Goat Lake - Goat Rocks - Goat Ridge - Goat Creek

It feels like summer is quickly on the way to wrapping up around here. The weather already seems to have cooled, I’m now leaving for work in the dark again in the morning and this week the kids are going to be back in school again. With all that in mind, I decided to take the kids on one final summer adventure for the year before we are locked back up in the house for the next several months again.

Valerie decided to turn the two oldest kids, Sarah, Josh, the dog Boone and me out of the house for the weekend to give her some peace and quiet. We met up with my brother-in-law Mike Sirrine and his son Jacob and decided to do a three day loop hike. I had found a trail that I really wanted to do in the Goat Rocks Wilderness area of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest which lies in the Cascade Mountains somewhere between Mt. Rainier and Mt. St. Helens.



I was a little concerned about the weather going in as the last couple of weeks had been quite cool even down at sea-level where we live and this hike would take us quite high into the mountains, even quite some distance above the tree-line. The kids and I spent a couple of days getting ready, packing lots of warm gear, plenty of fuel and extra food “just in case” and by 5:00 AM on Saturday morning we were out the door an on the way.

A short time later, we picked up the two Sirrine members of the family and headed out. By 9:00 AM we had driven to the remote trailhead up off a little dirt road in the mountains in and were on our way.

The first couple of miles of trail were very beautiful through thick northwest forest over and were not too hilly. We made quick time and I was very pleased with the pace the kids were able to keep as well. I had never taken the kids on trips with full backpacks.

I was carrying a pack that was 60+ lbs. and Sarah had quite a bit of weight on her pack too. I would think she probably had around 30 lbs. of gear herself. I packed Joshua’s pack with food exclusively. Although it was also quite heavy, I figured that as the trip went on and the miles became more and more difficult, his pack would become progressively lighter.

The kids did awesome, keeping up with the pace and never uttering a complaint… well, at least not too many. I complained plenty for all of us, cursing gravity and things like that.

After the first couple of miles, the trail got quite steep and the real climb began. Climbing was tough but the reward is that the trees started to thin out at the higher elevations and we got to hike through some gorgeous alpine meadows full of blooming flowers. What a great place that was. I had to stop frequently to take pictures of the area and continually reminded the kids to open their eyes and take a look around and appreciate what a beautiful area that we were in.

We were dragging our feet as we finally found a nice place to camp after about 6.5 miles of hiking for the day just north of an area known as Snowgrass Flats. As the day progressed, several more groups of hikers enjoying the holiday weekend arrived in the general area and also set up camps scattered here and there.

We quickly set up our tents and tried to get some sort of campfire going. This was a struggle since all the wood in the area was very wet. We mostly just made a lot of smoke. Of course occasionally, I did collect a big pile of pine boughs to throw on the fire which burst into flames and made a lot of noise for a few seconds and then were gone again.

With limited fire and with us no longer moving around a lot we realized how cold it actually was outside. We bundled up and did our best to keep warm. We explored a little bit but when it finally started to get dark, it got VERY cold. We had some nice hot food and planned to go to bed very early. The kids and I were using water that we collected along the way and were boiling it to make it safe to drink.

Sarah had a very smart idea and ended up boiling each of the three of us a bottle of water that we immediately put inside our sleeping bags. These bottles stayed warm for several hours which were great to have during the night.

It was COLD at night out there. We, for the most part stayed warmly bundled up in our sleeping bags, with the dog making himself at home right on top of us, which we did not complain about. Only once did I dare to get out of the sleeping bag. At 3:00 AM nature was calling both my and the dog’s name. We quickly scrambled out of the tent and man it was SO DOGONE COLD outside. The skies were clear though and I was treated to one of the most gorgeously starry night skies I had ever seen. I was very happy to finally make it back into my sleeping bag.

Although we slept very little during the night, we were in no hurry to get up in the morning. It was just too cold outside. We actually made breakfast while still in our sleeping bags. Nice hot goatmeal, make that oatmeal, on a cold morning.
When the sun finally made it over the mountains and shined on the tents we, like reptiles started to warm up and get moving. We had more hiking ahead for the day and again quickly packed and were on our way.

We had a shorter hike planned for Sunday. The plan was to hike the steep but not too long trail up to Goat Lake, set up tent and relax there for the day.

We could see the bowl where Goat Lake was from where we had camped the night before and could see it for most of the hike to it as well. As we actually climbed to the lake, you could see clouds rolling in over the mountains at that area and as we climbed past the tree line, it became much more moist and much more cold.

There was ice on the trail at some places and thick frost on a lot of the vegetation. I made sure to keep the kids very close to me and to step carefully since there are some areas where you would most definitely NOT want to fall off the trail. It would be very bad.

Our legs were relieved when we finally made it to the lake. We were somewhat surprised to see a lot of snow still around the lake and that the lake was still about 1/3 frozen. I had to double-check the calendar, this was August 31st right?

We quickly set up camp again as it started to snow outside and quickly took shelter again inside. I made sure that the kids were warmly dressed and that we had a nice hot lunch (Fettuccini Alfredo) and we explored the area. On the hillsides there were scatted groups of mountain goats but none were close enough to get a very good picture.

As it started to snow harder, we retreated to our tent and bundled up again for a short sleepless “nap”. Unfortunately, the Sirrine tent became saturated and one of their sleeping bags was soaked through by the liquid that made it through their tent.

At about 2:00 PM we had a decision to make, to stay through the cold night up on this exposed ridge by this lake or to descend to lower elevation.

We decided to pack up our gear and continue on our loop hike. We actually decided to see if we could make it all the way back down to the car a day early and head on home. The thought of a warm bed was quite appealing at this point.

We did have to kind of book it since we did not want to be stuck out hiking in the dark. We packed out gear in record time and before you know it we were back on the trail in the snow again.

On the loop we were hiking, you actually climb in elevation leaving Goat Lake probably another 500ft. or so vertically to go over the top of Goat Ridge (why is everything named after goats around here!?) and along the ridge over the Jorden Basin. Some of the trail through here was sketchy, ice over mud and steep drops to the one side. I kept Josh especially right with me through these areas.

Gradually we dropped below the snow line and into the rain and sleet and eventually precipitation stopped altogether. We were happy to finally be in the woods again as we descended below the tree line and after a great while there was much rejoicing when we finally saw the van again just about an hour before the sun set again.

All in all, over two days according to my GPS we had hiked 15.25 miles with 3000 vertical feet of climbing. It was a BLAST. The kids have one more memory of a great summer that they get to take back to school this week and I get to be very happy that I have a desk job. My calves feel like they are set to permanent Charlie-horse.


I hope my description doesn’t make it all seem like misery and cold. We had a lot of laughs and the kids are already talking about planning our next trip. Still though, nothing felt better than my own bed last night.