Goat Mountain Overlook 2017

The Goat Mountain trailhead

Fifteen of us Senior Trailblazers gathered this morning to head up Goat Mountain today. We were told in no uncertain terms at the Glacier Ranger Station that we would need to limit our group to no more than twelve, with at least a mile between groups. We solved that by asking for volunteers to travel up the trail first. Seven agreed to do it, and once they headed out, we waited a good fifteen minutes before the other eight of us began our walk. I was in the second group.

A beautiful trillium in full bloom

The trail winds steeply upwards with switchbacks and beautiful dense forest to block the sunlight for the first part. The higher we got, the more trillium we saw, although here at sea level they are all gone, now that we are in the High Country once again, we are blessed with wildflowers that are gone from lower elevations. This hike starts at 2,500 feet elevation and goes up almost 3,000 feet to a lookout point, our destination for the day.

Mutant or another species?

While traveling up the steep switchbacks, we saw this amazing flower. Is it a trillium with four petals and four leaves? Or is it another species altogether? If any of my followers can enlighten me, I would be so happy to find out what we saw, immortalized in this picture.

Our snow field in the lower meadow

When we reached the lower meadow, we saw that we would be walking on snow for the remainder of the hike to the overlook. Most of us strapped on our various traction gear onto our boots. Some had spikes, but most of us were like me, making do with YakTrax. They helped a great deal going upwards on slushy snow, but I have to say it wasn't easy at all: two steps up and one step back.

The view was wonderful as we hiked upwards

Once we hit the snow, I was so grateful for my transition lenses which turned completely black to protect my eyes. If I had glacier goggles, they are the only thing that would have been better than these. I stopped frequently and drank a lot of water as I trudged up the slopes. We never saw the previous group, but two of them, Melanie and Ellen, had stopped and we ran into them, so we were now ten (still within the wilderness limit).

Cindy in front of Sefrit (left) and Shuksan (right)

And then we were at the overlook, with incredible views of these mountains, as well as Mt. Baker. We were all more than ready for lunch, so we spread ourselves out in the few outcroppings clear of snow and had a very nice repast. I put on my jacket, but frankly I didn't need it. Habit, I guess. It was so beautiful, and we had a few Trailblazers who were on Goat Mountain for the first time. We'll head up again once all that snow is mostly gone, but I was so happy to be part of today's group.

Mt. Baker on the right, with some Trailblazers below

After this picture was taken, we started our downward trek, returning the way we had come. It was WAY harder to go down that snow, and my knees right now are not feeling great, having to hold myself back on the steep slopes, and many of us took a spill or two. (I stayed upright, but I'm not sure exactly why.)

Calypso orchid

On the way down, I captured this picture of a magnificent Calypso Orchid. We saw some other orchids s that were very tiny, but I discovered when I kneeled down to get this shot, I could not get back up without help. My knees complained mightily. No more pictures for me, just concentrate on getting back down to the cars.

Which is just what we did. We all arrived at the cars, to find that it had been more than an hour since the previous group had return to the parking lot. They were not only faster, but they also obviously had not stopped to take pictures of the flowers. All in all, we covered more than seven miles and almost 3,000 feet of up and down, a good part of it on steep slushy snow. There is a reason I am sitting here in my chair feeling very tired. But what a day! I had a great one.
:-)