Trip Reports

Road to Monte Cristo was closed to cars. Two old bridges mentioned were said to be washed out. There was also a clay slide while still down in the river valley. Trail was okay after ascent up mountain began other than several very slippery muddy spots (not a problem except for drop off within feet). Until...

""King kong's showerbath"" is at this time an icy snowfield. Several groups warned of crossing it on the way up. Many were still crossing it that day. We decided to climb down and around. From below you could see it was very thin ice. On the way back down the next day, someone had written a note explaining the danger; we again went down below instead of crossing of the ice. From below you could see daylight through the ice. Very dangerous traverse! It is surprising that it hadn't fallen in already.

The trail is rough as usual with a wobbly stream crossing. There is a snow patch crossing the path that YOU SHOULD NOT ATTEMPT TO CROSS. It is severely rotted out underneath and very thin. The trail is an exercise in paying attention and a real hoot when it rains.

The basin is mostly snow free and Foggy Lake is 90% thawed. Camp spots are easy to find but the bugs are a bit problematic.

Beautiful area.

Both the Monte Cristo road and the trail are in very poor shape. The steep switchbacks near the bottom are in decent shape, but the first big snow bridge is quite steep and has one of the nastiest run outs I've ever seen (20 foot gaping hole). It does not look like it will melt out this year. Trail is much more of a route and boot beaten path beyond that point. If you are coming early in the morning or will be ending after the sun is not on the snow bridge, bring an axe.

Beautiful day in the Monte Cristo area! The trail to Gothic Basin has a lot of issues. There are two major clay slides...one on the Monte Cristo road that was negotiated by a pretty nice replacement trail, and one just after the turn-off to the Weden Creek trail. There are about a dozen large blowdowns on the way to Gothic Basin, but none of them were too bad.

The first gully crossing about 3 miles into the hike was completely snow filled. It seemed pretty dicey because the snow was kind of hard...I arrived at about 10:30 a.m. It definitely required an ice axe to go straight across, which I had with me fortunately. There is a nasty little run-off below the crossing. For now, it seemed pretty solid to walk across. The next two gullies were snow free.

Gothic Basin is about 1/2-2/3 snow-filled. Plenty of water available all along the trail. I hiked up the snow to Foggy Lake which was 95% ice-covered. However, a beautiful outlet allowed for some icy-cold water filtering which lifted my spirits!

There is a nice camp site at the tarn between Foggy Lake and the scrambling ridge up to Del Campo. The tarn is 1/2 covered with ice, leaving a deep blue color which looked remarkable from above.

Summited Del Campo in the mid-afternoon and enjoyed a pleasant hike out. Saw 12 people all day.

Left Barlow Pass around 9AM and made good time to the actual ""trailhead"". As was mentioned in an earlier report, there is still avalanche debris, including maybe 10ft of snow, on the road with a nice clean path running thru the middle of the debris. Once on the trail, the climb follows the river for a while before starting to relentless uphill section. Once you start getting in the open areas, you encounter the first snow. The first of about 3 snowchutes you encounter before you enter the basin is still deep in snow and is roughly 120ft across. Ice axe would be recommended here and at the other snowchutes. Be careful as 1 member partially postholed thru. Snowbridges in these chutes are getting thinner and thinner and is just a matter of time before it caves in. Once past these, no need for a axe. Basin and foggy lake are still choked with snow and probably wont fully melt out until early September. Sun was out in the afternoon which made for a magnificent day. Only saw about half a dozen people all day on the trail. Bugs were surprising absent, only 1 bite all day with no repellent.

Alright...so, as reported earlier by other hikers, yes, the trail is in crappy condition. That sure makes for a good scramble.

Do not be discouraged by the downed tress and brush. This all improves as you go. The section of relentless switchbacks is not damaged.

After that, you'll pop out to the gullies with the snow bridges of death. Do not proceed without an ice axe and strong route finding skills. Depending on how much heat this area gets, the bridges could stay around for two weeks+ and continue to thin out to the point of certain injury if one tries crossing or on the other hand, they could completely melt out in areas to allow for a safe stream crossing.

The rats maze begins, weaving in and out of brush and snow, on and off the trail. Not for novice routefinders. Around 4300' or so, start looking for a way up to the ridge. The trail is under the snow somewhere so it is a useless prospect. We found a steep snowfield and took turns kicking steps to get us there.

From the top to the ridge, the lake basin is an easy descent through the snow. Our group proceeded to loop around the lake to attempt summiting Gothic Peak. Due to time constraints (the conditions throughout made for slow going) and a weather front approaching the group could not summit today. The most difficult part of the summit attempt had to be the final snowfield adjacent to the scree field just below the summit block. It was just so steep and nasty that it took the group a long time to ascend, and even longer to descend.

To return from the lake basin we modified our route a touch to allow for some glissading. From there it was a bushwhack back.

The first mile on the road to Monte Cristo alternates between road bed, washed out road and temporary trail. Much flood devastation. The bridge is out; getting to the town would require walking a log jam across the easy-flowing, shallow river at the bridge point. After one mile from the gate at Barlow Pass, keep your eyes peeled to the right and you can spot the reader board up in the trees where the outhouse and trail register are. Don and I counted 30 trees of various sizes across the trail between the TH and King Kong's Shower that you had to either go over, under, around or through -- but all doable. There were three snow-filled gullies at about 3800 ft., the third with two broken-through spots that made us think twice about proceeding. The snow was hard and we scampered across. Ice axes were needed for safety on all three. We turned around at King Kong's Shower (a beautiful spot) at 4200 ft. A young couple who had followed us went beyond but returned after about another couple hundred yards, having lost the trail in snow. All in all, it was one of those experiences that ""doesn't have to be fun to be fun,"" resulting in ever more respect for Mother Nature.

