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14 miles of hiking • 3000' elevation gain •

Went with my dad to show him Goat Rocks while the summer weather is still here. I heard it was a cloudy day back in Vancouver, but at GR it was 100% sunny despite the forecast. Since my dad doesn't consider camping his hobby, the only option was to hike it in a day. We started at Snowgrass TH, went up trail #96 to the PCT, then on PCT to Packwood "glacier" overlook, down off-trail to trail #86 (pretty much the same way I did it a week before), up 1/3 mile to Goat Lake, then down on #86 and #96 to the trailhead. Flowers got better above 6,500', but below 5800 they're now mostly gone. These gorgeous meadows at Snowgrass Flats at 6400' are now past peak, will last a week at most. Saw some alpine huckleberries turning black - everything goes amazingly fast at these elevations. The snowmelt at Goat Lake was impressive too - down about 3-4 FEET of snow in the past week! The lake is now about 40% ice free, and I spoke with a hiker who was going to swim it.