My first time here I just took a small day hike along the lower grade of the Iron goat via the martin creek trail head to end of the maintained trail nice easy hike beutiful weather but deer flys were bad Its 11:oopm and I am still itching . then I drove up to top of pass and hiked a little way down the wellington trail head inside the snow shed and then back to the cascade tunnel there is such great history there ! The iron goat would be a wonderfull hike for kids cool tunnels and snow sheds great interpretive signs ect ! and a easy hike for senoirs or outa shapers like me ! and the trails nice and wide so its great for dogs too but I still keep shadow leashed in repect to other hikers !

I had originally wanted to do this peak as a winter climb, but then winter decided not to show up. Oh well. As I drove to within view, all the southern slopes were completely bare of snow. Most folks start out from Hwy 2 near the town of Scenic and begin a direct ascent of the SE ridge, passing over/around the Windy Point Tunnel. I figured I could save myself a few hundred feet of bushwacking (but add a bit of distance) by starting my trip at the Iron Goat TH. Lots of interesting signage, old RR tunnels and history can be found on both the upper and lower grades of this once switchbacking railroad. For this climb, I of course chose to hike the upper grade, which can be reached just a couple hundred feet after starting from the TH (lower grade). Now note the USGS. While hiking E on the upper grade, you will pass two streams coming down off the mountain side. The second one (angled NNE towards the summit) is where I left the trail. You will know when you get here, as a very large concrete wall spans the drainage. Walk to the E side of this and you'll find a stairwell leading to the top of this wall, and to the spillway once used for firefighting when the RR was active. This spillway is still intact and somewhat interesting to look at. You can begin the ascent from the top of the stairwell, or from the spillway like I did. From the spillway I battled with 40' of devils club before entering the woods on the E side. The woods are brushy, but only very mildly. Just keep the stream to your left until around 3400', where the way shifts a bit and gets on a more defined ridge heading NE. At about 4000' I got out of the woods and into some thigh-high leaf-less shrubbery. It's all pointing downhill, so you'll have to work against the grain. Lots of game trails, bedding areas and sleeping deer were found on this open hillside. The only area I found consistent snow at was the flat area below the summit, where it was up to a couple feet deep. I was only a little impressed with the summit, which is a rocky mound halfway surrounded by trees. It took a little over 2 hrs to reach the top, at a moderate pace. The descent was fast and easy. I stopped at about 4900' to eat lunch and watch the mile-long trains creep up and down the valley, far below. After that quick break, it was less than 2 hours back to the TH. The Wellington Train Disaster that occured in this area happened almost 95 years ago. If you are interested I have posted these links that offer goods pics and history of the area. Exploring all the RR areas (both Iron Goat and Wellington) prior to climbing Windy made it a more meaningful experience for me. http://home1.gte.net/mvmmvm/index.html http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=5127 http://www.historylink.org/wellington/overview.htm

TUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2005 – IRON GOAT TRAIL Having planned for a cloudy day finally I chose to enjoy a nice long forested hike along the Iron Goat Trail, the historic railroad grade of the Great Northern just west of Stevens Pass. Of course it ended up not only sunny, but much warmer than I ever thought. It was 64 degrees at 3000’ when I left! I took my border collie, Mittens, along and we started hiking from the Martin Creek trailhead on the western end of this great 6-mile long stretch of the historic path of trains by 8:00am. No snow was anywhere, pretty much as expected, and only a few patches of snow were around at the 3100’ region near Wellington on the eastern end of the trail. This really is a neat trek to take and you can just feel the history behind the areas there. The tunnels were so photogenic, the piles of old rotted wood from the 90 year old now collapsed snow sheds lined much of the way, and the views are pretty nice also looking out from Windy Point at the creek valleys leading up to Surprise Lake and up Deception Creek. It was equally as fun to have a list of blooming flowers for it being March 8 at this elevation: Skunk Cabbage was up, bright, and strong smelling in three areas, Salmonberry is blooming, Palmate Coltsfoot was up and blooming, and a few yellow violets as well. Alder and maple trees are just budding out nicely as are other wonderful shrubby items such as Devil’s Club. The complete concrete snow shed at the Wellington end of the trail 5.5 miles from the trailhead was a fun place to call it lunch. The dog was going to have a pretty warm return 6-mile hike back to the truck, and so was I. We enjoyed our down time and after having taken ample photography time on the 6-mile hike in, we made pretty consistent time hiking back out. Six hours after leaving the truck we returned after our 12 mile day was behind us. That may well be the longest hike the wonder-border collie has done with me, and she was rather pleased over the matter too! NOTE: Last week ticks were seen on my friends pants at 5000’ up Mount Baldy near Easton Ridge….today at 3100’ by the Wellington snow shed where we had lunch, I found a tick on my jacket which was on the ground…and one on Mittens’ nose at the same time. So don’t be fooled thinking no ticks can be around west of the crest…check always, check often this year. Soon we’ll have cactus plants growing in our western Washington yards too, I’m sure J Alan L. Bauer 03/08/2005

I arrived at the Martin Creek trail head at 10:30 Very flat and easy trail to follow because this is an assessable trail. The trail was in great shape and there were lots of interesting artifacts such as old coils of cabling, shovels, dishes, etc. Reading the informational signs and looking at the crumbling old tunnels and pieces of the snow sheds were quite interesting as well. There are only a few muddy spots from the rain that happened earlier in the week. Also one log is down and lies across the trail but it is easily gotten over (unless you came because this is an assessable trail.) As a solo hike, I felt fairly safe on the trail itself. Walking up to the mouth of the abandoned tunnels that are falling apart (but not entering due to the danger of cave-ins) gives this trail an interesting spook factor. On the lower grade, there is a short section of tunnel that can be passed through all the other tunnels have danger signs which I heeded. There are also a few places where I hiked past smaller openings to tunnels that the side of the hill had opened up. A squirrel chirped at me from one and I jumped a mile. Going to the end of the lower grade of till I hit the closed to the public sign. Then I turned around and went up the Corea crossover to the upper grade where I went another 3 ½ miles. Total miles about 5 with lots of stopping and reading; I left around 3:30

IRON GOAT TRAIL at Stevens Pass SHORT RPT: cloudy with intermittent light drizzle, trail in good condition, lots of flowers, no bugs, no sun, no people. LONGER REPORT: We hiked from the upper trailhead down to the Windy Point tunnel and then a 1/2 mile further before lunching and returning. Mid 40's temperatures were cool enough to stay all covered up all day long. The trail starts in the massive concrete snow shed that is visible from the hiway and then alternates between forest and clearings as it drops to Windy Point at a steep railroad grade of 2% (which is almost flat to a hiker). Several other ruined snow sheds are passed enroute. There are several good view points but our views were limited to about a mile or two in clouds. The best flowers were : Columbia lily, Wild ginger, Red and Orange Paintbrush, Mertensia, Columbine, Pink and Yellow Monkeyflower, and Queens Cup. This is a historical trail and much evidence of the Great Northern RR (Goat emblem) is found. Windy Point is about midway between the two trailheads. We were the only people on the eastern half of the trail . See www.irongoat.org for driving directions and interesting historical photos and text. Stats: 7 miles 300 ft. elev. gain, 4 hours. Robert Michelson 6-20-03