Hiking Lone Goat Mountain
Length: 23 km
Elevation Gain: 1,181 m
Difficulty Leve: Hard (nothing technical. The trail is loooong)
Manning Park has some very good trails. Like Frosty Mountain Trail, Three Brothers Mountain Trail, and Windy Joe Mountain Trail.
Trail head to Lone Goat Mountain is at strawberry flat parking lot in Manning Park. It’s not a very popular hiking trail, therefore the parking lot is a good size for this trail.
The first kilometer or so is a wide service road. There are a couple of splits in this one KM, so pay attention to the signs, or use your offline map. An offline map is always a good idea in Manning Park. There is no cell signal in Manning Park.
The trail is long, and the second half of the trail is exposed therefore bring some sun protection. Bring enough water as well. There are a few small streams at the beginning of the trail. You can filter water from the streams if you want. The last stream is at around 3.8 km.
There is nothing technical along this trail. You are hiking in the woods for the first 5 km or so. After that, the trail opens a bit, and you can see the mountains on one side. At 6.2 km, there is a major split. One trail goes to lightning lake, another goes to Mowich Camp. You want to follow the trail to Mowich Camp. Things get interesting a bit after this split. If you are going in, you are descending for a KM or so. A few switch backs along the way. Experienced hikers know right away what will happen on the way back – yes, ascending, after you are all tired after the long hike. So keep that in mind.
When you see the 7 km marker, you will notice the trail gets a bit steeper after that marker.
At around 8.9 km, you will have full view of the mountains and valleys on your left.
At around 11.2 km, you should notice a trail to your right leading up a mountain. There is no marker or direction. But that trail to the right is leading to Lone Goat Mountain. It’s a steep ascent to the top. No need to scramble. Fortunately, the ascent is very short because, according to my app, the top is at 11.6 km. So only 400 m of steep ascent. LOL.
After you have enjoyed the views, and have a chance to re-energize (you will need it), you can follow the same trail you came from to go back to the parking lot.
