Iron Goat Trail — Thursday, Oct. 23, 2003

Central Cascades > Stevens Pass - West

I arrived at the Martin Creek trail head at 10:30 Very flat and easy trail to follow because this is an assessable trail. The trail was in great shape and there were lots of interesting artifacts such as old coils of cabling, shovels, dishes, etc. Reading the informational signs and looking at the crumbling old tunnels and pieces of the snow sheds were quite interesting as well. There are only a few muddy spots from the rain that happened earlier in the week. Also one log is down and lies across the trail but it is easily gotten over (unless you came because this is an assessable trail.) As a solo hike, I felt fairly safe on the trail itself. Walking up to the mouth of the abandoned tunnels that are falling apart (but not entering due to the danger of cave-ins) gives this trail an interesting spook factor. On the lower grade, there is a short section of tunnel that can be passed through all the other tunnels have danger signs which I heeded. There are also a few places where I hiked past smaller openings to tunnels that the side of the hill had opened up. A squirrel chirped at me from one and I jumped a mile. Going to the end of the lower grade of till I hit the closed to the public sign. Then I turned around and went up the Corea crossover to the upper grade where I went another 3 ½ miles. Total miles about 5 with lots of stopping and reading; I left around 3:30