As mentioned in the last post, it’s been a pretty smoky summer. Oregon and California have been on fire since June. Labor Day weekend took the smoke to a whole new level. Hazardous air quality with smoke so thick there were times we couldn’t see the shore while out fishing Odell.
So when another weekend rolled around we knew it was time to get out of the smoke. We set our sights on the Goat Rocks in Washington, packed the backpacks and went looking for some clean air and mountain views.
We found the blue sky and clean air, we just had to leave Oregon to do it. We were on the trail by 8 and up we went into the rocks. The Goat Rocks are a pretty busy place, and I can see why. Lots of open meadows and great mountain views in just about every direction.
By early afternoon we started looking for camps and after finding several that were occupied we found one to ourselves. It had a great view of Mt Adams to the south, and a great little stream tumbling down the meadow.
Even though we are getting into September and fall colors are starting to turn there were still some signs of wildflowers too.
We were kicked back and about to start thinking of dinner when we heard some voices approaching. A couple hikers were headed down from the trail into the meadow we were camped in. In no time flat they set up their camp literally a stones throw from us (and believe me, I considered throwing some). No, not of the other side of the ridge, or even on the other side of the nearest group of trees where there was an available camp. Right next to us. Seriously, we didn’t drive 6 hours and hike 8 miles to spend the night next to you, whoever you are. I’m not sure if they were from Portland or Seattle, and we didn’t sit down to dinner with them to find out. I took five minutes and found another camp out of sight and sound from anyone else, and we were packed up and moving to campsite number two in less than 30 minutes. I wish this new breed of people in the outdoors would get back to doing whatever they were doing before the pandemic.
In the second camp of the day we had an even better view of Mt. Adams as the sun set, and we did get a great view of a bakers dozen mountain goats working their way across the hillside, so moving had its up sides I suppose.
The next morning we continued our loop hike, heading up the trail to Goat Lake. It was foggy and cool, a sure sign that meteorological fall is here.
After Goat Lake it was up into the clouds to the high point of our hike, before following Goat Ridge back to the trailhead. The colors were fantastic.
I hope you have some plans to get out and enjoy the fall, its the best time of year to be out and about, and it will be gone before we know it. See you down the trail.
