Weden Creek#, Gothic Basin #724

A beautiful sunny mid-week day found my nephew and I on this trail for the first time in a couple of years. It was a welcome surprise to find the first half, that was previously overgrown and dificult to follow, now totally reworked and great lengths of it relocated; complete with some elevated tread, boardwalks, and my personal favorite - the concrete and river rock toadstools installed for the first creek crossing. Very cool! (Greg's construction genius again') Of course it still gains the same brutal elevaton in precious few miles. On the upper portion of the trail, two of the waterfall crossings are blocked by snow and avalanche debris. Folks have been walking across the snow to reach the trail on the far side, but the snow cave beneath is growing larger as the roof grows thinner making this method of gaining the other side increasingly dangerous. We opted to play it safe and go around; a bit of a scramble but worth it. Other than these, the trail is snow free into the basin. Gothic Basin itself still has plenty of large snow fields throughout which we enjoyed glissading down after summiting Gothic Peak. The small lake first encountered is only half clear, and Foggy Lake open only enough to tantalize hikers with suggestive hints of it's lusterous cobalt blue depths. A definate thumbs up! Tally-ho!