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Goat Mountain — Jul. 24, 2022

North Cascades > Mount Baker Area
3 photos
dolomighty
WTA Member
5
  • Wildflowers blooming

19 people found this report helpful

 

Hiked to the first viewpoint earlier today (at 5200 ft). There was no snow anywhere up to that point, and only a few patches visible near the unofficial trail continuing up to the trail terminus, near the false summit of Goat Mountain. Wonderful display of wildflowers and surprisingly few people for such a perfect Sunday morning. The road to the trailhead is one of the better ones in the Mt. Baker area, with only a few potholes.

Goat Mountain — Jul. 23, 2022

North Cascades > Mount Baker Area
  • Wildflowers blooming

1 person found this report helpful

 

Glorious Saturday on Goat Mtn! Trail is in excellent condition. We brought spikes and ice axes but they were not necessary. Only some small snow sections in the meadows just above a few tent sites. Followed trail up to the west summit and stopped where it ended. We peered at the sketchy down climb to the true summit block and elected to stay put. Had lunch and a nap before heading down. Highlight of this trip were baby and juvenile ptarmigan sightings!

Goat Mountain — Jul. 1, 2022

North Cascades > Mount Baker Area
4 photos + video
vikr
200
Beware of: road, snow conditions
  • Wildflowers blooming

21 people found this report helpful

 

Be careful of huge cornices on West Goat Summit. True goat mountain summit inaccessible due to heavy snow on north of false summit. No signs of any footsteps on real trail after meadows as everyone is hugging south ridge and going straight up. No signs of anyone going to to real goat west or on the ridgeline between summit east and summit west. There are safe sections to glissade but Ice axe highly recommended. WTA stats are for meadows not the goat mountain summit but they are almost accurate. Overall 10.5 miles 4400 ft of gain or loss.

Road to Trailhead:

Hannegan pass road is in good condition except potholes in some sections which are easily avoidable when going slow. The board mentioning goat mountain trailhead has no parking and there is a parking like 200 feet further with a small lot for 5 cars. The restroom was open, clean and stocked with TP. At 8:40am there was no other cars parked at the TH. Two women with a dog arrived soon after I started hiking.

Trailhead to meadows:

The trail is in excellent condition. Except few down or snow covered trees in the end. Many wildflowers keep you entertained. Lots of boardwalks and bridges helps but still a lot of stream crossing which might get your feet wet. The section where you walk on a tree covered false ridge before meadows is also interesting. You feel a change in vegetation after 1.5 miles. Only some patches of snow which are not too hard to maneuver around.

Meadows to Base of West Goat

At 2.7 mile you enter meadows you face consistent and there are lot of streams under the trail. Be careful snow bridges and also the trees covered under snow. The boot path was easy to follow but GPS and navigation skills are crucial here since wandering off even in this section can be dangerous. There are some care sections where you can rest and eat. It might be a good turn around point for some who do not want to deal with steep hills covered with snow. The views of Baker, Shuksan, Sefrit and Ruth creek flowing in the valley below Hannegan is beautiful from here as well well worth the effort. If you look carefully you can also see Price Lake flowing out at the end of Price Glacier below Nooksack tower.

Base to Summit Ridge

This section is steep. I didnt see anyone going to actual trail. Ability to navigate on snow is a must here. Recent report and comment from veronica84 was very helpful. After meadows stayed on the ridge and had to switch between snow and melted rocks/meadow multiple times. Having Ice axe here gave peace of mind. Any glissade on the west of the ridge would be uncontrollable without ability to self arrest with ice axe and there are no run outs to stop. Clouds cover once in a while helped while going up slow on this stretch because whenever sun came out it was very hot and slowed you further. I would request people with dogs to keep their dog close to them. When I was about to reach summit a dog came downhill fast in excitement and almost knocked me over, I had planted ice axe firmly when I saw her approaching to avoid any slips and fall. Snow was still crunchy and no slush in this last section.

Once on ridge next to summit I talked to another couple from Bellingham and thanked the lady again who found my sunglasses in snow and gave them to me saving me ton of time to find those in snow(without sunglasses :P). They mentioned they have been here multiple times this time of the year but have never seen so much snow and they do not see people try true summit as it is too risky and not worth the rewards. I observed there was still so much snow on the peaks on NW side; Winchester, Tomyhoi, Larrabee, Yellow Aster Butte all are loaded with snow on them but there were few cars parked on the road to YAB/winchester before a snow patching blocking road. After they left I had the summit to myself.

Summit Ridge to False Sumit:

While I walked the last snowfield after the bare rock on ridge I heard loud noises of two ptarmigans frantically flying on and around the false summit. I was busy taking photos so didnt pay much attention. This went for 10 minutes and by the time I reached summit there was complete silence. I had summit to myself for the whole time. I ate my lunch, enjoyed the views to the north and east which were not visible from the trail and clouds had also cleared a bit which made views much nicer. The drop offs from the summit or false summit are huuuuge. So be extremely careful and stay on trail. Mt Ruth, Hannegan Peak, Copper mountain, Picket range all looked amazing. A sea of peaks covered with snow in every direction (except valley in west).

While I had my lunch I saw cornice fail/fall from the ridge between summit east and west. Hence would not recommend this further traverse for next few days/weeks. There were snow blocks of the size of minivan down in the bowl on east side of false summit and west bowl(which on caltopo shows ice/glacier) also had lot of snow debris. Twin lakes which you can see from Winchester are not visible from here and I doubt of they will be visible from true west summit as well.  

When I started to head down I saw broken eggs (at least two) on the east face of the summit with the some contents of partially hatched eggs spilled. Both the ptarmigans were still there extremely quiet and unmoving on the ledge. I didn't see any other predator bird while I was hiking up or any land mammal who could have done it so recently. However there were other people at summit without dogs on leash. 

