Don’t drive past Shuksan Picnic Area! We hiked to the trailhead from there and skipped the actual hike. Just under 5 miles round trip with ~1500 ft gained. The first mile we used microspikes but you can do it in boots with some slipping/post-holeing. 1/4 miles in we hiked past a pickup truck with five people working to dig it out. Don’t be those people. Park just off Mt Baker Highway!

Past the snow is a well maintained gravel forest road through an amazing forest with minimal short snowy patches. Bathroom is open at Goat Mt trailhead where we took a break, had a snack and turned around to hike back because my kiddo was with me. The actual trail looked clear from snow and ready for another day! 

Goat Mountain (off Baker Lake Rd)* note there are many Goat Mountains. This one is the one of Baker Lake Road near Grandy Lake/Creek. I am behind on thedirtbaguette.com, so please enjoy a stylized WTA Trip Report.

When: February 6th, 2022

Where: Nooksack and Sauk Suiattle Native Lands

Trail stats: 12ish miles/4000ft cumulative gain

Conditions: Clear and worryingly warm for a February Day 

Avy Risk: Orange above/near treeline, yellow below

Snow notes: Snow did not consistently begin until 3,5000ft so you do benefit from doing this one later in the season. We had been hoping to ski this peak, and I'd have agreed to if we'd seen better snow coverage along highway 20 heading east. However, the downed trees along the first 2 miles would have made this quite difficult

Gear needed: Snowshoes

Gear packed: but then not used: Ice axes, helmets, traction spikes

Other required items: A GPS track helps alot here. God bless the people who summited before us- we didn't use our track as we had footprints, but 100% I would have ditched the road and bushwacked straight up this mountain had I not had the patience.

GPS track: Goat Mountain | Gaia GPS

Context: We'd wanted to do something steep on this particular day, but a nearly 60-degree weather forecast in the lowlands convinced us that snow climbing would be a bad idea. Goat caught my partner Hwei Ling's attention last week, so we decided to see what it was about. I'd already been in the area (enjoying Artist Pt here: Artist Ridge - Huntoon Point, Artist Point Snowshoe, Table Mountain, Heather Meadows, Lake Ann (Mount Baker Highway) — Washington Trails Association (wta.org)) so a quick overnight in Burlington had me prepped to go.

Parking/accessibility: We parked in the designated spots along Baker Lake Road. Baker Lake Road is paved and in great shape. There is a blue gate blocking the rest of the road system (more in Trail Summary) so pahk ya cah (as they say in Boston) and start from there. No bathrooms are available. The gate on the road blocks any sort of mobility aid from rolling through on trail.

Trail summary: Begin the 5ish mile road-walk to the ridgeline of Goat Mountain. The road is often flat/not very steep and would make for an excellent beginners ski if it was not for the blowdowns. A flatter area above Grady Creek gave us trouble with more than 5 trees blocking the way.

I have a gate key for old Weyerhauser land in this area, but it wouldn't do much help here. A section of trail/old road is completely gone and requires a bit of scrambling in one section (will include photo), which is a shame because there are SO MANY cool roads we observed at a distance. 

At about 3400ft, we transitioned from boots to snowshoes. The road widens and becomes more ridgey, thus opening itself to more snow. The views of Sedro Wooley and Concrete were gorgeous from here. You have a great view of Mountain Loop Highway Peaks: Glacier, White Chuck, Sloan, and Pugh. Three Fingers and Whitehorse will become more visible as you gain high enough to see into Darrington.

As we walked higher on the road, the trail made a sharp left up up the ridge and off the road for the first time. You'll do this twice on the way up. The higher you climb, the more views of the North Cascades (the Pickets, the park, and Baker) you'll get.

We transitioned onto the road for a short bit, then back up the ridge. We only had 3/4s of a mile to go, but it seemed to go on forever- mostly because 1,000ft of gain still remained. 

We ran into the couple who'd created the snowshoe track about 600ft below the summit. I was so grateful for them as we'd benefitted from not having to route find through the trees. With the warming day, each step was getting squishier, and I thought they'd had the right idea starting early. 

100ft below the summit, the couple had removed their snowshoes for the steeper climbing, but we kept ours on. This is the only area of true avalanche terrain so watch out. The way up was easy, but the way down was a bit trickier. An axe and traction would be a MUST on a colder day here.

The summit of Goat is a big ole cornice! We stayed south (right) near what are usually boulders and tried to get the best views of Shuksan and Baker- which are now hard to see beyond the giant cornice. The Twin Sister Range is in STUNNING condition, and I plan to be there next weekend seeing how high we can get on on the North Twin. WOWZERS.

The weather was much windier so we downclimbed back to the spot the couple had re-snowshoed for lunch. It had to be about 50 degrees in the sunny, windless snow. I cooked in my puffies and devoured all my foot. It would be a 15+ mile, 5,500ft+ gain weekend, and I write to you still a bit short on caloric intake for tough winter travel.

The way back went quick. Nothing to report. We did wish for skis on the road bits, but we dipped below the snowline so quickly that I stand by our use of snowshoes. Time frames if its helpful:

0830 start

1245 summit

1320 descent start

1600 back at the car in leisure

I'd give this one high marks for being accessible via car in snowy conditions with moderate avy risk, but I'm not sure I'd do it again without gate access. The areas around it sure look good for exploring, so one day I hope to write to you with beta on nearby Red Rock and some of those mysterious roads heading north to Baker.

If you liked this trip report, tell me! I'm @thedirtbaguette on IG and will have this report up on thedirtbaguette.com once I finish writing about my climbs in 2021. 

