9/20-9/21 2014 Goat Rocks Loop (Ives Peak)

[TheOtherBob]

"Goat Rocks?" said ebishop.
"Never been there. Looks lovely."

Sean and Jojo recently hit Old Snowy at the north end of the ridge from the west,
(http://www.portlandhikers.org/forum/vie ... =8&t=19929)
and Romann recently hit Gilbert Peak at the south end of the ridge from the east,
(http://www.portlandhikers.org/forum/vie ... =8&t=19918)
so it worked out well that we ended up hitting Ives Peak, right in the middle.

We started Saturday at the Chambers Lake TH and took trail 95 to Goat Lake (full) and then around clockwise to Snowgrass Flat (also very full--look for sites at higher elevations if you can handle a little water anxiety) to camp for the night.

The trail up to the pass before the lake is picturesque.

From the pass, we gained our first look at the ridge and at Ives.

Ives Peak from the west

The view south from Goat Lake was stunning.

After trekking around to Snowgrass Flat, it took us awhile to find a camp site for the night, but we eventually found one up at higher elevation in time for the sunset.

In the morning, we continued to higher elevation to the junction with the PCT to survey the land and choose a route.

Approaching from the north (Ives is on the right)...

... to the saddle. There is actually a faint trail on parts of the ridge here.

[TheOtherBob]

From the top of the ridge, it is clear that the best non-technical approach is up the from the SE...

... not from the north.

From the peak, we could see Old Snowy to the north. It was not clear at the time, but in reviewing images later, it is clear that there was someone up there. Ghost of Sean?

And to the SE, Gilbert Peak.

The hills are alive with the sound of... Romann?

Goat lake, bane of filters everywhere.

And look, there at the base of Rainier is the Tatoosh range... and some recent friends of ours.

OK. Now for the good stuff.
Panoram to the west. Gilbert to Snowy.

Near-360 panoram to the east.

Taking a closer look over by Gilbert...

... is Tieton Peak.

Has anyone been up the east ridge? (not visible from this image)

The forbidding point 7771 to the NW of Ives.

Here is ebishop coming down to the saddle.

[TheOtherBob]

Back down in the meadows, we enjoyed the view some more.

A request.

And then one last look before packing up and descending the rest of the loop on trail 96.

Total trip was ~17.4 mi, 6500' EG.

The whole area is amazing. Highly recommended.
Happy Hiking!

[Jack]

Nice Scramble, you guys! That looks like the route of choice for sure. That’s going on my to-do list. As always, your photos are amazing, Bob, as is that entire region up there. Excellent TR!

That may have been me over there on Old Snowy. I was sitting in that same spot, wearing a white tank top, from about 1:50 to 2:10 pm and there was no one else around. Would have been cool, had I seen you guys over there. I would have waved.

It was a beautiful day in the Goat Rocks!

[TheOtherBob]

That may have been me over there on Old Snowy. I was sitting in that same spot, wearing a white tank top, from about 1:50 to 2:10 pm and there was no one else around. Would have been cool, had I seen you guys over there. I would have waved.

Yep, the color of the hat on the person in my picture definitely matches the color of your hat in your picture!

Did you by chance hear the music (?!? ) that was playing intermittently over by Snowgrass Flat? We heard it a few times from our camp, and even for a few minutes while up on Ives. We couldn't believe someone lugged audio equipment up there, but didn't know where else it could be coming from if not nearby.

[romann]

Isn't it interesting area? Great pictures (my favorite is one from PCT junction with Ives and Old Snowy), and nice job on little-visited summit!

I visited Ives Peak recently as well (climbed on Sep. 7 but from the SE side), but saw Goat Rocks reports here for the same weekend and figured another won't be relevant . SE route is pretty straight forward too, lots of meadow hiking, some bad scree between 7100-7400' but it doesn't last long. Seen 2 climbers going over Ives "my" way, and down to Snowgrass Flats your way.

[totops1]

Which software do you use to generate this map with your track ?

[TheOtherBob]

Which software do you use to generate this map with your track ?

I often go through caltopo.com. The maintainer has SAR interests and built an engine with which he stitches together the (unshaded) tiles available FOR FREE from the USFS... for an example of the tiles, see the following site.
http://data.fs.usda.gov/geodata/rasterg ... egionID=r6
-->click on the area that contains "Gi" of "Gifford Pinchot," then select "Walupt Lake" from the following page to get to the map with Gilbert Peak.

There is a blog from caltopo on which there are further details about the site and its creator. Others on PH use other sites to do this same thing, and some of THOSE sites also use the same USFS tiles and many other identical data sources.

The procedural answer to your question...
Easy method:
1) caltopo.com
2) On the left side, select "Layers"/"->Shaded Relief"

Manual method:
1) caltopo.com
2) In upper right corner, click on "USGS 7.5' Topos" and select "Google Layers"/"Maps" so you can find where you're going
3) Home in on the area of interest
4) Click in the same spot in the upper right where it now says "Map" and select "Topographic Maps"/"US Forest Service"
-->That should flip on the map you want. If no map displays, then there are no USFS tiles available for the area, and you'll have to use one of the other maps (the USGS 7.5' Topos, for instance)
5) To get the shading, hover your mouse (but do not click) over where it now says "US Forest Service" in the upper right corner and from the menu click "add layer". A blank box will appear with an X next to it.
6) Click on the box and select "Shaded Relief." Nothing will happen.
7) There is a slider bar with a blue circle on it next to "shaded relief" --> drag it to ~20%.
The map should now be ready.

There is an import option for gps tracks. I haven't fiddled much with it because I like to keep everything local in Google Earth so I can flick tracks on and off and generate detailed elevation profiles. To make the tracks on caltopo, I usually click "Add new object" over on the left side and add a line. You can take it from there.

There used to be an option to export the maps in two different ways (one that needed an internet connection to make later use of, and one that was self contained). It looks like that option has been removed. It was very useful because one could pull down a self-contained version of an area with the desired map and then import/overlay it in Google Earth, along with any desired GPS tracks. VERY USEFUL when planning trips or creating reports.

[TheOtherBob]

Which software do you use to generate this map with your track ?

There used to be an option to export the maps in two different ways (one that needed an internet connection to make later use of, and one that was self contained). It looks like that option has been removed. It was very useful because one could pull down a self-contained version of an area with the desired map and then import/overlay it in Google Earth, along with any desired GPS tracks. VERY USEFUL when planning trips or creating reports.

... it looks like one can still download the content... use the "print" button to get access the necessary options.

[totops1]

Which software do you use to generate this map with your track ?

There used to be an option to export the maps in two different ways (one that needed an internet connection to make later use of, and one that was self contained). It looks like that option has been removed. It was very useful because one could pull down a self-contained version of an area with the desired map and then import/overlay it in Google Earth, along with any desired GPS tracks. VERY USEFUL when planning trips or creating reports.

... it looks like one can still download the content... use the "print" button to get access the necessary options.

TheOtherBob, thank you very much!!
I didnt know caltopo and it's awesome!

There is a similar website : http://www.visugpx.com but one can only see the terrain map.
Caltopo has the USGS layers and it's really good. Attached is what Ive been able to print with caltopo, a full map of my trail run up Mt Chinedere last sunday. Iwish I had had this map when running

Again thanks very much, Ill be able to ditch my google earth USGS map layers