Goat Mountain Hike

October 17, 2021

It was October 16^th when we finally saw our weather window to hike up Goat Mountain.  We spent the afternoon packing and getting ready, and by the evening we were all set.  Jiji enjoyed our sorting and packing as we had stuff spread out over the floor for her to pounce over, hide behind, and get under, however it also seemed like she knew that we were getting ready to go away.  

When we get ready to go out for the day, or even just to drive into town, she can tell and she looks at us like, why are you leaving me, do you have to go?  

At full light on the morning of October 17^th we headed up into the forest behind our house and began our climb up Goat Mountain.  We had been up Goat Mountain once before back in February, but that was just a day trip, and this time we were packed to spend two nights up on top.  In February we also had snow for the top 1,000 feet of the ascent, and now that we have seen the ground that would have been beneath the snow, it was definitely easier to hike in the winter.  

The first one-third of the hike, roughly 1,000 feet of elevation, was steep but easy going, because the forest was relatively open and there were relatively few hidden holes and old logs to climb over.  In the second 1,000 feet, the steepness increased, and we had to cross an old rockslide to get to the start of the cliffs, but it was the last 1,000 feet of elevation gain that was the hardest of the whole hike.  

The last third was a maze of cliffs and thicket; we took our time, Jason picked us a safe way through and up, and I carefully marked our trail with flagging tape.  The brush was thick and we quickly lost sight of our previous flagging marker, so I had to leave many markers to be sure that we could find our way safely back down.  We knew that when coming down through the thick brush it would be very hard to find a safe route, and impossible to follow the route that we took up without a marked trail.  Many times in the last portion of the ascent we had to literally haul our way up through thick and tangled growth, and up near vertical sections with our backpacks getting caught and hung-up on branches and bushes, but these branches and bushes also served as our only solid handholds.  In February, walking on the snow, we had been on top of the whole tangled mess. 

Finally, we came up above the thicket, and we made the final climb to the top.  It was a beautiful view.

The air was nippy and we knew from the broken clouds, and the forecast that we had looked at before leaving, that it was supposed to get quite cold that night.  There were many pools of water on the top, and when the sun poked through the parted clouds we quickly stripped off our sweaty hiking layers, wiped ourselves down with water from the pools and put on fresh clothes.  It would not have been much fun to be sweaty and sticky for the rest of our time up there, and instantly with fresh clothes on we felt much warmer.  

We found a dry, flat area to put our tent, with a beautiful view, and we set up camp.  That evening, before the sun went down, we cooked our dinner over our wood-burning camp stove and enjoyed a beautiful sunset as the full moon rose over Mount Baldy.  It was gorgeous!  

As the temperature dropped, and the stars came out, we climbed into bed and snuggled up to stay warm.  Through the night the inlets and valleys filled in with fog, but the mountains remained in the clear like islands in a sea.  

The full moon lit up the top of the fog as though it was snow, and it was amazingly bright.  The light shone in through our tent so that it never got dark that night, and when we were up to pee we could see everything clearly.  It was beautiful.  

In the morning when we got up for the sunrise everything was white with a thick layer of frost.  All of the pools of water were iced over and the sun glistened over everything.  

Unfortunately, although it was forecasted to be sunny, a line of cloud covered the sun within an hour after it had risen over Mount Baldy.  The breeze picked up, and although it was not too strong, it sure chilled us. 

After breakfast we headed out for our day hike to explore along the ridgeline.  It was perfect to be moving, as it was the only way to stay fully warm.  At some points the ridgeline was probably about 200 feet across, but at the narrowest part it was only about 50 feet across.  We made our way along, sticking mainly to the east side on our way, and stopping frequently to enjoy the view.  

 At the narrowest part of the ridgeline there was a large pool of water the spanned almost across the whole ridge from side to side with steep cliffs dropping down on both sides.  

We made our way around the eastern side of it, and carried on.  

There were several areas that we were unsure if we would make it past; the first cliff section that we got to we managed to find a way up and we carried on.  Unfortunately, the second cliff section, which we had seen through binoculars from near our campsite, was much larger and it would not have been very safe to get by.  

We stopped there for lunch, finding a lovely spot out of the wind.  We got our stove going and had some hot soup to help keep us warm. 

On the way back, we stuck to the west side, this time seeing down into the valley of Twin Lakes and over to Roscoe Inlet instead of down to Cousins Inlet, Ocean Falls, and Martin River. 

About 300 feet away from the peak of Goat Mountain we found an old twisted and bent 40-foot, two-section aluminum ladder.  

We could only imagine that it used to be used for accessing the TV tower on the top of the mountain, and that the ladder had been damaged and moved such a distance by the strongest of winds.  Back on the peak we found much more of the remains of the old tower than we had found in February.  

It would be interesting to know exactly what it looked like years ago. 

That evening we had our dinner and watched the sun set once again before climbing into bed.

On our third day we got up and packed up camp.  We enjoyed the view and had our breakfast before beginning our hike down.  We were very grateful for our flagging tape as it worked extremely well.  Each time that we got to a piece of flagging tape, we would spot the next one before moving on, and there were only two times when we really had to search for the next flag.  Even the bright colours of flagging tape can blend into the dense thicket if it is not fluttering in the breeze.  Once we were through the cliffs we carried on down, being careful of the many hidden holes, some of which we inevitably found with our feet.  

When we made it back home, Jiji was thrilled to see us and we were happy to see her, to get a fire going, and to have a hot meal in a warm house.  It was a beautiful trip!