Goat Peak

The gal at the Ranger Station said "you need to go up to Goat Peak". She talked about the view, the Ranger on duty, etc. Talked with a lady in the Park who said they had gone up the day before, and spent over 2 hours with "Lightning Bill", who was full of history, stories of the area, stories of fires, just all sorts of fun info, oh, and able to go up in the Fire Tower. Goat Peak is one of 2 manned fire towers in the area.

So today, we headed out. The picture below is the first view of the tower.

This picture is of some of the "wildlife" we saw on the way up" Yes, we also saw deer, birds, chipmunks, etc.

9 miles after the first picture of the tower, we reached the trailhead, with this sign. What it says is that the trail is a short, steep climb. Now, recognize that our Park is at 2000 ft elevation, this trailhead is at 5500. The trail we are about to take goes from 5500 ft to 7000 ft at the fire tower. Oh, that's right, the trail is 2 1/2 miles to the tower, with the last 1/2 mile along a ridge with GREAT views. I don't know what "short" is.

The next couple of pictures prove that we made it to the top of the mountain, but, gee, there is still the 1/2 mile along the ridge to the fire tower. It is at this point, that we meet a couple coming down from the fire tower, they inform us that it is locked, NOBODY there! Darn, no "Lightning Bill", and we are TIRED!

So there is the GOAL that we had set out for, but with no "Lightning Bill", we just didn't have the energy to finish the trip. At this point, I should point out some facts that we really had ignored at the trailhead. As you can see from the picture above, we are probably only 200 ft elevation below the Fire Tower. That means, that in 2 miles (10,560 ft) we climbed about 1300 ft. That means an AVERAGE slope of around 13%, some was definitely more. Oh, did I mention, we forgot our walking sticks? We found a couple of sticks to use on the way down, but it still took almost as long to go down, as up, as footing was slippery, etc.

Yes, we made it down, and feel blessed that we were able to make the trip. All in all, a great day, one we will always remember. Not bad for a couple of 69 1/2 year-olds, BUT...."never again!"