Driving: there is an error in the directions for getting there. Forest road 21 (Thompson Rd) is 2.5 mi WEST of the town of Packwood, not east, as written.  WTA’s own statement cautions the reader to not rely on GPS apps. Ironically, my Google maps app led me in the right direction (after incorrectly driving east, past Packwood). FR 21 is passable by any vehicle but it is badly washboarded in many places along the way. Not surprising after a summer of heavy use. FR 2150 gets mild to moderately rocky but still negotiable by anything but a low rider. The parking lot was nearly full when we arrived mid morning on a Thursday.

Hiking: The trails we hiked, Snowgrass to PCT, PCT to Old Snowy summit trail, and Tr 86 (Lily Basin) all were in fine shape. The weather was CAVU for our three day outing. Wild flowers filled the scenery with reds, yellows, whites, and blues. Paint brush, gentian, aster, Queen Anne’s Lace and much more. 

Water access: Snowgrass trail has several stream crossings, one lower down, about 20 minutes in and another about half way up. There was good water access at Snowgrass Flats. Trail 86, between SG Flats and Goat Lake has numerous creek crossings. From SG Trail intersection with the PCT north to Old Snowy summit trail there is only one water access, which is at the lower end/bottom of Packwood Glacier. An easy side trail leads down to it. The water is crystal clear and icy cold. Delicious!

Camping: There are about one half dozen nice spots at SG Flats with views north across a meadow to Goat Ridge beyond. Trail 86 has a multitude of camp sites along the way to Goat Lake. You can't always see the sites but side trails leading to them are obvious. As for Goat Lake itself, sites are a few and fill up fast. If you arriving later in the day, especially on a weekend, you're better off camping at one of the sites off Tr 86. Many of them are quite nice. There are a handful of sites along the PCT b/t SG trail and Old Snowy summit trail. Some are open and very exposed. Beware of strong winds arriving in the middle of the night. BTDT. Happy Trails!

I've often heard that the Goat Rocks is one of the favorites of PCT hikers, but never quite understood why, so it was time to find out, and set off for a really enjoyable 3 day tour of the Goat Rocks Wilderness. 

Looking back, I think this area punches above it's weight ( based purely on the contours ) with wonderful meadows full of flowers, trails, campsites, gnarly peaks, and even some glaciers ( for now ).  Throw in being constantly supervised by 4+ volcanoes ( plus Goat Rocks itself ) and it makes for a special place.

TL;DR;

• Route
  • Snowgrass TH => Snowgrass Trail => Bypass => PCT to Cispus River
  • Off trail up to Cispus / McCall col, then...
  • Ridge scramble along to Ives Peak
  • High camp under Ives South summit basin ( Camp I )
  • Over Ives saddle, descent to PCT
  • PCT to Old Snowy
  • Along PCT Knife Edge to peak just before Elk Pass
  • Return back along the Knife Edge to Goat Lake ( Camp II )
  • Up Hawkeye Point, and exiting via Goat Ridge Trail
• Flowers: Probably post-peak, but still amazing in the basins, or areas with moisture
• Berries: Blueberries and Huckleberries down lower, but a bit off and on
• Critters: Marmots, Sparkies ( chipmunks ), usual bird-age
  • Reports of goats, but did not see
• People:
  • This area is popular, with backpackers, day hikers, and PCTers swimming both upstream and downstream
  • That said, it's a large area, so never felt crowded, and everyone super friendly and happy to be there
  • Goat Lake has maybe 15 sites, probably 80% full
  • Saw one ridge runner doing Old Snowy => Ives, but saw no one else beyond Old Snowy in the alpine
  • Really enjoyed hiking out with new friends M, and two other from Oregon
• Snow: Currently no required snow on route 
  • Lower PCT below Old Snowy (the traverse variant) had a very short section, that if needed could be bypassed below
    • Or just take the high variant
  • Near the end of Snowgrass trail, before ascending to Old Snowy there is a snow patch where it is easier taking a lower line to the end of tarn, or might be able to bypass even lower 
• Logistics: See section at end

WALKIE BITS

The main trails in this area are wide, fast, well maintained and fairly obvious.  Campsites and water fills are (currently) regularly available, except for the Old Snowy / Knife Edge portion.

Highlights:

• Snowgrass: Beautiful meadows and views
• Old Snowy PCT
  • Most folks seem to take the upper route ( no snow )
  • Lower route had a short bit of snow, and avoids the elevation
  • But at least do the upper route one way :)
• Old Snowy Peak:
  • Quick side trip from the PCT, to great views
  • Short bit of class 2 on solid rock with good holds
  • Classic bivy site on the top ( but windy! )
• PCT Knife Edge:
  • What a bit of spectacular trail!
    • As it weaves along the ridge north of Old Snowy
    • Who knew the PCT had more then gradual switchbacks :)
  • I took it as far as the peak before Elk Pass, before double dipping on the return
  • Trail is pretty safe, but there are drop-offs, and the day I was there the winds were pretty strong adding to the excitement.
• Hawkeye Point: Easy walk up, with great views
• Goat Ridge: Flower filled basins and fighting Marmots.
• Goat Lake: Popular camp spot, for good reason
  • WAG bags recommended
• Cispus Basin: Wow, what a gem of a basin, worth a side trip along the PCT. 

