At the beginning it was very enjoyable, there is not much inclination. Lots of loose sand and fallen trees along the entire route. Very beautiful views of the river, and also a silence where you can only hear the water running. When you go up the slope there is a bit of difficulty how to look for alternate paths and be careful with branches and stones. When we arrived at the lake it was very calm, cool but the water was greenish smelling like stagnant and many flies and insects.

We arrived at the Red Caboose TH around 8:30 and only one other car in the lot.  We took the upper trail to Wellington and continued east for maybe 1/4 mile and found more historical signage and a glimpse of the first cascade tunnel going east of Wellington  The trail is closed beyond that.  We had the trail to ourselves all day.  Only hikers we saw were at the Wellington TH

Today we munched on thimbleberries, huckleberries, occasional wild blackberries and wild stawberry.

The loos were clean and stocked with TP at both the Red Caboose and the Wellington TH.

When we retuned to our car around 1:30 there were 11 cars so still plenty of parking available.  GPS logged 8.5 miles

#hikeathon

Iron Goat trail from Martin Creek trailhead on lower grade, up the switchbacks, over to Wellington Trailhead, back along the upper grade. Overall, a great forest walk for a rainy day that wasn't going to have views anywhere.

Lower grade is quite wide, nice and chill start. The switchbacks are a bit steep, climbing 800 ft in .8 miles. After that, the upper grade is very pleasant, giving an excellent tour of tunnels, bridges, walls, and the amazing history of the pacific northwest railroad industry. Just before Wellington Trailhead, a lovely culvert protects the trail from the elements. Some parts of the upper grade are brushy, which made for a very wet day out. 

Garmin logged 13.1 miles and 2400 feet of elevation.

Started at the red caboose (the Iron Goat interpretive site) and hiked the lower grade, then the upper grade, and then down the switchback back to the car. We barely noticed the elevation going up, but wow, there were some steep switchbacks coming back down. I don't recommend starting with the switchbacks. The lower grade trail was in great shape. Lots to explore along the way - especially peeking into the abandoned tunnels. The upper grade was quite overgrown, but passable and we did not have concerns losing the trail. Overall a good hike thanks to the interesting history of the area and peekaboo views across the valley.

We arrived at the parking lot at 9:00 am and the parking lot was full of mosquitoes. However, once we got on trail the bugs were not a big problem.

Also, at 9:00 am on a Sunday - there was only one other vehicle in the parking lot! We didn't see too many people on the whole hike which was nice.

The trail overall is nice and flat and easy to walk. However it is very overgrown in some places with bushes reaching into the path. If you don't want to touch plants don't come on this hike. However the trail is still 100% passable.

The tunnels were very cool (albeit graffiti covered), and I have to say that the berry picking was the highlight of the trip. I found huckleberries, thimbleberries, trailing blackberries, black capped raspberries, and wild blueberries! The huckleberries and thimbleberries were both significantly above average in size and flavor. 10/10 berries.