We woke up early to drive from Seattle to Goat Mountain and were more than prepared to earn our views with the 10 mile, 3100 elevation gain hike. We arrived at the trailhead at 8:15 AM with two cars in the lot and room for a half a dozen more. The bathroom was serviced and the road was passable for all vehicles.

We began the hike at 8:45 AM and were greeted with steep switchbacks up the slop near the road for the first mile followed by continuous elevation gain the remainder of the way up. The trail was snow free but overgrown in a lot of sections that meant spiderwebs and bugs needed to be passed through in the meadows leading up the trail. It was warm so my layers were stripped but I ended up putting on a layer for some protection against the bugs and wished I would have worn pants for protection against the growth.

A beautiful lookout sits at about 4 miles up from the trailhead and our group arrived at the lookout at about 11:15 AM and, I am assuming from the mileage stamp on the WTA posting, would be the stopping point for most travelers. We perched here for a moment to snack and rest before continuing on to the summit. This is where the overgrowth became more consistent and it was harder to follow the trail. Had to check GAIA or Garmin several times to make sure we were headed in the right direction.

We had about a mile to go and looked in front of us with a steep, steep straight incline staring back at us. Not sure of the grade but it was by far the steepest section and not to be attempted by anyone not willing to come back down. We persevered up a half a mile or so to a plateau and were planning on continuing on when we were hit with a downpour of rain. Due to the steepness of the last section, we opted to turn back around at 12:30 PM headed back down before the trail got too slippery for our footing.

The clouds cleared for a few moments to allow us to stop for lunch but were off and on for the remainder of the hike. Arrived back at the trailhead around 4:15 PM to a few other cars in the lot but not overcrowded.

Beautiful meadows, gorgeous flowers, and stunning views - Goat Mountain had it all. Looking forward to the next opportunity to attempt the summit!

Road is in really good condition — my Toyota Camry had no issues. 

Started my hike around 9:00 am, with some sun coming through the trees. After a few miles, I came out of the trees, and into the meadows. From there, it continued up. 

The trail wasn't very clear in the grassy area of the trail, as the grass had grown long, and the trail was at times not easy to identify. 

At 4.2 miles, the trail goes straight up the side of a hill. The weather was starting to turn, and began to rain. I reached the end of the trail, and it was raining pretty good. Glad I brought my rain jacket. No views, unfortunately. Trail was more difficult to navigate on the way down, due to the rain. 

Hope to come back and do this hike again when the clouds are gone, so I get the views for a reward! 

Total time, six hours (it was a pretty leisurely pace) and distance 10 miles. 

Why don't more people hike here? 

It was the Fourth of July Weekend, and the only time Ashley could come hiking, so I thought I would look for a hike where there wouldn't be huge crowds. We settled on Goat Mountain. 

When we woke up in Bellingham, it was raining. We thought about doing something besides hiking, but we were primed for the mountains, so we left Bellingham in drizzle at about 7:45, and were on the trail at 9:15. No rain in the Cascades--go figure. 

The first part is brown. Second-growth forest so dense that all you see is the brown of the conifer trunks, the brown of the soil, the brown of the forest floor litter, even the brown of blowdown, cut and cleared away since the previous report on this trip. Was that WTA or the USFS? Thanks to either or both!

Switchback upon switchback, brown. But it begins to green gradually after the first mile or so, first just Oregon grape in the understory, then more light, more forest floor plants, and the lovely white early-season blossoms of bunchberry and bead lily against the background of their dark green foliage. Because of the cool weather and the forecast for rain, I started out with rain pants and a long-sleeved shirt, but with the persistent upward angle, I was soon drenched in sweat, so I half-stripped. No need for a hat, either--no bugs, no sun, and heavy forest shade. Took the hat off, too. 

The angle finally relents as the forests dissolve into meadows, heralded by a few tiger lilies, paintbrush, arnica, lousewort (horrible name for a nice plant) and other things that need some light. It had started drizzling, but we stopped for a snack in the lower meadows at about 11:00, and I made it clear that I would go a bit farther, but probably not to the top. 