SCRAMBLY BITS

I left the PCT at Cispus River, and pointed upwards, below the glowering looks from Big Horn / Thumb.

Stopped to admire the expansive views at the Cispus / McCall Glacier col.

Continuing over Peak 7477 involved a short class 2 downclimb on teetering blocks. 

Set up camp in summit block basin south of Ives, on an established site at top of bluff with commanding view.

After a compulsory nap, headed up Ives:

• Since approaching from the South, went direct to the "thumb", then along to summit
  • Would give it a hard class 2, mostly because the rock is so unstable
• If coming from the north, you actually swing around to get onto the SW ridge, and looked steeper, but slightly better rock

After a spectacular sunset, and very windy night, packed up and headed over the high Ives saddle, then down the NW "ramp".

Once at the N col, had a decision to make:

• I looked at the 1km of side hilling loose rock on to Old Snowy...
• I looked down at the PCT with all the pretty Snowgrass meadows...
• Repeated above about 5 times, then rolled out my "Wheel of Excuses":
  • Full pack, old knees, wrong shoes, lazyness, etc...
  • And dropped talus down to the PCT
• Later saw a trail runner doing the ridge from Old Snowy south, good for her!

LOGISTICS

• Road: FS2100 is wide and graded which makes the non-stop washboards so tedious, but passible by all if keep speeds down
• Parking:
  • Snowgrass TH ~80% full on a sunny weekday
  • Assume need NW Forest Pass / America the Beautiful Pass
  • Trailhead toilet in great shape, clean and stocked
• Permits: Free / self issue at TH

Distance (RT): 16.1mi/25.9km
Gain: 4070ft/1241m
Total Time (moving): 8hr25min

Gear (used): Hiking boots, poles, water filter
Gear (unused): microspikes
Gear (should have brought): N/A

Bugs: Minimal on trail and non-existent at summit

Water Sources: only via snow field beyond and 100ft down from peak

Overnight to Old Snowy. Started at Snowgrass Hiker Trailhead. Trail in excellent condition. One minor snowfield to cross on PCT just prior to turning east to head up to knife-edge/summit that did not require microspikes. Trail to summit well-defined and in good condition. No anomalies.

Excellent camping at summit. No bugs. Brilliant views of Adams, St. Helens, and Rainier. Temp reached low of 40*f but winds were minimal. Fantastic 360* sunset/rise. 

Walked some ways down the traverse for some scrambling. Lots of sketchy sections and loose rock, but good practice.

Egressed via Goat Lake and Goat Ridge Trail back to Berry Patch Trailhead. Goat Lake was moderately busy but not overcrowded.  No bugs observed during day traverse past the lake or out to TH.

This weekend a group of four decided to check out Goat Rocks Wilderness for our "highlight backpacking weekend" of the summer. We hadn't been to this area but knew about it and the coveted nature. Now is the time to go! The weather was wondrous, warm during the day and chilly but not cold at night, the flowers are utterly in peak bloom, and we even ate some huckleberries on the lower trails.

Friday we started at Berry Patch Trailhead. We hiked up the alternate route to check out the old Goat Ridge lookout ruins (didn't add much additional trail length), and proceeded to Goat Lake. Utterly crowded but we got there early enough to secure a relatively decent campsite. Note that for many, there really isn't any place to relieve oneself in private without walking away from the basin. It is pretty surprising there aren't any toilets given the number of people that overnight at the lake. Since it didn't take very long to get to the lake, we spent a couple hours napping and some of us plunged in the lake. After a rest, the group did a small excursion hike off-trail to see if we could do a ridge hike (alternative route) to Hawkeye. This was a huge failure as the north side of the basin wall is all vertical and would require intensive gear to overcome. We made it back to camp and a couple of us decided to call it a day for the hiking, and a couple of us went up to Hawkeye Point--a reasonable trail with gorgeous views. No goat sightings but we did see some goat sighters--looking to survey the goat population in the mountains.

The lake basin gets dark relatively early as the sun sets directly behind the basin wall, so we didn't find ourselves staying up too late, though plenty of others in the area chatted loudly as we went to bed. So it goes. Still a beautiful place to spend half a day and wake up to.

Our plan for the second day: get to Snowgrass Flat and set up camp before doing Old Snowy. We got up early enough and hiked the 2.3 miles to the Flat and determined that while the meadows are beautiful and the campsites were available, getting to higher ground would offer more views and probably reprieve from any July mosquitoes. We hiked up the PCT toward the trail that leads to Old Snowy and eventually found a stream that was still running (and double the flow at the end of the day!). We found an outcropping that had a combination of rock, meadow, and trees that had a full panoramic view of Old Snowy and neighboring peaks, as well as Goat Lake, Hawkeye, Adams and surrounding areas, Helens, and a sliver of Tahoma. It was a perfect site.

