This morning a friend and I decided to check out Goat Mtn, up Mt. Baker Highway. Rumor has it that this trail opens up to high elevations sooner than others do due to the southern orientation of the trail.
The trail starts out nicely. I was prepared for burly switchbacks, but both of us decided that the switchbacks distributed the elevation well. Anyways, the trail up to a beautiful viewpoint/campsite is in fairly good condition (i.e. it looks well used, but a creek does run through a majority of the upper trail).
I had read reports on the WTA website from people saying that the trail ""looked"" nearly melted out, but in reality, slightly past the view-point, the trail is covered by about 3 feet of snow. This is easily traversed, but once the trail begins switchbacking up the steep slope of Goat Mtn's southern flank, the trail becomes very sketchy. First off, the trail narrows to a game trail's width. Secondly, the trail banks down slope. And thirdly, the trail is made up of a muddy and loose mess mixed in there with patches of snow. Seems that the slope the trail is on is actually one big slump (slow landslide).
We kicked steps up a snow chute that we deemed safe and made it up about 300 ft shy of the summit. At that point, we decided it wasnt worth it and had lunch. In about 2 weeks, this should all be completely snow free. Flowers are starting to come out...only avalanche lilies in the upper portion, with some lupine, paintbrushed and valerian further down.
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