Wow, where to begin? We did a three day loop through the Goat Rocks Wilderness. Counter clockwise we traveled north from the Snowgrass trail head to the PCT. Then a side trip to Old Snowy. The following day through Snowgrass Flats and on to Goat Lake. Another side trip to Hawkeye Point, after which we got snubbed on our way to Little Heart Lake and wound up in Jordan Basin. Our last day we took the Goat Ridge Trail south with a diversion to the GR Lookout. A few quick miles and we looped back through Berrypatch and a connector trail to our car. Heading into the area we heard tales of 50 campers at Goat Lake on Saturday night. We witnessed 20 hikers walking out on Monday. We worried of the masses but with the exception of Goat Lake the area didn't seem over burdened and crowded. Snowgrass Flats was an amazing area of floral meadows (flowers are largely past) with many campsites scattered through the trees. Our campsite was at a convenience store sized split boulder. Adams and St Helens filled our sunset views to the south and west. The Goat Rocks; Old Snowy, Ives, Curtis Gilbert loomed over our heads to the east. Mount Rainier, hidden behind a nearby ridge is almost an afterthought here. After dropping our packs we scampered up the PCT. A trail bifurcation noted on the maps as "hiker' and "horse" brought us to the true crest. We stopped at 7600' where a rough side trail takes you another 330' to the summit of Old Snowy. The PCT continues north from this point along a dizzyingly spectacular knife edge trial towards Elk Pass and eventually White Pass. The McCall Glacier is to your right and nothing but air, a few goats, and the Upper Lake Creek Basin are present under your boots to the left. Sun to our campsite was late in coming the next morning. We dawdled and drank coffee and watched the surrounding mountains morph through their morning sunlight ritual. Trail 96 took us downhill through Snowgrass Flats to the Lily Basin Trail. This trail contours 2.3 miles over flower strewn hillsides. Several creeks still had ample water for us to resupply. A lone American Kestrel soared the skies angling for its' breakfast. Goat lake, sunk deeply into its' cirque, had a surface of simple complexity. The glacial silt coloring makes it milky and somewhat ethereal looking with varying grades of pale blue, teal, and grey which varies dependent on your angle and the light. We stayed along the shore long enough for a bite and quick swim in its' gelid waters. The lake shore and surrounding area is riddled with social paths and campsites. Remarkably we saw little if any garbage. Continuing along the Lily Basin trail the flower show increased significantly. Bog Gentian, Monkey Flower, Black Headed Sedge, Agoseris, Bract Lousewort, Paintbrush, and on and on. LB Trail turns steeply uphill for a few hundred feet. At its' crest we dropped our packs and made for the former fire lookout site of Hawkeye Point. Hanging 1100' above Goat lake it gives amazing views from the arid east side to the lush western mountains. We spotted several goats noshing on verdant hanging meadows perched vertiginously along the cirques' walls. Remnants of the lookout remain to remind us of a bygone era. Our plan had been to camp at Little Heart Lake further along the LB Trail. Unfortunately a quarter mile past the Hawkeye turn off the already poorly benched trail turned downright nasty. Deep erosional gullies repeatedly cut through and destroyed the bed of the trail. The looseness dampened our enthusiasm and we set our sights on Jordan Basin to camp. Much to our delight, perhaps in divine mountain compensation for having to turn back, we were rewarded with a herd of 32 mountain goats. From a respectful distance we sat in the flowers and watched them graze. The adult males stood together at the top of the hill, the adolescents just below the trail, and then the nursery and tending mothers were spread out in the meadows 500' below us. Their youngs' uncontrollable enthusiasm was contagious as the newborn goats bounced about in the heather as though they were children having watched a Tigger cartoon. Jordan Basin had many quality campsites and running water. We were also entertained by several juvenile marmots and their rock playing antics. Our third day was a relatively short day hike out down the length of Goat Ridge. Attractive campsites with great views down into Jordan Valley were sprinkled along this route. Our desire to visit former lookouts drew us up a side trail to the Goat Ridge lookout site. This side trip was less traveled, the dusty nature of the trips’ trails was replaced by a mostly soft needle duff. The lookout site was littered with fire pit blobs of glass and metal remnants of various past uses. Funny that the view from this lookout wasn't particulalry good. There is a nicely cleared tent pad at this location. With all of our side trips we had a total mileage of ~24 miles and ~5000’ gain. Berries were ripe in places but never in much quantity. Water was scarce but adequate. Campsites were prolific. There were no forest service toilets. We saw lots of wildlife.

