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Trip Report

Goat Creek — Thursday, Jul. 20, 2017

South Cascades > Mount St. Helens
Cathedral Falls is the highlight of the trip through deep woods. Photo by Elspeth Durek.

This was an okay hike for a rainy day. Cathedral Falls was spectacular. However, the falls was only a half mile from the trailhead, and the rest of the hike was mostly in deep woods. The randomness of downed trees looked like mother nature had been playing pick-up-sticks, and we were dwarfed by the magnitude of it all. Sadly, several trees were spray-painted with graffiti.

 TRAIL CONDITIONS

The trail has many ups and downs, making the total ascent closer to 1300 feet than the 400 feet in the hike description. The trail before the split was in good shape. After that the trail was much rougher with downed trees to climb over or duck-walk under.

 ROAD CONDITIONS

The road had huge potholes, canyons and drop-offs that made driving challenging even with a high-clearance vehicle.

 RECOMMENDATION

Would I recommend this hike to others? Probably not. Other than the waterfall, the hike was rather unremarkable. There are many other hikes in the area that would make a better rainy option.

Hikers are dwarfed behind Cathedral Falls. Photo by Espeth Durek.
Water spilling over the top of Cathedral Falls. Photo by Mary McDonnell.
Rain loving plants thriving in the deep forest. Photo by Mary McDonnell.
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