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Onery Goat on Mount Rose

Cute but wild

Mount Rose is my favorite mountain in the Olympics, it's also not far from Shelton.  The Mount Rose trail starts at Lake Cushman.  Last week a hiker reported that a mountain goat chased him down the trail for one mile.   I've never seen a goat on Mount Rose, I always see them on Ellinor.   I am convinced that one day a goat will butt someone right of the summit of Ellinor.  I love the goats but I fear them too.  More people should learn to fear mountains goats, as they are wild animals and they have really sharp horns!  For now no one has been hurt on Mount Rose or Mount Ellinor  but recently a goat killed a hiker on the switchback trail on hurricane ridge.

Goat on Mount Jupiter, this is the way I like to see goats in
the Olympics.  These were on a distant peak, so I was safe but
and I had a great view of the goats during my lunch break

 So be careful out there, give goats the right of way, it is their home that you are invading.  If a goat decides it wants to take of the trail, by all means get off the trail and walk around the goat!   One other tip that I can give you is to bring trekking poles with you.  Goats (and bears) will usually clear off if you clank your trekking poles together.  But only do this as a last resort.

The hiker posted a picture of the goat he had trouble with here:
http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20110617/NEWS/306179980/0/NEWS/another-mountain-goat-threatens-in-the-olympic-last-years-death

The ferocious domesticated Nubian is safe to pet but she deserves your  respect too!

These beautiful black bears gave me the space I needed after I clanked my trekking poles together. 
This was taken with a 12X zoom from about 300 feet way.

Ankle update

Still down with health problems and will be for some time to come.

Grrrr.. Too old to hike already?

I sprained my ankle again, this time it went over to the outside.  All I was doing was walking in my yard.   I actually thought I was ready to go hiking again, I was just waiting for my flu/cold/sinus infection to go away.  I'm not at all pleased.  Physical therapy did not work, in fact I think it was a waste of time.  My hiking days may be over, I don't know.

Bike Ride

How NOT to get to the meeting

 I had a fun little misadventure today.  I decided to combine documentary photography with exercise and rode my bike to a local commission meeting.  I wanted to avoid 101, but I missed my turn and ended up riding down more off 101 that I would have ridden down if I had just taken a direct route.  Oh well, at least I got some exercise, but my lungs hurt now.  I breathed in a lot of dust and diesel fumes.  What should have been just under 4 miles one way ended being over 9 miles one way.  I still don't have a good sense of what  mile on a bicycle feels like.  If I had a better sense of that I would have known how far off course I was.  Now I have decided that I for sure need to get a handle bar mount for my GPS.  My GPS did  not do me much good in my little backpack but I did get an interesting track log so I know just how far off route I went.

I got to the meeting about ten minutes late and I only got to take one picture because I used the facilities and by the time I was done the meeting was over.  I won't post that picture here, it's too ugly for this blog.

I think my ankle is ready for hiking again, it feels as strong as it ever does, so I will test it out by taking a hike soon.  My knee is very happy, maybe what ever I did to it this summer while driving is healed now.


13.5 miles with
300 feet elevation gain

It felt about like the way hiking 6 miles would feel