Summit to Meadows:

It is absolutely important to stay on the path you came from do not try to risk going any other route unless you are completely sure it is safe. I was initially thinking of doing longer glissades so that I dont have to transition from rock to snow multiple times but I am glad I stayed on the boothpath I came up. On the way down I glissaded on some stretches using Ice Axe and never caught too much speed anytime. At one point I was glissading slightly west of the ridge not too far from the bootpath and triggered a snowball of size of basketball and it went all the way down as far as I could see it before falling off. After that I stayed as close to the boothpath even while glissading. Even with warmed up temperature I was able to catch speed quickly as slopes were steep. 

Meadows to Trailhead: 

Once below the steeper slope, I switched from ice axe to hiking poles and downhill with slush was more like skiing in shoes. The views of ridgeline on which you are walking and the ridge between Baker and Shuksan is very distracting. I lot the path while coming down and retreated steps to go back to the trail in this section else postholing would have been miserable for next 1 mile. Once snow ended I took of gaiters and picked up speed. The streams were running much stronger but no issues in crossing. Whole day met only 6 total people and saw one more person in meadow when I was in steep uphill but that person turned back from meadows. Reached back car around 4pm and there were no other cars.

Path followed : https://caltopo.com/m/1GVVQ

360 photos and videos also in attached links.

Goat Mountain — Jun. 30, 2022

North Cascades > Mount Baker Area
4 photos
Beware of: snow conditions

15 people found this report helpful

 

Took the doggo up for a hike today. Snow started in earnest at the “entrance” to the meadows and continued on from there, patchy in places but mostly solid still. Some snow bridges to watch out for and the occasional surprise posthole that seems to come out of no where. Otherwise mashed potato snow, even at 10am. I was able to get to the summit with spikes, poles and an ice axe. Also saw someone without any of that gear, but I tend to like to play it safe on steep slopes with iffy runouts especially in this slippery melting snow. A few cornices cleaving off at the summit, and a snow bridge at the very end to be aware of. Beautiful day out there!

Goat Mountain — Jun. 25, 2022

North Cascades > Mount Baker Area
2 photos
DaphneF
WTA Member
100
Beware of: snow, trail conditions
  • Wildflowers blooming
  • Hiked with a dog

8 people found this report helpful

 

We headed to the Goat Mountain trail head for a day hike on the first warm, sunny weekend this spring.  We expected to find a lot of company, and on the way up the Mount Baker Highway, we did note many cars at the trailhead for Excelsior Peak.  However, when we arrived at the trailhead for Goat, there were only three other cars.  We made a very late start (11:30), and consequently met all three of the other groups on their way out as we were hiking up.  Only one other couple ascended the trail while we were there, and they were camping overnight.   

The trail is in superb shape up to about 3000 ft, with well-graded switchbacks and a lovely, soft trail bed.  It made for easy walking.  After that the trail becomes somewhat rocky and is crossed by numerous tumbling streams.  These were easy to negotiate by rock-hopping.   We could see that many trees had come down across the trail over the winter, but the trail crews have cleared all but one.  Well done for so early in the season!  We appreciated all their efforts. 

Higher along the trail, as the forest thinned, trilliums and yellow violets lined the sides and their lovely scents filled the air.   However, dense groves of winter-bare alders soon crowded the trail, and at an altitude of about 4000 ft, it became snow covered. In several places the alders lay across the trail, still weighed down by their burden of snow.  The tangles of trunks and branches required careful negotiation because they had a tendency spring upright when released from their snow burden by the jostling of a hand or foot.  

The summer trail became increasingly difficult to discern, but we followed the footsteps of the previous groups through the thinning brush.  Their trail followed the trail shown on our GPS quite closely until it reached the open subalpine.   At that point, our GPS took us in an arc northwest of where the other groups had gone, on a somewhat less steep approach to the first viewpoint knob.   The views were wonderful there, but we carried on, following our GPS up to the end of the official trail, and then onward and upward to an altitude of 5663 ft. There an inviting bare patch in the middle of a very steep, open slope provided a gorgeous, panoramic view down the Nooksack to the west, up the Ruth Creek Valley to the east, and across to Mounts Sefrit, Shuksan and Baker to the south.  The treeless, snow-covered slopes of Goat Mountain rose behind us.  Another hiker had made tracks that continued up the steep, open slope, perhaps all the way to the peaks, but we did not want to risk sliding down uncontrollably in the now slushy snow, so we made this the end of our hike. 

Our bare patch consisted of winter-flattened, brown sedges, a few small rocks suitable as lunch perches, and big patches of blooming yellow glacier lilies.  Many more lilies were growing up through the dead grass mats and will no doubt be blooming in a few days.  We were very careful to avoid trampling any of the lilies, sticking strictly to the rocks and snow for our late lunch break.  We noticed another bare patch with glacier lilies blooming somewhat lower down but also in the middle of the snow-covered, treeless avalanche slope.  No lilies were blooming farther down the trail.

With respect to gear, we all had micro spikes and hiking poles. These were necessary on the steep, open slopes in the sub-alpine. Hiking poles were also helpful for hopping across the many streams that cascaded over the trail lower down.  We did not have trouble with post-holing in the snow and so we were happy not to have packed our snowshoes up the long switchbacks.

Overall, we concluded that the superb views from the open meadows on Goat’s flank more than compensated for the long, steep walk up the many switchbacks through the forest.  In terms of reward for effort, this is one of the best hikes below Heather meadows on the Mount Baker highway.  Damfino Lakes to Excelsior Peak requires much less effort and offers wonderful views.  However, it is hard to beat the up-close views from Goat of the incredibly rugged landscape of the Ruth Creek and Upper Nooksack valleys with their flanking peaks, with Mount Baker gleaming in the background.