American Ridge, Goat Creek — Saturday, Aug. 6, 2011

Mount Rainier Area > Chinook Pass - Hwy 410

Fine 360-degree panorama from the summit of Goat Peak (the one between the Bumping and American Rivers east of Chinook Pass, not necessarily any of the various other Goat Peaks), from Rainier to Fifes Peaks to Daniels to Stuart to the Yakima Valley (hazy) to Aix / Nelson Ridge to Adams and the Goat Rocks. Excellent visibility to mountains (except for those low or distant ones blocked by the clouds peeking over the crest from the westside). Sun, pleasant temperature, light winds. Excellent flower show above about 5500'; lots of lupine, penstemon, paintbrush, wallflower, phlox, and some scarlet gilia, larkspur, yarrow, etc. Trail completely snowfree. What more could anyone ask? Well, somewhat unreasonably ... A few less bugs. They weren't really bad, but there were spots along the trail where one didn't want to linger too long (happily, Goat Peak summit was bugfree, as was the trail below about 4500'). The trails were in good condition, except for a number of blowdowns. About the first 2 miles of Goat Creek Trail (starting across the street from the closed Cougar Flat campground along Bumping River) had been logged out, but there were a number of blowdowns thereafter. Most were easy step-overs or scrunch-unders; one or two required a minor clamber, but nothing bad. The long mile of American Ridge trail between the upper end of Goat Creek trail and Goat Peak was a bit more difficult, but quite passable for hikers. There were several downed trees with innumerable tightly spaced branches. Two required a detour (one made a direct hit on a switchback, pretty much requiring hikers to cut the switchback). A couple of others required one to find a way through the prickly thicket surrounding the trunk, which was do-able.