The road to the trailhead is one of the nicest FS roads I've ever seen. One or two small potholes that are easily avoided. (Seriously, I've seen worse in the city.)

The trail up to the view point is really nice and well maintained. There were some muddy patches and I slipped on wet wood once, but no major obstacles. We snapped some photos at the knoll with awesome views of Baker and Shuksan before continuing on to the summit.

The trail to the summit from the knoll takes a little finding since there are so many small paths shooting off through the patches of huckleberries (that are absolutely delicious at the moment). Once we got on the right track, it was easy to follow. The exposed face of Goat Mountain is a lot less traveled-- a few small sections were washed out and kind of steep, but still easily manageable. Not too long before we gained the ridgeline (maybe 700-800 feet from the summit) there was a small stream where we stopped to refill our water bottles. The last section straight up the face is steeeeep. From the knoll to the summit is about 1500 elevation is just a little over a mile. 

The true summit is a scramble that we didn't do, but looks like a class 3 that adds maybe 40-50 feet elevation. It looks like it would be easier to do early season with more snow and less scree, so we'll be coming back.

Overall my Gaia tracking shows 9.3 miles RT with 4200 elevation gain from car to summit.

This is a report about 6 day-hikes while camping at Douglas Fir campground just past Glacier on Hwy 542 from Aug. 29 – Sept. 3. The Glacier Service Center posts updated road and trail conditions. Berries were abundant, some flowers still blooming, and fall colors starting to come out. No smoke until the last day.

 Aug. 29 – Heliotrope Ridge

Road: Although there are a few spots of good pavement, it’s really breaking up with some large potholes and edges falling away. My Civic made it fine with cautious driving. Route: After the 2^nd crossing, we headed up the climber’s trail (junction is signed). I’ve done both the trail out to the glacier overlook and the climber’s trail, and think the climber’s route is more spectacular. We had a panorama of waterfalls to watch as they poured off leading edges of the glaciers. Thank you WTA work party for the trail work. It's looking great!

Aug. 30 – Tarns below Yellow Aster Butte

Road: Unpaved, but not a problem. Route: The trail to the base of Yellow Aster Butte is in good shape. From a previous trip up the butte, we’d seen and wanted to explore the tarns. We couldn’t see the tarns when we got to the bottom of the final ascent up the butte, but followed a way trail down where we thought the trail should be. We didn’t have to cross snow, but earlier in the year or in different conditions, there would likely be snow in that basin. When the clouds lifted, we saw what was likely more of a trail heading down to the tarns.

 Aug. 31 – Horseshoe Bend and Waken Bakery

It was raining, so had excellent veggie burritos at the Wake 'N Bakery in Glacier a block off the highway. The trail starts from a pull-out along Hwy 542 just after it crosses the Nooksack River, or from the end of the Douglas Fir Campground. Route: Beautiful rainforest walk. Some downed trees after about a mile or so. Easy to climb or step over.

 Sept. 1 – Goat Mt.

Road: Unpaved but in really good shape. Route: Good trail up to the knoll at about 3.75 miles and 5100’ elevation as described by Craig Romano in his Day hking: N. Cascades book. Once the trail starts across the upper meadow, it was thin, covered with meadow brush, and loose in spots. We saw a few others going up it, but we opted for sitting on the knoll with views of Mt. Sefrit and Mt. Shuksan. We passed a hunter who said Goat Mt. can be a popular bear hunting location.

 Sept. 2 – Ptarmigan Ridge

Road: Paved. Route: Good trail conditions, snow in a few places, but not steep and easily crossed. Lots of hikers on Th. before Labor Day. There’s a climber’s trail that continues beyond Camp Kiser for another mile or so. It’s exposed but felt relatively solid. We saw blueberry bear scat in a couple places.

 Sept. 3 – Lake Ann and base of Fisher Chimneys climbing route

Road: Paved, Route: Good trail conditions, some mud, no snow. We saw more blueberry bear scat, but no bears. From the saddle above Lake Ann and Shuksan, we followed the climber’s trail through the basin, up and then across the slope toward the rock buttress that is the start of the Fisher Chimneys climbing route. Another hiker followed it down from there to the Lower Curtis Glacier. He said he had to be pretty careful in a couple spots. Romano says it’s ¾ of a mile, but felt a bit longer.

This hike requires endurance and a commitment to going uphill. You can shorten the hike and still get nice views at the knoll and beyond which is reached around 3.5-4 miles at 5100+ ft. But the real beauty of this hike is going to 6640 ft elevation, another 1.5 miles from the knoll and that takes more uphill climbing and traversing a slope that has sketchy sections. There are new small dirt and rock slides along the slope that are likely going to be more of a problem after another winter. If you take it slow over these sections you will be fine and reach the destination of the summit. 

The trail starts out in a nice quiet forest with little understory. Today the ground was wet from recent rain. (Good news!) The trail eventually narrows and vegetation aligns the sides of the trail. After a bit you climb up via stone steps and rocks and views open up. Berry bushes enter the territory and they can slow you down if you like sampling them. Lots of blueberries!

When you are crossing the upper hillside you'll find a spot on your right that heads up a steep, wet embankment. Take it otherwise you will find yourself off course. Once you reach the top ridge keep following the trail until you hit the end of the trail and you'll see peaks in all directions. For an elevation just under 7000 ft, it is all you need to have a good day.

On my way down I spotted what appears to be alien grasshoppers. I included a photo. Kinda scary - the way they are looking at me!