Where Yarmiks Roam: August 2023

Week 34 - Goat Mountain Wilderness - August 21- August 27, 2023

We were supposed to go to the Obsidian Limited Entry Area this week, but a nasty fire somewhere east of Eugene caused too much smoke on highway 242, that the OLEArea was closed.

Some quick thinking by Beverly shifted our focus to the Goat Rocks Wilderness area in Washington - somewhere between Mt Rainier and Mt Adams. And so.... we were off.

Monday - we met at my house at 5am because the drive would take four hours to get to the trailhead.

Lunch

Our goal was Snow Grass Flat which was about 5.5 miles up the trail. The trail was great, not too many rocks to trip on (although I did trip and fall down flat) and lots of big trees on either side - but not fantastic views. When we got to the junction at Snow Grass Flat, we started (mostly Bev did this) looking for a spot where we could pitch four tents. By the time I got to the junction, Bev had found several, and we chose this one. Somewhat off the main trail, not under trees (which made for colder weather and more tent condensation) and on grass which was nice to feel and not dusty.....but contributed to the nighttime chill and morning condensation.

View down the trail from our campsite

Tuesday - morning broke nice and sunny - cold - but with blue sky (Monday the sky was smoky all day).

And we're off!

Here'sthe junction to Goat Lake. The trail was about 6 miles long - continually uphill but not too steep.

Absolutely stunning vistas all the way to the lake. Kind of stops my heart when I look at the photos.

I think you can see a depression in the upper left part of the photo - that is where Goat Lake is.

There - right in the middle of the photo, you can see a horizontal strip of blue. That is the lake.

The lake looks like an Enchantment Lake ...the glacier blue color!

Everyone but Bev and Ryana were content to open our chairs on the shore of the lake and vege out. They wanted to continue up the trail to a spot overlooking the lake and everything in-between. Here are their photos.

Voila!

By the time the two of them got back to the lake, all of us were COLD and ready to head back.

Back at our campsite at 7:30 pm

Wednesday - our goal was to hike up the junction with the PCT. Jessica and Jenn stayed at camp, Bev, Ryanna, and Kyna hiked up the PCT to the top of Mount Snowy, and Olga and I plopped in amongst a grove of trees and enjoyed the view.

I loved these fields of Western Pasqueflower

And Gentian with the Pasqueflower

Olga and I stopped just after the junction with the PCT

And we headed up the trail to that clump of trees in the upper left.

We sat there most of the afternoon and enjoyed the view. Then we noticed another clump of trees and ventured toward it. It wasn't just trees but some BIG rocks.