Goat Mountain (off Baker Lake Rd)* note there are many Goat Mountains. This one is the one of Baker Lake Road near Grandy Lake/Creek. I am behind on thedirtbaguette.com, so please enjoy a stylized WTA Trip Report.
When: February 6th, 2022
Where: Nooksack and Sauk Suiattle Native Lands
Trail stats: 12ish miles/4000ft cumulative gain
Conditions: Clear and worryingly warm for a February Day
Avy Risk: Orange above/near treeline, yellow below
Snow notes: Snow did not consistently begin until 3,5000ft so you do benefit from doing this one later in the season. We had been hoping to ski this peak, and I'd have agreed to if we'd seen better snow coverage along highway 20 heading east. However, the downed trees along the first 2 miles would have made this quite difficult
Gear needed: Snowshoes
Gear packed: but then not used: Ice axes, helmets, traction spikes
Other required items: A GPS track helps alot here. God bless the people who summited before us- we didn't use our track as we had footprints, but 100% I would have ditched the road and bushwacked straight up this mountain had I not had the patience.
GPS track: Goat Mountain | Gaia GPS
Context: We'd wanted to do something steep on this particular day, but a nearly 60-degree weather forecast in the lowlands convinced us that snow climbing would be a bad idea. Goat caught my partner Hwei Ling's attention last week, so we decided to see what it was about. I'd already been in the area (enjoying Artist Pt here: Artist Ridge - Huntoon Point, Artist Point Snowshoe, Table Mountain, Heather Meadows, Lake Ann (Mount Baker Highway) — Washington Trails Association (wta.org)) so a quick overnight in Burlington had me prepped to go.
Parking/accessibility: We parked in the designated spots along Baker Lake Road. Baker Lake Road is paved and in great shape. There is a blue gate blocking the rest of the road system (more in Trail Summary) so pahk ya cah (as they say in Boston) and start from there. No bathrooms are available. The gate on the road blocks any sort of mobility aid from rolling through on trail.
Trail summary: Begin the 5ish mile road-walk to the ridgeline of Goat Mountain. The road is often flat/not very steep and would make for an excellent beginners ski if it was not for the blowdowns. A flatter area above Grady Creek gave us trouble with more than 5 trees blocking the way.
I have a gate key for old Weyerhauser land in this area, but it wouldn't do much help here. A section of trail/old road is completely gone and requires a bit of scrambling in one section (will include photo), which is a shame because there are SO MANY cool roads we observed at a distance.
At about 3400ft, we transitioned from boots to snowshoes. The road widens and becomes more ridgey, thus opening itself to more snow. The views of Sedro Wooley and Concrete were gorgeous from here. You have a great view of Mountain Loop Highway Peaks: Glacier, White Chuck, Sloan, and Pugh. Three Fingers and Whitehorse will become more visible as you gain high enough to see into Darrington.
As we walked higher on the road, the trail made a sharp left up up the ridge and off the road for the first time. You'll do this twice on the way up. The higher you climb, the more views of the North Cascades (the Pickets, the park, and Baker) you'll get.
We transitioned onto the road for a short bit, then back up the ridge. We only had 3/4s of a mile to go, but it seemed to go on forever- mostly because 1,000ft of gain still remained.
We ran into the couple who'd created the snowshoe track about 600ft below the summit. I was so grateful for them as we'd benefitted from not having to route find through the trees. With the warming day, each step was getting squishier, and I thought they'd had the right idea starting early.
100ft below the summit, the couple had removed their snowshoes for the steeper climbing, but we kept ours on. This is the only area of true avalanche terrain so watch out. The way up was easy, but the way down was a bit trickier. An axe and traction would be a MUST on a colder day here.
The summit of Goat is a big ole cornice! We stayed south (right) near what are usually boulders and tried to get the best views of Shuksan and Baker- which are now hard to see beyond the giant cornice. The Twin Sister Range is in STUNNING condition, and I plan to be there next weekend seeing how high we can get on on the North Twin. WOWZERS.
The weather was much windier so we downclimbed back to the spot the couple had re-snowshoed for lunch. It had to be about 50 degrees in the sunny, windless snow. I cooked in my puffies and devoured all my foot. It would be a 15+ mile, 5,500ft+ gain weekend, and I write to you still a bit short on caloric intake for tough winter travel.
The way back went quick. Nothing to report. We did wish for skis on the road bits, but we dipped below the snowline so quickly that I stand by our use of snowshoes. Time frames if its helpful:
0830 start
1245 summit
1320 descent start
1600 back at the car in leisure
I'd give this one high marks for being accessible via car in snowy conditions with moderate avy risk, but I'm not sure I'd do it again without gate access. The areas around it sure look good for exploring, so one day I hope to write to you with beta on nearby Red Rock and some of those mysterious roads heading north to Baker.
If you liked this trip report, tell me! I'm @thedirtbaguette on IG and will have this report up on thedirtbaguette.com once I finish writing about my climbs in 2021.
Comments
highwalker on Goat Mountain
A thorough trip report. Leaving the road sooner, about 2500', and taking the direct route to the summit does work although there's quite a bit more tree-bashing. By the way, when should we expect delivery of the beer for setting the tracks? :-)
Posted by:
highwalker on Feb 09, 2022 08:25 AM