[MangyMarmot]

On Saturday I met up with a friend to hike Goat Mountain on the North Fork Snoqualmie. The road seemed to have more than its usual allotment of potholes, but the truck had no trouble with them. Even my van could have made it. We had studied RichP's trip report and had Puzzler's GPS track. We parked and went down to to the creek where they had crossed. The creek was running high, and the crossing looked pretty sketchy. We jumped back into the truck and went up the road. No far up the road we found a pullout that went all the way down to the creek. This section of creek was wide, reasonably shallow and slow moving. Perfect ford. We were soon on the other side putting our boots back on. We headed North-West from the ford until we gained the ridge that RichP and Puzzler used, then followed the ridge up. The ridge was forested with a fair amount of brush to plow through. At about 3300 ft it transitioned to snow and the going got significantly easier. At around 4500 ft, the trees start to thin out and the mountain views start. At about 5000 ft you get to the top of the ridge and the views really open up. From there it's a pleasant walk to the summit. No significant obstacles. There is still lots of snow on the upper mountain. The views from the summit were better than expected. You can see much of the Western half of the alpine lakes wilderness.

The brush

McClain and Phelps.

Goat summit

Looking North

Daniel and Stuart

Phelps and Index

After a leisurely lunch and a long summit stay, we followed our tracks down. We reached the creek a bit downstream of the ford and found three crossing logs so we didn't have to get our feet wet crossing the creek. We brought snowshoes but the snow was consolidated enough that we didn't use them. Goat peak turned out to be considerably more pleasant than I expected it to be. Going early season helps cut down on the bushwhacking once you get high enough to get on snow.

[RichP]

Good to know that creek is crossable in spring. I had my doubts it was possible. A bit of a 'shwack but the upper parts make up for it.

[Mark Hadland]

Thanks for the TR. SUper useful. I have unfinished business on Dog and why not bag a Goat on the way. Looks manageable in these conditions, but Puzzlr's and RichP's pick of the upper slabs look pretty cool in summer. cheers

[timberghost]

see any Goats?

[kitya]

You should have zoomed on Phelps a bit more and you would see Cookie on the top

[MangyMarmot]

No goats spotted on Goat Mountain. Only saw Cookie running around on Phelps.