Old Snowy Mountain - Elk Pass — Friday, Sep. 21, 2001

South Cascades > Goat Rocks

Fleetfoot,Nancy and I left Seattle around 1:30 Sat.. Two and a half miles south of Packwood turn east on Johnson Creek Road No. 21. At 15.7 miles turn left on road 2150 and follow signs to Chambers Lake. Park at lot signed Snowgrass Flat. Arrived here about 5:45. Lot almost full. Started hiking at 6 o’clock. It must be in the 60’s as we hiked in shorts and heavy shirt. Get to bridge crossing fairly fast. Someone camped here. No bugs on this trip. As we climb up the long switchbacks the sun is setting. Great color. Fleetfoot spots a deer and it goes bounding down hill, hind legs kicking up dust. Yes, the trail is dusty. Three horses with people come by. Shortly 3or 4 guys pass us on their way down. We are getting near the flats but loosing light. I am getting hungry and a little tired as I spot a side trail. I halt Fleetfoot as Nancy and I check the site out. Fleetfoot scouts ahead. We are at By Pass trail. This site will do for the night. It is around 8 o’clock and dark as we set up the tent and have dinner. We will need to find water in the morning. Many stars out and it is warm. No long johns required tonight! Nancy blew my pad up really nice. I cleared all the pine cones from under the tent. Slept great. Up around 6:30. Nancy and Fleetfoot slept in. I took a walk up toward Snowgrass. No water, so I headed back and took the By Pass trail. Some color in the sky so I went back for the cam-corder. Nice reflection on Mt. Adams. Continued down trail across small stream still recording. I can hear rushing water now so I continue on and find two nice campsites on the stream. Fleetfoot is up and ready to get water when I get back. I take him down to the stream and we filter a couple of bottles. We have a light breakfast and pack light for the day. Leave around 9 o’clock. The clouds are clearing out. Another deer goes bounding downhill as we switchback up to Snowgrass Flats. The views just get better. Some color in the bushes and a few flowers still in bloom. Several campers just before the flats. Mt. St Helens comes into view. We take the Pct toward Old Snowy. From up here Mt. Adams towers everything. Some delicious berries right along the trail. We take a break on some nice rocks a short way from Old Snowy junction. One guy on the way back from junction. I leave my pack just as we cross the snowfield. Two guys coming up from Mc Call Basin say they saw two herds of goats but we will not be going that far. Just before the post that marks the trail for Old Snowy we meet a gal with her dog. We take a break at the post as five other people come down. This is Nancy’s longest day hike and highest hike. Now for the summit! The views of Mt. Rainier and Goat Lake are supreme. We go slowly as we near the loose rock at the top. Fleetfoot leads, Nancy follows with me in the back. Ah! The top. Lots of lady bugs beat us here. We get a better view of the McCall glacier from here than at the post but otherwise the views down below are reward enough for being in this area. We finish our water off ,so after carefully getting down we stop at a snowfield and filter a couple of bottles from a small stream. On the way back we check out some campsites and remains of old shelter overlooking Goat Lake. Down the trail from there we stop at same rocks as on the way up. Have some soup and crackers while we take a break to absorb this great day. Leave here around 3o’clock to get back to our camp just before 4 o'clock. Nancy and I go filter more water while Fleetfoot breaks down camp. Leave here shortly after 4 and take a break at the bridge. Back to car by 6 o’clock. Just a few cars in the lot now. This has been a hike I have wanted to do for many years and it matched all expections. Way to go Nancy!Thanks Fleetfoot.