After setting up camp, it was still only the early afternoon, so we once again spent a couple hours napping and resting before determining it was time to do the dayhike up to Old Snowy. Old Snowy looks intimidating from below, but the trail is actually in incredible shape. After diverging from the PCT, it's a steep but steady and stable trail up to the rock tower at the top. The top 100 feet of vertical gain is scrambling, but it never felt sketchy to me (though others in the group had varying degrees of comfort). The pathway is well marked to get to the summit, and we found ourselves in delightful company with a handful of other summiters when we got there. The 360 views from the top of Old Snowy are hard to beat.

After getting back down to the knife edge intersection, we proceeded to take the knife edge downward toward the main PCT trail (heading to Elk Pass). At the end of the near-flat section, one of the group decided to turn back, not wanting to deal with the snowfields below. We plodded along and made it to the bottom / intersection with the PCT. Another group member wanted to turn around there, feeling their capacity calling. Me and the final group member decided to walk halfway across the ridge toward Elk Pass to "the green knob" that was very visible in the distance. We wanted to see Packwood Lake (if possible) and a view of the rest of the Goat Rocks peaks. This was a fantastic up and down ridge trail that wasn't very difficult and afforded nice solitude.

The hike back along the PCT and snowfields was steady. The snowfields were mostly OK even without poles, though if the snow was any more melted, it might be a bit troublesome. We found our way back to camp and had a fantastic 360 degree sunset view of all the mountains. It was a lovely evening and we found that the extended access to sunlight from this site kept us awake slightly later than our night at Goat Lake.

Our trek back out was incredibly easy and fast (6.5 or so miles that we finished at a steady pace with only a couple brief water stops, completing it in under 3 hours). We took the snowgrass trail all the way back to Berry Patch, thus completing the full loop. There were plenty of people hiking out and yet most of the time we were hiking in the serenity of the forest on our own.

Getting back to the car, everything was coated in dust and the Sunday drive back to Packwood was a slow caravan of cars. The road gets incredibly dusty and visibility is low, so be warned and slow down for safety. We stopped at Packwood Brewing, which has decent beer of many styles (including a wide variety of German offerings), and a small, mildly OK food menu. The ice cream in the airstream next door was a nice bonus.

Overall this was a great introduction to Goat Rocks. There are a few additional trails that we encountered that might take us back some day, but for we remain satisfied!

Here were some of the hiking times if anyone is curious:

Friday

• 920am start at Berry Patch Trailhead
• 1030am arrived to Goat Ridge Lookout ruins
• 105pm arrived to Goat Lake
• 445pm departed camp for Hawkeye
• 5pm departed Hawkeye for camp, some exploration
• 715pm arrived back to camp

Saturday

• 915am departed Goat Lake for Snowgrass Flats
• 1135am arrived to our camp
• 230pm departed for Old Snowy
• 325pm arrived to the summit of Old Snowy
• 550pm arrived back to camp via knife edge

Sunday

• Hike from our camp back to Berry Patch Trailhead: 845am-1125am

Our mid-week trip paid off with an amazing camp spot in the "upper" section of Snowgrass flats at 6300', where we had front porch views of Mt. Adams.  There was good water, crossing the trail at around 6200'.  On top of it, we had absolutely no bugs (those camped below, in the trees, were complaining about mosquito issues).

We chose to climb Old Snowy via the Old Snowy-Ives Col route described in the book "Selected Climbs in the Cascades".  The route is straight forward, if you are comfortable with off trail navigation. If you are coming from Snowgrass Flats, it also probably saves you a 1.5 mile hike to the the trail on the north side of Old Snowy. There is a large carne on the PCT at 6800' and you simply head up to the col from here. The last 300 ish feet to the saddle is on talus, but it was remarkably stable and easy to hike on. There was a short section of snowfield at the top that you needed to cross to get to the summit block.  We had ice axes, so brought them out, but agreed that we would have been comfortable using our trekking poles. We then retraced our track back to the saddle, with the thought that we could take the ridge over to Ives Peak and even saw a boot path heading that way.  What we found is that the jagged rocks along the ridgeline force you out onto the front/west face due to the shear drop-off on the east side.  This forces you to drop down to around 7400' and you need to side-hill on crappy, loose talus for about a mile, before you can head up to the summit block of Ives Peak.  NOT FUN!!!!  My buddy and I agreed, in retrospect, that if you really want to climb Ives Peak, the best way is probably to go straight up from Snowgrass Flats and don't do it in combination with Old Snowy.

On our next day, we decided to head north on the PCT to check out the knife edge. There is fairly large snowfield on the PCT just before the trail up to Old Snowy. We saw a lot of folks crossing it, so we headed across.  We had left our ice axes at the camp and only had our poles.  Mid-way across, we both agreed that the track was sloping and very slippery with significant exposure below (i.e.: one slip and you would be hitting 20 mph in no time, heading for the rocks below). On our way back, we decided to just skirt it on the talas slope above, which was easy and didn't really take any more time than crossing the snowfield.  We headed up the trail to the knife edge and spent a couple of wonderful hours enjoying the scenery and taking pictures.  FYI- while up there, we did watch a few parties have issues/falls crossing the snowfields below, on the PCT, so using the 'Alt PCT' route above is a consideration.