On a sunny Saturday morning we hiked the Goat Mtn trail.  The road was in perfect shape, as was the first 1.5 miles in the beautiful woods.  As we climbed higher the bugs came out, mainly small biting flies and the last section of the trail to the viewpoint was very brushy and overgrown.  As we neared the clearing all the wildflowers joined the party!

No snow at all on the trail to the viewpoint and nothing beyond it either, if you want to scramble to the top of Goat Mountain.  The views were spectacular in all directions and we ate our lunch in a breeze with no bugs.    As we headed down, a little less buggy as there was a little more wind.

Hiked up to official end of trail at 5600 ft. Some small areas of snow to cross after the lookout area but didn't need spikes, though poles were helpful.The snow is mostly melted out at this point. Decided to stop at the end of the official trail because the trail surface on the unofficial trail was loose, narrow and crumbly as it headed steeply upward. Wildflowers are just beginning to bud out, some heather and indian paintbrush blooming but the real show should start in another week or two.  

One sedan was in the parking lot when I arrived at the trailhead after encountering some unusually deep potholes.  (On the way out, road crews had graveled and graded the first .3 miles of the road, so they may be finishing the job.)  Toilet paper and registration sheets were stocked.

 The trail had two trunks and several branches across it, but they posed no problem.  There were significant patches of snow on the last switchback before the meadow, and there I met the couple ahead of me coming down.  At the turn into the meadow (at 4600 feet), the trail disappeared under snow, which was wet, compacted, and slippery—making micro-spikes and poles with snow baskets a necessity for me.  Fresh tracks to the winter route to the “porch” (lookout) were easy to follow going up, but a GPS gave me peace of mind.  Half a day of melting later, the tracks were harder to make out. 

At the porch (5150 feet) there were two good-sized bare spots, just the thing for lunch and the gorgeous view, but I wanted to climb further up the ridge.  I made good use of the spikes and baskets and ate lunch on a pad on a snowdrift at 5700 feet, end of the maintained trail.  I’ll go back for the summit when the traverse and the rest of the way melt out.   

The view was stupendous: Baker, Shuksan, Sefrit, the Pickets, Crooked Thumb, Challenger, Whatcom, Hannegan, and Granite.

Descending softer, slipperier snow took care.  My Kahtoolas came off both boots--the spikes/chains froze to the snow and I stepped out of them.  I increased vigilance and when I felt a tug, slid my foot forward to keep them on.  (I’d lost a micro-spike on Church last week, and then gone back and found it.)  The other surprise was postholing past my knee on a slope seemingly free of trees, rocks, and streams. 

It was an extraordinary day.  The mountains were awash with sunshine and I had them all to myself!

Consistent snow from TH, with about 1-2’ ft accumulation above treeline. I expect much more snow will fall now and be significantly different conditions. 

The approach switchbacks down low are gentle and lovely - a very well groomed trail. Once above the viewpoint/meadow area, we put on traction and took out ice axes - I was dumb and didn’t bring crampons, using microspikes instead. My partner had crampons and had a MUCH better time getting up the final 1/3 of the trail.

Once we got up to the false summit, we saw that we were cliffed out and had to backtrack slightly to the saddle and head down/around the false summit. At this point, we took turns climbing the real summit with the one set of crampons - as it wasn’t safe with just microspikes.

This is a really fun climb and a beautiful time of year. A big highlight was observing all the fresh animal tracks in the snow - we saw a bazillion rabbit tracks, what looked like bobcat(?), and then near the top all we saw was the big whopper - Cougar.

Quick report for a dayhike of Goat Mountain on November 7th 2020.

The forest road had potholes, but didn't pose an issue for the Subaru squad. It looked like there was an outhouse at the parking lot but we didn't check it out.

The first part of the trail went up up up through the woods with lots of small water crossings, but easily handled in boots. Eventually we hit some sections of trail that were pretty icy. We encountered light snow coverage that increased as we ascended - maybe 6" max in spots higher up. We had brought snowshoes and ice axes but didn't need them. Spikes, poles and gaiters were helpful. 

Trail was for the most part still easy to follow, but there was one section where it crossed a pretty steep slope that we kicked steps into, and one other section where it cut steeply uphill and our instinct was to continue straight, so a navigation device would be helpful for route-finding in the snow. The amount of snow didn't pose avalanche risk, but I don't expect that to last long.

We made it to the false summit and didn't linger long, as temps were below freezing and our "mostly sunny" day had turned out to be lots of falling snow. We weren't sure that we were going to see anything other than the inside of a cloud but we got some peekaboo views of the gorgeous surrounding peaks on the way down.

Various GPS devices tracked in at just under 10 miles and just over 4000' of gain.

Find me on instagram @thenomadicartist for more pics!