Neil Modie, Gil Aegerter, and I hiked to the flat-topped knob just below the top of West Goat Mountain. Mike Brunker, lately of Henderson, Nevada, accompanied us to the ridge at about 5,400 feet. We hiked in a year when the Cascades' winter snowpack was lasting unusually long into the summer. Friends have reported high lakes still frozen over in August.
ROAD
Although Forest Road 32 had many potholes, they were easily avoided and the road was so smooth it gave my low-clearance Toyota Prius no trouble.
TRAILHEAD
Three vehicles were at the trailhead when we arrived around 10:40 a.m. The parking area had a picnic table and an outhouse in good condition.
TRAIL CONDITIONS
The trail was free of snow, free of fallen trees, in excellent condition, and almost completely dry all the way from the trailhead at 2,500 feet to the trail's end on the flat-topped knob 300 feet south of the summit of West Goat Mountain.
Conifer needles cushioned much of the trail in the lower forest.
At about 5,800 feet, a trail segment a few hundred feet long traversing the steep, grassy meadow had washed out and was tilted downhill steeply enough to demand careful footings even though dry.
Toward the the upper (northwest) end of this traversing segment was an offshoot trail -- a seeming shortcut straight up the steeply sloping meadow. In hindsight it may be the best way to get up to the next switchback; soon after we skipped it the trail seemed to fade out abruptly and completely.
BUGS
At the top, an increasingly stiff breeze seemed to sweep away the small black flies that far outnumbered the mosquitoes and had been relentlessly biting during my stops on the way up. Bugs were a minor annoyance while I was moving. Butterflies and pale blue moths fluttered above timberline.
WATER SOURCES
-- The most convenient water source was a robust stream crossing the trail about 400 feet below the summit ridge (elevation about 5,900 feet, GPS 48.92301, -121.64310), in a small gully filled with a lush garden of greenery and delicate flower blossoms.
-- Gil and I tanked up at a nearby spring, about 20 feet below the trail about 500 feet southeast of that stream (5,800 feet, 48.92206, -121.64183).
-- In the timber below, the trail switchbacked very close to the basin's noisy main creek, at 4,100 feet (48.91181, -121-65687).
-- Snow patches were accessible a few vertical feet below the path along the crest of the ridge near the top.
FLORA
Both the deep forest and the open meadows above had relatively few flowers blooming. Near the streams, trickles, and springs, however, I saw lush greenery and many kinds of flowers in bloom, including one or two I've rarely or never seen in many decades of hiking the Cascades. In a couple of places some huckleberries were ripe, with more yet to ripen.
FAUNA
Two of my companions reported seeing a pair of bears about 100 yards from the trail in a clearing near tree line -- a very light colored adult and a dark colored cub. The bears ambled away instead of posing for photos. The only animal I noticed personally was a curious chipmunk.
COMMUNICATION
Verizon's voice, text, and data signals were strong from the trailhead to the summit. In the meadow around 5,800 feet, the Speedtest app clocked Verizon's internet upload speed at 4 megabits per second and its download speed at 100 mbps, the highest speed the app seemed to be able to register.
TECHNICAL NOTES
The datum for the location coordinates is WGS84.
Location information in this report is from the tracking function of the Gaia GPS Android app, version 2022.5.1, running on a Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G.
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