Parking at the Snowgrass trailhead, I did a 30 mile 4-day, 3-night loop. Everything was completely snow-free. Goat Ridge Trail to Goat Lake was strenuous but worth it. Goat Lake was 90% thawed, with just a bit of ice at the north end. Continuing from Goat Lake on Lily Basin Trail 86, I camped the first night just north of Alpine Camp with a beautiful view of Mount Adams. Day 2 I followed Snowgrass trail 96 east to the PCT, and then headed south through Cispus Pass. The wildflowers were amazing. I Camped the second night at Sheep Lake on the small knoll directly east of the lake with another view of Mount Adams. Day 3 I continued south on the PCT to Walupt Lake Trail 101, and then west to Walupt Lake. Spent the night at the Walupt Lake Campground, which in hindsight was a mistake (too many RV's with generators to power their microwaves and TV's, and someone stole my can of Hopworks IPA that I stashed in the creek under the bridge to chill). Day 4 I hiked from Walupt Lake west to Coleman Weedpatch trailhead, and then turned north on the Klickitat Loop 7A trail. The 7A trail required a bit more route finding than I expected. I had to take off my boots and ford the Cispus River (it was about thigh deep and 20 feet wide - which is probably low due to the low snow year). Then the trail was a bit difficult to find when it crossed various old logging roads on the way back towards Snowgrass trailhead. But in hindsight, I probably could have done some better research online to prepare myself for it. In summary, a great backpacking trip with beautiful views. Well worth it.

This was a solo day hike of Lily Basin Trail 86A from the stock trail head to Heart Lake for an out/back of 15 miles that took 8hr 50 minutes with a round trip elevation gain of approximately 4000ft. The road to Lily Basin Trial can be accessed from FR 48 across from the Crest Trail Lodge in Packwood. As roads go it’s pretty straight forward. Two things to look out for. First is a washed out area that may require high clearance vehicles. I had a 4 wheel drive, so no problem. Then about ¾ of the way in there’s a “Y” in the road. Keep left. For Lily Basin Trail 86A, there are two trailheads. The Lily Basin 86A trail head and the stock trailhead. The Lily Basin 86A trailhead is unmarked. There’s a no signage that I could see indicating the trail name or number. Parking there is limited as the road is narrow. Parking pullouts extend on the road for a bit. The Stock trailhead is about a ½ mile further down the road and there is signage. Parking is available at the Stock trailhead to account for the horse trailers. Not reading the signs, I parked at the Stock trailhead. Starting out is a decent into a nice forested area. Soon you will be in the Goat Rocks wilderness. The trail is fairly level with a gradual assent. I found myself cursing on this part and covered 3 miles in just over an hour. There were few viewpoints. After that, the viewpoints are almost non-stop and climbs are a bit steeper, but still not bad. The trail soon opens up to steep wildflower meadows. If you hike this in season, the wildflowers will be everywhere. At this point you near the west face of Johnson Peak and traverse the Lily Basin Cirque at the headwaters of Glacier Creek. This area has many glacial run-offs, one of which created a large washed out area of the trail that requires careful crossing. Cross either hard pack snow or climb down a 10-15 water fall and back up the other side. I chose the more straight forward but slippery snow. Even my poles had a hard time digging into the snow. On the way back, it was much softer in places. After this you’ll cross a section of slate and traverse up to the junction of Angry Mountain Trail # 90 and the 3 mountain view of Mt. Rainier, Mt. Adams, and Mount St. Helens as well as Hawkeye Point. This junction is on Angry Mountain Ridge and the only way you can go is down or along the ridge. If continuing on Lily Basin Trail, head down and left, otherwise turn right and follow Angry Mountain Trail. I went left toward Heart Lake. This is a fairly steep meadow decent for .4 miles until you get to the junction of Heart Lake which is marked by a blowdown. Hang a right and follow the gentle decent to Heart Lake. The Lily Basin Trail traverses a cirque around Heart Lake on its way to Jordan Basin and the Goat Lake area. As long as there was a gentle breeze, Heart Lake wasn’t too buggy. It’s still early in the year. Not sure how it will be next month. Parts of the grassy area were marshy, however the area is beautiful and cool to see hikers on the trail walking round the lake. Heart Lake was my turn around point. The assent from the junction of Heart Lake to the Junction of Angry Mountain Trail #90 was the toughest of this hike. After that point, it’s pretty much down hill back to the trailhead. I didn’t realize how much I climbed on the way in until I went back. It’s as gradual coming down as it was going up but it seemed like it went forever. I needed to take the stock trail back to the trailhead but missed the junction somehow. It’s not very discernable and after looking at the map found out it’s around the entrance to Goat Rocks Wilderness Area. I ended up hiking to the main trailhead and road walked about ½ back to the car. All and all, not a back hike. I’ve always wanted to do this hike and knew nothing about it. It’s well worth it. In 5 miles you can see beautiful vistas and maybe even some mountain goats like I did. I will do this hike again but next time as an overnighter or multi-day hike to Goat Lake and head north or south on the PCT. A great entrance to the Goat Rocks.

