A foggy, beautiful, and very quiet day to Goat Lake today 😊
THE ROAD / PARKING
The road in from Granite Falls is lovely, though the gravel road has quite a few potholes. Nothing any car can't handle if going slow.
We got to the trailhead at 7:30 and snagged a spot in the actual parking lot, which had a few cars already. According to the register, most of them were overnighters from Friday.
When we returned to the trailhead around 12, the parking lot was full and there were maybe 10 cars parked down the road. I suspect the rainy, cloudy forecast deterred a few folks today.
Bathroom is in great shape. Forest Service is clearly maintaining it, since there was only 1 roll of toilet paper when we got there, and like 8 when we got back!
THE TRAIL
Both the Lower and Upper trails were in great shape, and make for incredibly easy hiking overall. Both trails get a little rocky near the lake, and Upper is a little rocky near the trailhead. Lower is more in the forest and next to the river, while Upper has more light and some views of the mountains.
We took Lower to the lake and Upper back to the trailhead. I liked doing it in this order! Both trails were beautiful.
As others have mentioned, Lower had a few blowdowns near the lake but they're easy to handle.
The river and waterfall are ROARING. We guessed the rain had something to do with that!
THE LAKE
There is a map when you reach the campsites that shows you how to get to the privies. There appear to be 3. We didn't check them out.
We headed up a ways on the trail along the lake to find a quiet place to sit, which was easy since the trail was so quiet today. It was quite foggy.
There were a few bugs but nothing problematic. I wonder if it would have been worse on a warmer day.
MISC.
We came across a few thimbleberries, but not many. They were a little tart but still delicious.
We only encountered 1 speedy person heading up and 1 backpacking group heading down on our way up, and a few folks heading up on our way down. If you're looking for solitude on this trail, a rainy day is definitely the ticket (although of course your views may be obstructed).
One unfortunate thing: We did come across a decent amount of trash, including what seemed like a whole plastic tarp or something. It was made more unpleasant by the fact that it was wet and pine needles and mud were sticking to everything. We packed out what we found. I feel like a lot of folks on here are likely not the ones leaving trash behind, so instead, I'll say that its not a bad idea to bring an extra bag with you on popular (or even less popular) hikes these days to leave hikes better than you find them 🙂
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