Forum Index > Trip Reports > Goat Mountain (Lyman) 16 Jan 2021
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kitya
Fortune Cookie



Joined: 15 Mar 2010
Posts: 842 | TRs | Pics
Location: Duvall, WA
kitya
Fortune Cookie
PostSat Jan 16, 2021 9:02 pm 
After visiting another Goat Mountain a week ago (that one near Easton: https://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8033300) I looked up all Goat mountains in the Washington state using USGS website here: https://geonames.usgs.gov/apex/f?p=138:1:::::: only to find out there are 85 places named Goat in the state (27 of them are summits, others are ridges, creeks, lakes, basins, etc.). That is a lot. Me and Cookie usually hike once a week. This means we can probably spend 1.5 years just going to places named Goat every weekend. Well that would probably be too much, but while looking through the map another Goat mountain stood out to me as a good winter destination. This one is near to Lyman, WA. It is not very tall, but the summit is unusually without trees. The summit appears to be state land, but all land around it is private. However, unlike other more greedy logging companies, at the present Sierra Pacific Industries allows free access by foot or bike. This is very nice. The road walk on the Sierra-Pacific logging road is long and a bit boring and views around clear cuts are sad, but the road is in great condition and easy to walk most of the time. There is one large washout and one switchback with a dozen downed trees from the recent storm, but other than that the road is completely clear. I was quite surprised to see that the storm had this very localized impact on the road, all downed trees happened literally in just one spot. Depressingly there is no snow at all until 3000 feet. After 3000 feet it was pure ice in the morning. I put on snowshoes to have better grip, but it would probably be possible to just boot up all the way. The summit was windy and cold, but had amazing views. Ratio of the effort to views on this Goat mountain is definitely great. Super easy and amazing views. I didn't see any people coming up, but this Goat mountain turned out to be unexpectedly popular and on our way back we found 3 more cars at the bottom of the road. We saw one guy going up on skis and another large group of ladies wearing very summer-like hiking attires. Since snow got softer in the afternoon, some flotation would be advisable. Sadly there is lots of smoke from heating/wood stoves near the bottom of the valley, it is hard to breathe. Since the hike is so easy and short we had time to drive to Breadfarm bakery in Edison, WA after the hike, and we got there 20 minutes before closing. It is an amazing bakery, but sadly they only had rye bread left and some cookies. They close at 4pm. If you are in the area, i highly recommend it. Sometimes they also have dog sourdough cookies.

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Cyclopath
Faster than light



Joined: 20 Mar 2012
Posts: 7694 | TRs | Pics
Location: Seattle
Cyclopath
Faster than light
PostSat Jan 16, 2021 10:20 pm 
Those views are incredible, and Cookie looks happy. It's amazing and sad that there's no snow until 3k! Thanks for saving me a trip though, I was planning to head to that region on Monday to ski. ☹️

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kitya
Fortune Cookie



Joined: 15 Mar 2010
Posts: 842 | TRs | Pics
Location: Duvall, WA
kitya
Fortune Cookie
PostSat Jan 16, 2021 11:11 pm 
Cyclopath wrote:
Those views are incredible, and Cookie looks happy. It's amazing and sad that there's no snow until 3k! Thanks for saving me a trip though, I was planning to head to that region on Monday to ski. ☹️
It is so strange. Feels like late spring, not January. The snow is very hard and frozen and only exists very high up. While I have seen one person coming up on ski, it didn't look like fun conditions to ski at all.

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