Goat Rocks 1995
by Mike Thompson, 1/29/2012
These photographs are from a backpacking trip into the Goat Rocks Wilderness Area in July of 1995. Jane, Erika, Laura, Buddy the Wonder Dog, Bill and Susan Goodman, their son Billy, and I did a three-day, two-night outing. The starting/ending point of the hike was Conrad Meadows, which lies about twenty miles southwest of Rimrock Lake, up the South Fork of the Tieton River.
This was the second consecutive summer that Jane and I had backpacked into the Goat Rocks with Erika, Laura, and Buddy. In 1994 the four of us went with Erika's friend Elizabeth Good, and Laura's friend Lindsay Hirsch. We first discovered this beautiful area in 1992, when I hiked in and climbed Mt. Curtis Gilbert with Larry Floyd, with whom I used to teach tennis in Sunnyside. Two weeks after that first trip, Jane and I went back and both climbed to the summit.
Ray Foisy, who was my 5th Grade teacher at Hoover Elementary and later my social studies teacher at Lewis and Clark Junior High, was my inspiration for exploring the Goat Rocks. Mr. Foisy is a great lover of the state of Washington and its geography, and he used to talk of his own hikes into this beautiful area.
Here are all our backpacks on the patio at Mom's house in Yakima on the day before the trip. We wanted to be certain that all the gear and clothes would fit into the packs, so we packed it all up a day early.
Here we are at the start of the hike at Conrad Meadows. The hike begins with a mile or so of walking on a gravel fire access road, then transitions to trail. The elevation here is 4,000 feet.
Walking through one of the many meadows near Conrad Meadows. In the center of the picture, between the trees, you can see Mt. Curtis Gilbert, the highest peak in the Goat Rocks at 8,200 feet.
A little farther along we enter the Goat Rocks Wilderness Area. That's Bill Goodman on the left, Susan, Billy, and Erika. Buddy the Wonder Dog is in the foreground, wearing his new, red backpack.
The Thompsons at the entrance to the Goat Rocks Wilderness Area. We used this picture on our Christmas cards in 1995. (Not pictured and not present: Patch the Wonder Cat.)
Erika after a very short dip in the river. The headwaters of the South Fork of the Tieton is at the foot of the Conrad Glacier, thus the milky green color of the water. Cold? Yep!
Here's our camp for our first night out at Surprise Lake. You can see patches of snow at the far side of the lake. There was late, heavy snowfall in the winter of 1995, and we encountered more snow this year that we had previously.
Dinner at Surprise Lake. There's a well-established camping area here, often used by horse camping groups that come out of Conrad Meadows and traverse the loop trail near the top of the drainage of the South Fork of the Tieton.
Cooling our dinner desert pudding in a snow bank at Surprise Lake.
Jell-O instant pudding is way better when you're in the mountains!
We packed up at Surprise Lake the second morning of the trip, headed for higher country. Immediately we found ourselves hiking on snow. There were a couple moderately-steep traverses at the head (west end) of the valley. By kicking good steps and sharing the two ice axes we had brought along we all made it without any slips.
Looking ahead at our last bit of elevation to gain before reaching the ridge above the loop trail, which is at about 6,000 feet. We ended up spending our second night camped at the top of the ridge, just above the rocky cliff in the center of this picture. This camp site gave us a beautiful vista of the valley, plus a view of the summit of Mt. Curtis Gilbert to the west.
Upon reaching the top of the ridge we stopped for some lunch: pilot bread crackers with peanut butter, slices of cheese, and jam.
Just a little farther and we were at our campsite for the second night, up on the ridge.
Looking south across the valley from our campsite.
We had a little rain, and then the weather turned nice again. After getting camp set up, Bill and I decided this was our chance to climb Mt. Curtis Gilbert, which is in the background.
We set off up the Meade Glacier, where the going got steep. Fortunately the snow was perfect - no ice, and soft enough to make it easy to kick steps. As we climbed over to the west side of the north/south ridge that forms the spine of the Goat Rocks, we encountered fog. Visibility from the summit to the east was fair, but Mt. Rainier to the north and Mt. Adams to the south were shrouded in clouds.
Meanwhile, the kids were having lots of fun sliding in the snow. There were plenty of spots near our campsite steep enough that they could slide down in their rain gear.
The morning of the third day we shook out the tents and packed up for the hike back to Conrad Meadows.
We hiked back to the cars at Conrad Meadows. Dusty, tired, and happy, we drove into Yakima at sunset. After three days of oatmeal breakfasts, peanut butter and cheese on cracker lunches, and pasta and pudding dinners, the kids were given their choice of what to eat. They chose cheeseburgers, fries, onion rings, and milk shakes at The Lariat, a drive-in on Yakima Avenue that Susan and I had both frequented in our high school days. The following day we washed off the last of the trail dust while splashing down the water slide at Franklin Pool, near Grandma Agnes and Grandpa Al's house, with the temperature in Yakima in the 80's.