After getting refreshed, we wound on upward in the drizzle, and soon came to a flat viewing spot (in Portugal they might call it a miradouro), that would also be suitable for camping, where we got our first good look at the mountains playing peek-a-boo in the fog, from Sefrit to Shuksan to a hint of a steep white slope that might be telling us where Baker might be. Clumps of spruce, fir, and mountain hemlock punctuated the understory where a lot of barely-set, pinkish mountain huckleberry and Cascade blueberry fruits shouted "come back in late Summer if you're hungry" and chest-high mountain ash was in flower. The hillsides with no trees were so overwhelmingly green that I couldn't help exclaiming about it over and over. 

Eventually, the trail wound to the face of the face of Goat Mountain proper, and I said "Ashley, you know, in spite of all my protestations about age and decrepitude, I think I could get to the top." 

So up we ventured. There are inches-wide paths among the grass and heather, switchbacking rather gently, but it's easy to lose them and to end up crawling, hands-and-feet, up ridiculously steep stairways of mud and slippery-looking rock before you get to the next switchback and try to remember where it was, so that on the way down, you can take the gentle path. For the top few hundred vertical feet, the switchbacks actually do stop and you have no choice but to go straight up. 

I was pretty much at the limit of my elderly strength, and it was still raining, but after about 45 minutes we made it to the summit ridge, and were treated to another view of fog, with the occasional hint of different mountains, on the north side. We strolled up the ridge for a bit, to the foot of the rocky summit, and I said, "Ashley, you know, why don't I just hang out here for a bit if you want to try for the actual top."  He was off at a young man's pace, and I had a nice recovery on the ridge in the drizzle and fog.  

Then of course we needed to get down those slopes, so we turned around about 2:00. I'm not much of a hiking pole guy, to be frank, and I sometimes think folks trudging grimly along flat paths with two of them look faintly ridiculous (apologies). But here I was glad I had one, and it also helped that the paths, steep as they were, had been boot-worn into kind of a stairway, which got us safely down to the switchback part. There we only missed one trail and inadvertently did a 50-foot or so downward stairway slither until we met the next trail. 

My boots were wet by this time, mainly I think from my socks absorbing water from a combination of drizzle and brushing against wet plants, so after we had crossed the meadows (exclaiming repeatedly about the green, the flowers, and the incomplete views) I stopped to change my socks and noticed it had stopped raining. From there it was down, down, down all those switchbacks, first green and then brown, and at a little after 5:00 we were back at the car. 

So why don't more people hike here? Fourth-of-July weekend and we didn't see another hiker the entire day. I'm no fan of big crowds, but I thought it might have been nice to see just a few kindred souls enjoying this gorgeous trek.  

Hiked Goat Mountain in a thick cloud the whole day. The trail was beautiful and excellently maintained, especially in the forested switchbacks in the first half of the hike. My friend and I commented often about how nice the trail was! Just before the alpine meadowy area is a thicker, brushier part of the trail where it is a bit overgrown with salmonberry and thimbleberry (and a bit of cow parsnip). It was super rainy, so we got very soaked as we whacked through this part, but it is very passable and easy to find the trail. 

Up further on the steep slope as you climb the actual mountain, there were a few snow patches that were a bit sketchy to cross. They were very small sections where the trail was covered, but the snow was very grainy and slippery making it difficult to cross without sliding down the slope. We tried going down and around the patches, which is how we kept on going, however it definitely had our hearts-racing due to the super steepness of the hillside and the slipperyness of the heather and grassy plants that were soaking wet. Keeping a low center of gravity helped here, as we Gollum-crawled our way across. The snow patches will probably melt out the next sunny day, though!

We had no view at the top, unfortunately, but it was still a great hike! We had a few glimpses of some amazing peaks as the clouds cleared momentarily, and even that was worth the hard work to get up there. Made us want to go up there again, though on a sunny day! 

Potholes on the road were being filled in by Citizens for Forest Roads volunteers. There are quite a few, so they ran out of gravel before the first mile but every little bit helps! Thanks for the hard work. 

Trail conditions much the same as the prior report  Six trees down before the Wilderness boundary, all easy to step over. A few rotten patches of snow tangled up in slide alder, then solid snow starts before mile 3, about 1/2 mile from the overlook.  Boot track was not well established, minor route finding required. I wore running shoes and used poles.  My feet got wet, but the snow was soft enough I didn’t put on the spikes and firm enough I didn’t post hole.

The forest smells amazing. Trillium, violets, and calypso orchids are abundant in places and I saw my first ginger flower of the season.  The early melting of the snowpack made me wonder how summer will be, but reminded me to appreciate the lack of smoke! Nobody else on the trail today.