21 miles of hiking • 3750' elevation gain • 1 night
First time in Goat Rocks having been here for 4 years. We've been to the Redwoods, Crater Lake twice, Wallowas 3 times, Hells Canyon, Olympics 3 times, up to BC, Okanagon Valley, and all over the Oregon Cascades, St. Helens, Adams, and Rainier... but never Goat Rocks, for all the wonder I've heard of it. Finally!
Had some fun on this one. Sheep Lake wasn't exactly as expected (not really a spot to fish). We made it up to the pass just before Cispus and were really debating if we just wanted to backtrack back down to Walupt Lake or if we could make a loop out of it. My map shows 7A horse trail, or much of it, seemingly connecting through a serious of convoluted roads from Snowgrass TH back to the road that went to Walupt.
We decided to go for it because while Bucket loves to go according to plan and schedule, and hates possibly being in sketchy situations, her loathing of out-and-back hikes and love of a good loop outweighs her normal response.
Thus it was a super time, got to soak up the Cispus basin, see the hoard of tents at snowgrass, and have fun navigating the entirely passable backroad route along the old logging roads and lowlands, back to the walupt lake road.
