David Sadowski approached me with the idea of running the Goat Rocks Peak Tour in late June of this year but at the time I was in British Columbia doing the Cathedral Rim loop with Guadalupe Gonzalez. In addition to that, I was gearing up for the Devils Gulch 100 miler in mid July, so I suggested July 25th for the Goat Rocks adventure. After a down weekend following the hundred I felt rested enough to tackle the 31 mile distance. We left for the Weedpatch Trailhead on Friday afternoon and spent the evening relaxing at Walupt Falls.
We started the run at 0623 and we were joking about going for time on this route. We were mainly hoping to have a fun time and if we were close nearing the end, we would then try for the FKT. It was mostly cloudy with temperatures in the low 50s as we left the Weedpatch trailhead. The opening miles meandered through the Walupt Horse camp and passed by the Walupt Lake Campground. Shortly after we reached the lake, we turned to the northeast and began climbing Nannie Ridge. We reached Nannie Peak at about 1:21:50 after 4.88 miles. We got excellent views of Mount Adams to the south and enjoyed passing through meadows blanketed with wildflowers punctuated by pristine alpine lakes.
The Pacific Crest Trail was incredible and it was difficult to leave it when we reached the headwaters of the Cispus (mile 10 2:48:40). We stopped at the tumbling stream to fill our bottles and rest before the climb to Peak 7478. The lush green hillside transitioned to boulders and talus. The weather transitioned from sunny and warm to cloudy, cool, and windy. We reached Peak 7478 in 3:37:08, meaning we covered this segment in 2:15:18.
Our route along the ridge remained fairly technical on the way to Ives Peak (7919’) which took us 39:49 to travel just .75 miles (4:16:57). We down climbed Ives and skirted around the ridge before scrambling up to the Old Snowy Arch. We felt that this summit should be called Old chossy instead. Troy stopped to eat his garden beats under the Arch and we continued up to Old Snowy, which did in fact have a large snowfield obstructing our approach. We traversed the snow and reached the summit of Old Snowy (7934’) in 1:21:02 or 5:37:59 elapsed.
On our way down the mountain we ran into Karl and Remi who were doing a long run in the Goat Rocks as well. We did not chat long as we descended a beautiful section of the PCT. The next summit was Peak 7210 and this was our least favorite summit of the entire trip. The approach was quite technical and the hand and footholds crumbled away making it fairly dangerous. The descent was even worse and felt like we were taking the mountain with us as we descended to back to the PCT. I found this summit to be unnecessarily dangerous, especially for the people hiking below on the PCT with the tumbling rocks. It added very little to the route aesthetic and occupied a great portion of the overall time compared to its distance (1.75 in 0:58:59; 6:36:58 elapsed).
After sliding down the mountain we doubled back on the PCT and headed to Goat Lake on the Lily Basin trail. Unfortunately Troy took a wrong turn after a skillfully fast descent and had to double back to reach David and I. It was also at this point that David decided to forgo his part in the FKT and skip Hawkeye Point and rest to finish out the route. Troy and I pressed forward reaching Hawkeye Point (7431’) in 8:42:49 elapsed (2:05:51 split for 4.62 miles). We became discouraged at the false summit and began to give up hope that we would take the FKT. We took a few moments to enjoy the views of Goat Lake before descending the Lily Basin trail to the Goat Ridge trail. We passed Karl and Remi again and continued up to the junction for Goat Ridge. David met us here and we summited Goat Ridge I in 9:42:28 (3.73 miles in 0:59:39) and Goat Ridge II in 4:49:28 (.22 miles).
We were unsure of the distance remaining and had no idea if we could beat the previous FKT, but the three of us hammered downhill anyway in the hopes we could finish off the run strong. The closing miles switchbacked through the forest before reaching the Berry Patch trailhead and passing by the lake on the way to the Snowgrass trailhead. We took the road for a short while before turning onto the Klickitat Loop trail. This trail started out wide and groomed and gradually narrowed passing through thick vegetation. Additionally, there were several downed trees we had to leap over on our quest for the Cispus River crossing. David fell off the pace and Troy and I put everything into the final descent.
We jumped into the river and quickly crossed because my watch was showing 10 hours 54 minutes. I thought it seemed possible to break 11 hours, but the final climb up to the road from the river proved too steep. The days effort had put too many nails in the legs and we reached the trailhead in 11:05:07. This means that Troy and I ran the final 7.51 miles in 1:15:34. We were quite pleased with the effort, but mainly exhausted.
Overall this is a beautiful route and I would highly recommend it. It is quite brutal and not to be taken lightly. Thanks so much to Troy and David for sharing the journey.