PCT in Washington – variations and side trips?

You are walking right by it. Why not climb it too?

I would rather not carry an ice axe and crampons for a month. At least I hope the limited snow cover this year will allow us to do so.

When will you be there? I see you are starting in July. SOBO or NOBO? Low snow year might make a difference. I climbed it in August 2 years ago without ice ax or crampons. My friend did it in hiking boots. I wore Nike trail runners. You can scramble up the rocks easily without worrying about snow later in the year. We were much quicker going up then the geared up folks.

Just a thought. You can check the trip reports on WTA and see how the mountain looks then and when you arrive.

Goat rocks are cool. Not sure about extra trips there.

Ok then I will keep an eye on Adams. We will start around July 8th about 70 mi north of the Oregon border. We have about a month. We also considered starting further north at Snoqualmie pass and adding shorter backpacking trips in northern WA or southern BC but I have a preference for a continuous trip, whether entirely on the PCT or not.

Yeah, PCT is probably the best of the Goat Rocks. You could do a side trip to Goat Lake.

Mt Adams is a little more difficult than just a walk up. Maybe you need ice axe and crampons, maybe you don't. Just depends on weather. South side climbing route is a little out of the way from the PCT – you have to walk about 5 miles around mountain and then it's 4 miles up to summit.

You could hike up to High Camp and beyond on the West side or Foggy Flat and Devil's Garden on the North side. I probably like those better but I don't care so much about going to the summit. Nice alpine terrain.

It is a side trip Jerry!

Goat lake was underwhelming to me. A frozen lake isn't that great to me…not worth coming off the crest at least.

Not bad suggestions on the north side of Adams though. Maybe somebody that knows the North Cascades can chime in. I haven't been up there much so I'm not much help.

I was going to suggest circumnavigating Mt Adams as well, but then you repeat a lot of trail.

Funny thing, when I was there August 2007 it was frozen too:

View from farther back:

Pretty scenic. Yet, it's pretty nice from the PCT also and I don't necesarily disagree..

The East side of Adams is difficult. No trail. Huge streams to cross. You have to do a bunch of walking across glaciers. You want to research this good to find the best route.

I agree that the PCT is the most scenic part of the Goat Rocks, especially of the parts that would make a good side trip from the PCT. :-) That said, I do think Goat Lake is quite nice, and the view from Hawkeye Point is in some ways better than from Old Snowy.

ETA: This was taken August 24, 2013