Goat Mountain and Deadman's Lake — Friday, May. 29, 2020

This is why I love the Gifford Pinchot - SO beautiful and SO quiet!  We got to the trailhead at 10am with no one else there and we didn't see anyone else the whole day (granted, a Friday so not on the weekend).  The road has some potholes but not bad if you take it easy.  The trail is in really great condition, looked like some branches/trees had been trimmed recently.  We only hiked up about 3.2-ish miles because of time constraints but that was actually a great stopping point because we left the main trail there to go up to the high point and got PHENOMENAL 360-degree views of all four of our beloved volcanoes.  We hit a snowfield around 3 miles and then there was intermittent snow so I had my microspikes on then but my husband was just in boots and was fine.  It is a pretty steady climb up but at least in the woods for the most part (again, we turned around before what I think is more exposed).  Oh and there were lots of trillium and yellow violets blooming.