Friday, August 31, 2012

Day 125 - Goat Rocks

On Wednesday the clouds were mostly gone, it was sunny and cold. The trail entered Goat Rocks Wilderness and went up through some big, wildflower-filled meadows then up around Old Snowy Mountain. The trail in the area reminded me some of the Sierras, very rocky with big patches of snow. The trail split into a stock trail, which went lower around the peak, and a hiker trail that went up to within a couple hundred feet of elevation from the top. I took the hiker trail but didn't go to the top. Maybe next time.

The trail down was about the crestiest (is that a word?) trail so far. It went right down the top of the ridge for a few miles with a steep slope on either side. The left side had an awesome view of a huge valley with Mt Rainier off in the distance.

A mile or so down the ridge there was a piece of trail that had been damaged by a rockslide. And by damaged I mean completely gone. But I don't think I'll go into details on how it was on a super steep slope where the trail went around a peak in the crest. My mom won't like reading about another perilous adventure that has me one slip away from a 75' slide down a gravel slope with a likely cliff at the end. A story of how I stood there for several minutes debating whether or not to scramble across the 10' wide rockslide-waiting-to-happen wouldn't be a comforting one. Something about cascades of rocks tumbling down the hill whenever I prodded for a place to step with my trekking poles can be unsettling. So I'll spare everyone the story of how I eventually went for it, clinging to the cliff once I reached the other side, instead of backtracking for miles to get around it.

Untold, harrowing stories aside, the place has a well-deserved reputation for excellent scenery.

2 comments:

  1. Yeah. I'm glad I wasn't with you on this stretch. And I'm glad you lived. :D

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  2. Ok, enough with the rock slides, narrow trails and cliffs. I tremble just reading this.

    ReplyDelete