Iron Goat 05-30-2020

The dogs and I headed out early for Iron Goat Trail near Stevens Pass on Hwy 2 to avoid any crowds and hopefully beat the rain.  So far the morning had been dry, but rain was expected.  From the look of the forecast it sounded like showers and then increasing later, possibly some thunder later.  As I parked the Xterra the first drops began to fall.

The dogs were game, so we headed out into some light sprinkles - I could see some brightness in the sky so expected the rain to diminish.  The trail was empty of people, beautiful and dim halls of green, carpeted with wildflowers - bleeding heart, wild currants, and some tiny white and blue flowers I didn't know the names of.

Here was a little thing I wasn't expecting to see on the trail - I left it for some child to find.

As we hiked along I heard a crackle of thunder.  Cedar missed the first one, but not the next - he HATES thunder.  I tried to tell him because we were hiking it was FUNder, but he wasn't having it.  I have never been in the mountains on a trail in a storm like this - the thunder started ripping across the sky, booming and rolling from peak to peak, like something from a J.R.R.Tolkien novel.  Then the rain started to come down hard, and after an hour of thunder Cedar was panting and shaking so much that I was worried about him.  We found a dryish spot under some thick trees and huddled together.  I checked my phone and it looked like within a half hour the rain would subside and the storm would be gone.  While we were sitting there the rain came down even harder.  I decided we should go back, but looking at my Apple Watch I saw we were about halfway.  Might as well finish.  The rain now was pelting down so hard it was bouncing back up off the trail.

As it didn't show signs of slowing, we headed out after our break - after that we got so wet that we didn't dare stop again as nothing we had was dry enough to warm us up if we quit moving.  The rain got even harder!  I didn't even think that was possible!  It wasn't just falling anymore, but being cast down forcefully upon us by storm gods gone mad.  It stung right through my raincoat and for the first time I was glad that the groomers have been closed for so long... with shaggy and wooly coats, the dogs seemed pretty comfortable other than being wet.

We didn't poke into all of the tunnels or go up to all of the viewpoints, but pretty much just marched on - the dogs wanting to go even faster than I did.  It was still glorious!  If it wasn't for Cedar being upset it was exhilarating to be up inside the storm, hearing it playing across the peaks.

The waterfalls were full and water was spilling over the edges of the snow walls in more places than usual.

When we got back to the car, I gave the dogs their salmon stick and all the treats I had with - they earned the today!!

Apple Watch stats:  6.39 mi and 713 ft of elevation gain.

Scotchman Peak, ID 05-16-2020

After months of staying at home, one activity remained on my calendar that I hadn't canceled.  I had planned on hiking Scotchman Peak in Idaho with my son and his girlfriend.  Having been isolated except for weekly masked grocery store visits, I felt I could make this trip still with no/minimal risk to myself or others so off I went.

We left the Spokane area Saturday morning and got to the dirt roads leading to the Scotchman Peak trailhead where we had our first big win for the day - a moose!  A lone cow moose suddenly appeared in the road ahead of us, maybe 50 ft away.  When we moved she moved ahead on the road, but when we stopped she just started munching brush.  We didn't want to seem like we were chasing her, so after easing forward a few times she finally moved off through the bushes, vanishing as fast as she had appeared.  For such huge animals, they sure are quiet and graceful.

We felt we had taken a wrong road at one point, despite having both All Trails and Idaho Trails Association directions.  We stopped the car at a heavily rutted area that we didn't have the clearance for, and checked it out on foot.  It was definitely the wrong way, but while there, we met 3 other vehicles of people that also had gone that wrong way.  The biggest issue I think with finding the trailhead is that the roads are not marked, or not well-marked, so you're guessing.  Once reaching the trailhead, there is a large stream bed to go through, so if you don't have high clearance or are nervous, definitely be prepared to park on the near side and use a handy log to cross to the trailhead on foot.

I had never hiked this trail before, but was told it was steep.  After weeks of no conditioning but my indoor treadmill and walks around my yard, I was really feeling it in no time!  At first the trail was snow-free and there were glorious flowers all over - woodland star, Indian paintbrush, glacier lilies, blue-eyed Mary, calypso orchids and more.

After about 1 3/4 miles we started getting into patches of snow, and as we climbed further up, the snow got deeper and completely covered the trail.  It was fairly mushy, which was great most of the time because you could easily kick in footholds for the steepest bits, but also the occasional unexpected posthole would happen - usually around stumps and logs.  It was HARD work, but actually really fun.

The views were stunning, and though we didn't make it all the way to the peak, we had a great workout, wonderful company, and perfect weather.  I would like to go back and try this one again when I'm back in trail shape and there is less snow.
Apple Watch Stats:  6.45 mi RT, 2871 ft of elevation gain

The way down was much quicker as we glissaded where possible.  Cold on the backside, but super fun!

Thank you to Bradley and Jessica for some of these photos!