I forgot how much I love Goat Mountain

Al in a field of glacier lilies

Twelve Senior Trailblazers headed up the Mount Baker Highway today to tackle Goat Mountain, one of our several-times-a-season hikes. I was worried about my knee's ability to take yet another uphill hike, after having twinges and some pain after last week's hike up Church Mountain. I decided to go ahead and give it a try, and I'm sure glad I did: I had forgotten how much I enjoy all the aspects of this particular hike.

Al at the overlook, with snow

Although the weather was overcast with a spit of rain every now and then, we hiked the three-and-a-half miles to the overlook, and found a little bit of new snow at the top. That's Sefrit Mountain in front of Al, with its summit hidden from view by the  clouds.

Owen, Rich, Chris, Joy, Dave, Greg, Dave, Roger, MIke, Al
Cindy (kneeling)

Here's the group before we sat down to have a quick lunch. There are two Daves in the picture, but I don't remember their last names. It was a rather large group, with many of the guys chatting the entire way up and down the mountain, so I kept towards the front of the line and stayed out of the conversations.

Finding a nice lunch spot

As you can see once we reached the top, the weather wasn't wonderful, but we put on extra clothes and hunkered down out of the wind. Now and then the sun came out and made us very warm indeed. Even though it was a bit on the weathery side, it was still delightful.

Roger admiring the view

We stayed for a fair amount of time on the top before beginning our return trip, because you don't want to rush away after having spent so much energy getting there, and plus with proper clothes, it was even comfortable. Although we never saw much of the mountains, it didn't matter.

Our trail in the forest

Once we had descended far enough to have returned to the woods, the sun began to peep out even more than before. I saw the trail and greenery lit up by the sun and had to take this picture. From here on down, we had more sun than clouds, and the temperature was simply perfect for hiking.

Maidenhair ferns in front

At one of the stream crossings, I saw my favorite ferns, maidenhair ferns or Adiantum. It's curious to wonder how they got their common name, but they sure are pretty to my eye. I always have to snap a picture when I see one.

Map of Goat Mountain trail

As we were leaving, I took a picture of the Forest Service map of the area. We followed the red dotted line up those switchbacks. Take a look at the elevation profile in the lower right to see why I was worried about my knee. But it did very well and I'm so pleased to be sitting here, happy to have climbed the mountain once again, with good friends and just a wee bit of rain!
:-)