We decided to celebrate our anniversary with a long weekend in the Goat Rocks. Found spectacular views of three volcanos, surprising solitude and the first taste of fall colors on this little out-and-back trip to Heart Lake. We left the (empty) hiker trailhead of the Lily Basin Trail midday on Saturday, and climbed up and along the ridge towards the basin in a rising fog. On the way in, the fog robbed us of views, but on the way back, we got to admire views down into both the valleys on either side. The ridge section of the trail along this section is largely clear of downed trees (w/ a few exceptions) and only a little brushy in places. There are one or two established camps 2-3 miles from the trailhead. They've got fantastic views down to Packwood Lake and the south side of Mount Rainier, but no water. At the back of the basin, right before the trail crosses the creek, we passed the next trailside camp, occupied by two nice bow hunters and their string of about 6 pack goats (the only goats we'd see all weekend). The one spot of trouble we ran into was just past this camp, as the trail crosses Lily Creek. The far side of the trail had washed out and requires a bit of a scramble. After a bit of scouting, we decided not to hassle with getting both dogs and bags across on empty stomachs in the fast-dwindling daylight. Instead we improvised a less-than-ideal camp in the upper basin below Johnson Peak. Comfortable? No. Beautiful? Yes. The next day, we scrambled up the washed-out section without any problem (giving the dogs both a little boost), and headed across the talus fields to intersection with the Angry Mountain Trail. Just before this intersection we passed an ideal (in good weather) camp that Tami Asars describes in her new book. We never saw the hiker(s) occupying it, but someone woke up to some pretty incredible views of Mount Rainier from there. From the saddle, it was less than a mile descent into another gorgeous basin and the Heart Lake meadow, where Tyler swam, we ate lunch and took a little nap. I easily could have spent a few days here, in the nice tucked-away camp up on the little hill on the southeast side of the lake. We would have loved to explore more deeply into the area, getting at least to Goat Lake, but our time was up, and we headed back out the way we came. On the way out, we saw one other group of hikers, but the two parties and the tent were it for the weekend. We didn't see a lot of wildlife (no surprise, with the pups along), but we did hear some pika, marmots and (in both camps) owls.

We started up Goat Ridge #95 at 11:00. We veered off the main trail to visit the lookout site and the views of Mt. Rainier at Mt. Adams were stunning. As we continued on to rejoin the main trail, we went through a meadow filled with wildflowers. Once on the main trail, we lost quite a bit of elevation, to the point where we thought we were on the wrong trail. We made up for it climbing to Jordan Basin, but the amazing scenery kept us going. This wide open valley has distant views of Mt. St. Helens and interesting rock formations. The Goat Ridge trail ends in Jordan Basin; we took the Lily Basin trail #86 to the east over the ridge, and went on to Goat Lake. The lake was still half covered with snow. Backpackers were arriving by the minute as we sat watching nine mountain goats on the far side of the lake. We continued on the Lily Basin trail, enjoying glorious displays of wildflowers on the steep slopes. The trail traverses the slope, descending very slowly. The views of Goat Rocks and the valley were beautiful. We found Snowgrass flat to be an anti-climax after all we'd seen, and the trip back to the trailhead on #96 was uneventful. We were late returning - 7:00 - but did the 14 mile loop in 8 hours, just like it said in the 100 hikes book.