a tree to crouch under. At that same time the lightening began so we decided it would be a good thing to take our aluminum frame packs off of us and set them away from us. Just then a bolt hit real close and I found my brother laying on top of me. I said what are you doing, get off of me. He said he didn't know how he got there but thinks he just got hit by that last bolt. We pulled out an extra t-shirt we had with us, poured some water on it and started breathing thru it. Within minutes there was so much ash falling the it completely blocked out any sunlight. If you put your hand right in front of your face, I mean centimeters, you couldn't see it. That lasted for about 50 minutes. Then it finally got light enough to see the trail so we decided this was time to start hiking again --- rapidly. 4 1/2 miles later we were back at the truck, which by then was filled with about 4 inches of ash. We finally made it back to Morton and made a phone call home to let the family members know we were all right. You see at that time we still had no idea what really happended other than there was an eruption, but we had no idea the people we had seen down in the Green River valley from our vantage point on Goat Mtn the day before had been killed. A month later I was able to fly over Deadmans Lake and the area and found out that not more than a quarter mile from where we were sitting under that tree by Deadmans Lake trees where blown down from the blast. We were glad that the Lake didn't live up to its name. Well thanks for listening. I will send a few pics to the gallery of past and present. Not sure if they will get posted but we'll see. Oh and by the way, the trail is in great shape. Thanks to all.

First time on this trail, followed 3 Backcountry Horseman guys up the trail as they cut several logs off the trail, what a nice surprise. 3 others came and lopped branches over their heads dropping them onto the trail, and we were the brushers who got the branches off the trail. Fun A great trail, steep to begin with, but the scenery once up on the ridge is spectacular. Mt. St Helens, Mt. Rainier, Mt Adams and Hood in the distance. Beautiful wild flowers, great weather, the whole works. Stayed at Deadmans Lake, nice campsite with a toilet no less. Only 6 other people around the lake, but very quiet. Some mosquitos, but not bad as long as there was a breeze off the lake. Fishing was ok according to the other campers. Some areas along the trail on the Deadmans Lake side could use lopping at the hiker level, and will be overgrown as the season goes on, otherwise the trail is in good condition. Tried to clean out some of the water bars as we were hiking. A hike that I want to do again, and have time to explore more, other trails in the area.