Goat Ridge
Length: 6.8 km
Elevation Gain: 1,041 m
Difficulty Level: Hard
This Goat Ridge is in Chilliwack (since there are several hiking trails called Goat Ridge around town). Parking is along the road near the trailhead, or at Lindeman Lake Parking Lot which is about 200 m from the trailhead.
There are a couple of splits in the first 300 meters of the trail without any signs. At the first one you turn left, and at the second one you turn right. After that, there is only one way to the destination, Goat Ridge.
After the second split, the trail is steadily going up and up. Given the elevation gain and the short distance of the trail, you can anticipate the degree of ascent is very steep.
There are several rope sections along the trail. They are not super hard since all of them have clear footholds. One of them is a bit sketchy because the rope is very thin and hard to be hold onto.
The trail has less traffic than many of the trails in this region therefore the trail doesn’t get maintained that often. There are downed trees all over the place. Trail markers are sparse.
The last 100 meters of so before the peak is a boulder field which requires light scrambling. I highly recommend bringing gloves to this hike to pull on the ropes and also for the scrambling. Bring plenty of water in this hike because it will make you sweat.
Technically this trail has everything, ropes, boulders, a lot of down trees, tree roots. No water source on the trail, except the creek at the trailhead. You can wash yourself after the hike at the creek.
At the last view point, you can see all three lakes, Chilliwack Lake, Lindeman Lake, and Greendrop lake. There is still a couple hundred meters and 70 meters elevation gain between the last view point and the actual Goat Ridge peak. But the views at the actual peak are the same as the last view point. It’s up to you if you want to hike to the peak or not.
Make no mistake, the effort for this hike is very high. Going down is as hard as going up, because of its steepness and the ropes.
