Goat Mountain and Deadman's Lake — Saturday, Jul. 8, 2000

South Cascades > Mount St. Helens

Goat Mountain Trail is accessed by going to Randle, turning South and following the road to Windy Ridge Visitor Center.. Turn right at about the 29 mile point from Randle (4 miles past Bear Meadow) and follow a narrow road to Ryan Lake.. Goat Mountain trail is just past ryan lake.... Trail starts steep and stays steep for first 1.5 miles or so, but then you work your way up 3 or 4 short switchbacks and you are on top of the ridge. The trail traverses the ridge for the next couple of miles staying 500 feet or so below and to the South of Goat Mountain. The peak itself is easily attainable from either the East or West side, but West side approach looked best. We flushed 3 ruffed grouse (one was young of the year) and there was a variety of purple, red, and white flowers in bloom. (I refer to them as ""Lily of the Mountain""... not scientifically correct, but now accepted within the crowd I hike with). Also noticed some scat that wasn't deer, elk, horse, or ""poochie"". My best guess is bear, but it could have been cougar or Mountain Goat. There was some gravelly, loose rock at one spot along the ridge where ""hoof prints"" were visible that definitely weren't deer or elk and I think the only other ""hoofed"" critter up here are Goat. The ridge dropping down from Goat Mountain is a pleasant Alpine environment that's on the very Northern edge of the Mt. St. Helen's ""Blowdown area"". Mt. Rainier, Mt. Adams, and Mt. St. Helens are all visible. I think Goat rocks should be visible also from this ridge, but it was kind of cloudy today and could only see the mountains between the ""cloud banks"" and the ""cloud bank"" to the east was pretty permanent.. Even though this area is above 5500 feet, it clears early because of it's ""southern exposure""... We didn't hit snow until the trail ""scooted"" over to the ""north slope"" and that happens about 4 miles from the trailhead. The river visible in the valley to the South is the Green River. It is one of the few in the state with a healthy wild salmon run (Coho's) and this run usually starts in early October and fish will actually keep trickling in until January. The Green is a tributary of the Toutle, which is a tributary of the Cowlitz which flows into the Columbia at the town of Longview.