Hike #1: Ape Canyon plus hike onto Plains of Abraham

[abrame]

Woke up at 5 am and drove up to Ape Canyon trail head before sunrise. To my surprise there was a car in the parking lot and a pair of headlamps making their way up the ridge. About a mile into my hike the sun came up creating a stunning alpenglow over St. Helens. The fall color was amazing but the peak colors were probably 1 week ago. I cursed all the downhills but was thrilled to be adding to my total elevation gain as I headed back up the ridge once more. At about 6 miles you reach the Ape Canyon viewpoint itself and just a little further on you arrive at the junction with Loowit trail which travels all the way around the mountain. Feeling good I decided to continue up onto the Plains of Abraham to the junction with Abraham trail. Was so fascinated by the Pyroclastic "bombs" that dot the surface of the plain that I almost did not notice the mountain goat making a parallel hike to mine. Enjoying the solace the mountain solitude was providing me; I felt I could have continued hiking all the way around the mountain if I had the time. But ultimately my watch beeped and let me know that I had been hiking for nearly 3 hours and 8 miles and it was time to turn around. I did a slow but heart rate elevating trail run back to the car (16 miles, 5 hours in total) greeting all the mountain bikers making their way up. Feels good to have an epic hike completed by the noon hour.
http://exploregon.blogspot.com/2013/10/ ... 62013.html

[abrame]

By the way, I saw a mountain goat on Mt. St. Helens. I did not even know they were up there did you?

[retired jerry]

Goats are all over Mt Adams and Goat Rocks (duhh)

Maybe some of them walked over to St Helens?

[adamschneider]

There are definitely goats in the Mt. Margaret/Mt. Whittier area, and even occasionally in Indian Heaven. I really hope the powers-that-be decide to reintroduce them to Mt. Hood and the Gorge soon... they're not gonna get across that river on their own!

But ultimately my watch beeped and let me know that I had been hiking for nearly 3 hours and 8 miles and it was time to turn around.

Why??

[abrame]

I set an alarm because I had a Dr. appoint back in PDX @3. She said I passed the physical.

From the Forest Service: "In 1980, mountain goats may have survived on the south side of the volcano where the eruption had a minimal impact. The first reliable sighting of mountain goats on Mount St. Helens, however, occurred 7 years after the eruption. Since 1987, scientists have seen mountain goats on the volcanic cone. In 2000, scientists observed mountain goat tracks and fur in the volcano’s crater and, during summer 2003, scientists routinely saw a mountain goat at the base of Forsyth Glacier on the volcano’s north side."

There is even a place called Goat Mountain near St. Helens. Eventually they will just cross the Bridge of the Gods.

[K.Wagner]

Sounds like you had a great trip! This weekend was a spectacular time to be out in the hills anywhere!

Here's a picture of one of the goats that came down to check me out last year while I was going up Pumice Butte (on the N side of the Ape Canyon gash). Date was Nov 10th.

This goat came down within about 100 ft of me. Don't know if it was just curious or was challenging me. It's behavior was just a bit odd, and I was not very comfortable for a while, because the slope I was on was steep & loose. This was definitely goat, not human, terrain!

[retired jerry]

I've had goats be friendly with me.

Trail to Mt Angeles in Olympics:

Enchantments:

[adamschneider]

"Friendly" is one word for it. Sign at the trailhead for Ingalls Lake, near the Enchantments but on the other side of Mt. Stuart:

[K.Wagner]

I know friendly when I see it ..... had one following me around when I was up in the NE part of the Olympics. At one point, could have reached down & scratched it's ears (but those little horns look sooooo sharp when you're that close!) Of course it was just waiting for me to pee, which I finally had to do on a rock.

I don't read goat body language all that well, but this one up on Pumice Butte was acting very territorial, and I really didn't like it being uphill of me, and me standing on steep shale slope! Maybe it was the male goat aggression thing that the poster was warning about. Had some consolation in that I did have my ice axe in hand.

[abrame]

Nice goat pictures. This goat was between Pumice Butte and the Loowit trail. At first we both startled each other as I came around the bend and were perhaps 100 ft away from each other. I thought about getting close but then had a flash back to my grandpa's goats knocking me over. I let him cross the trail and then we parted ways. I should have titled this post, "goat encounters of the 3rd kind"