[pct-l] PCT Goats Rocks Section Hike

[griffin@u.washington.edu (Thomas Griffin)]

Just got back from five days in the Goat Rocks Wilderness and I must say
that this stretch of the PCT lives up to its reputation--incredibly scenic
and incredibly scary. We started at Walupt Lake and hiked north to White
Pass. Some horse parties and bow hunters in the first section to Snowgrass
Flats, then no one on the trail after Elk Pass till we got to White Pass.
Heard elk bugling and saw a herd of mountain goats in the distance--maybe
40 or 50 of them scrambling up the side of the ridge. Saw lots of Mt.
Adams, Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Rainier too. High point--literally--was the
hike between Packwood Glacier and Elk Pass, the 7,000-foot, knife-edge
walk atop the ridge line that is in all the guidebooks. At first we made a
wrong turn when we crossed the flat part of Packwood Glacier (the correct
way was lost in the fog). We turned left and followed a boot track instead
of turning right. I realized our mistake after the fog lifted--to my left
was a whole other ridge that was the real divide. After we backtracked, we
had to cross 35 feet of snow on a steep angle that can be extremely
slippery in the morning. Good thing we were doing it in the afternoon when
the snow was soft and after the fog had lifted. That was just the
beginning of three miles of some of the most difficult trail I have ever
hiked. We went up and down with the crest line, occasionally skirting a
sharp point by going around on the edge of a cliff. With the trail so
narrow, one wrong step could send you plunging down the side of the
mountain. It didn't help to have a powerful wind of 20-25 mph trying to
blow you over! I can't understand how they can get horses through this
section. I certainly would never recommend hiking this stretch in the
rain, fog or snow.

On the way down from Elk Pass, my hiking buddy twisted his ankle and we
had to take it slow to White Pass, but the trail was beautiful and empty.
At White Pass we did see two thru hikers on Sept. 1st but I didn't get
trail names. One was Jenny from Kirkland, Wash., and the other was a young
guy with a Cal hat who lives in Oakland and started on May 6th. They said
quite a few were behind them, so I imagine most are through this section
by now.

This was one of my favorite sections of the PCT in Washington and I
recommend it highly--as long as you wait until the snow melts and the
conditions are right. (How do southbounders get through this?)

Tom Griffin
Seattle, Wash.
PCT Section Hike Harts Pass to Canada
http://staff.washington.edu/griffin/pct.html