Goat Lake

On Friday I worked a half day at work and then went to meet up with a bunch of Boy Scouts from our church. We were going to hike and camp at Goat Lake. We all got in three vehicles and began our drive through Granite Falls and up to the trail head. We arrived and started off in two separate groups: the older boys and the younger scouts.

The trail starts off wide and well groomed with a gentle slope to it shaded by tall trees. Shortly after the trail begins there is a fork in the trail. You can either take the Upper Elliot trail or the Lower Elliot trail. Both take you to the same destination (presumably Goat Lake) but the lower trail is a little more rugged, up and down, and shorter. The upper trail (if I remember correctly, I've hiked this trail about 3 years ago) is a little longer, more groomed and consistent. Today we chose the lower trail, eventually after a couple miles the upper and lower trail join back together and flattens out while you hike under some tall skinny trees that allow streaks of sunshine in onto the trail. It is actually quite beautiful. After hiking in the valley most of the way, you begin your climb to the lake. You gain most of the elevation in the last half a mile or so. The trail becomes rocky and steep and after a few switchbacks eventually you can hear the falls near the lake and you've arrived. We hiked at a pretty quick pace and got there in about 2 hours.

Once there we picked out our campsites and set up camp. We waited for the younger scouts to show up, because naturally they were substantially slower. Once they arrived they began setting up their campsites and the older boys and another leader and myself went to check out the lake. A few of the boys jumped in off this cool dead tree that jutted out into the lake about 40 feet acting like a diving board. I was assured the lake was cold, and I believed them. After swimming in the lake for a bit we attempted to hike around the lake. That proved to be difficult as there is a trail that goes for a ways, but then disappears and turns into heavy brush. We eventually turned back and headed back to camp. We individually made our own dinners and ate whatever we brought up. The younger boys did some repelling of a rock cliff that they found, which looked like some good fun. At that point it was getting dark and late so we all headed to bed.

The next morning we woke up and took down camp and ate breakfast. Most of the boys had to be back by noon that day so we didn't do much at all except eat breakfast and pack up camp before we headed back down the trail. Again we took the Lower Elliot trail due to our time crunch. The group in front took about one hour and 20 minutes to get down to the cars. We waited about 30 minutes for the rest of the boys to show up. Once we all got back safely we headed home. It was a good, fun, short little over night hike.

Region: North Cascades, Mountain Loop Highway
Distance:  10.4 miles
Elevation Gain:  1400 ft
Peak Elevation:  3161 ft
Difficulty: Medium 
Pass Requirement: Northwest forest pass

As always check out all the photos of the hike and every hike by clicking on the "Photos" tab.