Goat Lake

Happy day! Barlow Pass is now open!
The Goat Lake trail is in great shape, snow free and free of blowdowns the whole way. Since there is a lower and upper trail here, we did this hike as a loop, starting with the lower trail, which follows Elliot Creek through a forest that ranges from slide alder to tree farm to old growth, turning into a towering stand of ancient sentinals as you enter the Henry M. Jackson Wilderness. Elliot Creek makes a nice waterfall at the lake's outlet and was running so full of snow melt that it looked more like Elliot River.
At Goat Lake we found low clouds obscuring views of Cadet Peak and the aptly named Foggy Peak, so we bushwahcked on a faint tred along the north side of the lake to a view of yet another waterfall. The temperature dropped into the low 50's as a light rain began to fall, cool enough that I actually fished my gloves out of my pack for a few minutes. Typical "June-uary" Cascades weather. We did finally get a short sun break and the clouds briefly parted revealing Cadet Peak rising from the lake's east end.
We returned via the upper trail, an old logging road through a mostly alder forest, with occasional views of Sheep Mountain and passing by numerous small waterfalls. This segment of the trail has lots of flowers like trillium, bleeding heart and red columbine, and a couple nice moss & fern gardens clinging to wet rock walls.
Total trail distance for our trip was 12 miles, 1400' elevation gain. If you want to camp here, come early or come during the week, Sunday it was full of campers.