A bit of a late report for an overnight trip up Gilbert in the Goat Rocks!
We began our trek from the Conrad Meadows trailhead - the road was in good condition with a few potholes. NW Forest Pass/America the Beautiful for parking, and there was an outhouse at the trailhead.
The trail was super flat for the first few miles and in good condition overall. Things of note: two water crossings on logs right at the start and a little bit of a step up onto the wonky bridge over Conrad Creek.
We kept left at the fork to stay on the South Fork Tieton trail to head up to Surprise Lake - the trail picked up a little more elevation here on the way to the lake. There were quite a few people camped here. We had lunch at the lake, filtered water, and moved on upwards, taking a left at the junction towards the ridge.
The trail was decidedly steeper from this point, and we huffed our way up to the ridge and took a left at the top to head along the ridge in the direction of Warm Lake. The bootpath sort of petered in and out of existence in this section, but following the general direction of the ridge got us there.
Warm Lake did not live up to its name - it was raining and cold when we arrived and snagged a camp site (there were also more people here than we expected!). We chilled out in our tents for the afternoon as the rain pattered down.
Sometime in the evening the wind picked up and howled through the night. I popped out of my tent at 5 am to see if it was good for a summit bid, but after the gusty blasts left me breathless and shivering, we decided to go back to sleep for a few more hours.
We finally rolled out of camp around 10 a.m. with slightly less ferocious winds and sunnier skies for company. We headed straight up the talus/scree to the ridge BUT there is a bootpath - we followed it on the way down, it was just further along to climber's left than I realized. Once up the slope we did pick up the bootpath and followed it along the ridge without issue. Some parts might be a little narrow/have more of a drop than some might like, but overall it was straightforward to navigate with maybe a few slightly scrambly spots.
The blustery day turned around three of our group at the broad shoulder of Gilbert, while two of us headed on and up to the rocky summit block. It took us a minute to find the correct highest point, but a little class 3 scrambling had us on the top and signing the summit register...in the clouds, of course. We waited a few minutes and got a few seconds of views over the Goat Rocks before descending to a more sheltered area for a snack, and then headed back down to meet the rest of our group and return to camp.
The way out went much more quickly - overall this trip felt like a pretty mellow approach for a peak over 8000'! The trail was snow-free the entire way, and the advantage of the blustery weather meant no bugs were out to bother us at camp.
Follow along on Instagram for more photos :) @thenomadicartist
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