Iron Goat Trail

Although I've hiked sections of the Iron Goat Trail before, today was the first time I hiked the whole trail in one day. What a great workout!
This is an interesting haunted hike, a spooky halloween treat, with gorgeous bits scattered in between.


I parked at the Scenic trailhead, taking the lower trail to Martin Creek, then the upper trail to Wellington, returning to Scenic by the Windy Pass cutoff. The nice thing about the Iron Goat is that since it follows the old railroad route, and the steam trains could only handle a 4% grade, the trail from Marten Creek to Wellington is as easy and level a path as you can hope to find in the vertical landscape of the Cascades.

The trail is dry right now, even as you pass by pretty little creeks and waterfalls (as of friday, maybe not) and free of blowdowns. The section from just past Windy Pass overlook to Wellington is smooth enough to be bike and wheelchair friendly, a great place to take the very young, very old and very lazy to stretch their legs and get some fresh air.

I stopped at the viewing stand at the site of the Wellington avalanche disaster of 1910 (96 dead, the nations worst avalanche ever) and, in the spirit of Halloween tried to conjure up some ghosts, but the only luck I had was hearing the ghostly sound of trains in the background, courtesy of the modern BNSF and Amtrak routes that still run through the valley below. I saw an informal path leading from the viewing stand to the disaster site, but decided it would be morbid and disrespectful to intrude on whatever twisted remains lay beneath the screen of trees.

Because of the gentle grade and great condition of the trail, the whole 12 miles only took 5 1/2 hours, including two 15 minute breaks.

If you want a dose of history to enhance your Iron Goat experience, check out the book "White Cascade" by Gary Krist.