Welcome to the Iron Goat Trail!

 This trail follows the old route of the Great Northern Railroad as it snaked its way across Stevens Pass. There are numerous ruins of snowsheds and tunnels along the way, along with beautiful views out across the Tye River valley and across the way towards Tonga Ridge and the Alpine Lakes Wilderness area that lies beyond. Completed in 1893, the original rail route over Stevens Pass was a difficult to use one that had multiple switchbacks going up the eastern side of the steep pass. This was replaced in 1900 with the much-improved route that used the Old Cascade Tunnel, a 2.6-mile-long grade that slowly climbed the pass at the rate of 100 feet per mile and came out near Tye just over the top of the pass.

The tunnel did not, however, remove all the grade on the western side of the mountain. That still required the long slow descent to Martin Creek and then back to Scenic. This section continued in use until the opening of the New Cascade Tunnel in 1929. The western side descent of the tracks from Tye to Skykomish was still quite dangerous, even if it didn't have as many switchbacks as the original eastern portion of the route did. The western side of the pass has a number of very dangerous avalanche areas. These numerous avalanches and snowslides meant that the track was in constant danger during the winter and so for many years (until the new Cascades tunnel was built) the railroad kept building new snowsheds and short tunnels that would bypass the worst of these areas. Many of these areas are still visible (and some you can walk into) today. 

This bonus cache is associated with The Iron Goat Trail - Lower Section Adventure Lab.  As you complete the five stages of the Adventure Lab, you'll be given a letter at each stage. 

Organize the five letters into a single word which you can enter into Certitude to find the coordinates for this bonus cache. 

Enjoy a hike on this fun trail and see some cool railroad history!

You can validate your puzzle solution with certitude.