Goat Rocks Wilderness Fire

[keithcomess]

We just returned from a week in the Goat Rocks (Snowgrass--> PCT--> McCall Basin --> near Shoe Lake --> out on Forest Road 21 near Packwood). On our return trip, the smell of smoke was detectable and by Friday Mt Rainier was obscured. Evidently, the fire was smoldering since sometime in August and it erupted last week. It's not clear to me why earlier efforts to extinguish it weren't undertaken but here's the most complete report I've found:

https://www.chronline.com/stories/goat- ... ood,299756

[dirtman]

From Inciweb...

On August 9, the Goat Rocks fire was started by a lightning strike in the Goat Rocks wilderness area in some very steep terrain. The fire was knocked down initially by fire crews but could not be completely lined due to very steep and dangerous terrain that was unsafe to be worked by fire personnel. The fire laid down and smoldered but picked back up after several weeks of drying. The fire picked up in September after several days of red flag warnings, and is continuing to grow.

[Nwcanyoning]

My favorite gift from the McCall basin.

[keithcomess]

Did you go to the base of the falls on a rope?! And into the water, too?!!?

[Nwcanyoning]

We started where it slots up about 700 feet up. We were definitely in the water. These photos are from the first trip. It was a shade chilly. We had scouted it a month before and realized the wrong way to go (through the meadow.) used the old trail all the way to the base to find it frozen up. We were a bit wild to do the first descent under such conditions but alas, we are still here and kickin’ (many, many other canyons since 2019.)