I only managed to get about 2/3 miles on the trail--only reaching an elevation of about 2,450.' The trail (as far as I got) is in desperately poor condition, mainly due to deadfalls. Early on my little jaunt, the trail apparently disappeared amidst a large tangle of downed trees, and I moseyed around in the woods, then back tracked to discover the trail hiding behind a 60' log of significant diameter. At about 1/2 mile there is an avalanche chute involving a muddy traverse of about 200 feet. This could have been dangerous under wetter conditions. I finally turned around shortly thereafter at a gully/stream crossing that was a little too technical for me. The route over this stream was doable, but I was too discouraged with how little progress I had made to that point and felt it would just be more of the same.

Nov 17, 2007, wonderful cool light rain day for a hike. It is a short 1.5 mile hike from Barlow Pass down the Monte Cristo trail to the TH. Look for a large wooden pedestrian bridge that is on the West side of the trail. This takes you to the TH. Previous reports cover the trail. We made it to 3400 feet and began to see snow. By 3600, snow was all over but the trail was well marked. When we cleared the trees at 3800 feet, snow was about 5 inches and slushy, making for pretty slick movement. The trail at this point was not visible. If we had crampons and ice axe, finishing should have been a gimme, but without it the descent would be dicey in places. Even to this point (about king kong's shower), it is still very enjoyable. 6.5 miles r/t and 1600ft gain by GPS. I would encourage others to bring crampons and an axe for the rest of the season.

My buddy Skip and I considered a scramble of Gothic Peak today, but the basin proved to be our destination instead. We started out in steady drizzle which didn't let up until we'd almost reached the basin. We stopped en route at Twin Bridges to check out the crossing at the washed out area. Looks like an easy ford if you don't mind icy cold water, but the log crossing was just a bit too slippery for us. An especially slippery log would stop most. This might be tolerable in drier conditions however. Snow began about 500' below the basin and wasn't consistent until the basin was reached, although it's only about 3 - 4 inches. It's a bit hazardous though as it's a melting mess with lots of postholing possibilities in the rocks of the basin which I found out when I went in to my upper thigh wrenching my knee in the process. The route to the summit would have included much more of this so we decided to call the basin the end of our trip. It was cold and windy and fairly inhospitable, but the sun came out just before we left. Gorgeous! We watched four scramblers make their way up Gothic. I had to give them credit. Quick trip down and grinders at Omega Pizza!

Enjoy a paved drive on the south arm of the Mtn. Loop to Barlow Pass. Warm up your muscles traipsing the Monte Cristo Road for a mile nearly to the washout. A kiosk on the right marks the shortcut through the forest to the actual Gothic Basin TH.

Appreciate the level boardwalks and dusty path early on. The ascent begins soon enough, rooty and rocky, with occasional over/under blowdown.

After the usual couple miles, the trees thin for views and waterfalls and runoffs cut through the trail. Blueberries get fatter and alpine blooms begin to brighten the clearings. The trail curves west and drops you in the Basin. Note where you enter, as the hillocks and lakelets not only entertain but also confuse wanderers.

Follow the outlet stream to Foggy Lake, with Gothic Peak and Del Campo framing the opposite curve. Innumerable picnic spots and fine camping at the east entry. Yes, fish.

If Foggy Pass attracts you, choose the left coast route. Del Campo's boulder field looks too freshly tossed for a lucky traverse. Over the pass, Morningstar, Sperry and Vesper stand for a snapshot.

A pokey glissade over crusty late summer snow will land you back to the lake. Allow plenty of daylight to locate the way out. Downtime is not speedy due to the bedrock slabs and tree feet on the upper half of the trail.

Cheers!

Last year (2006), Goober and I went to Gothic Basin on Sunday, July 24th. There's a report posted here. Well, we picked the hottest day of the year, and we got fried, baked, cooked, bitten, dehydrated, and were pretty loony by the end of the trail. It was the hottest hike we'd ever done on the hottest day of the year. But, we completed it and lived to tell the tale.

Saturday, we didn't go hiking. We had a Seahawks game to go to @ 6:00, and anywhere we wanted to go would be too far away to get there and back in time for the game, without waking up god-awful early. Which, we didn't. So, we decided that we'd just do Gothic Basin on Sunday with the girls, since we'd have all day to do it. And Sunday was supposed to be nicer than Saturday. We planned for what the forecast gave us: Mid 60's, partly cloudy, 40% chance rain late. Not 10 minutes down the highway did the rain start, and it never really stopped. We got to the trailhead and put on all the rain gear. The rain came and went and back again all day, but before long we were soaked. The cool thing though is that with all the wet, the mushrooms came out in full force. I have never seen so many large mushrooms! We scrambled over a few blow-downs and splashed around in the muck.

Anyone who knows this trail knows that it sucks you in quietly and gently for quite awhile before spanking you with 2,000 feet of elevation gain. It's no Welcome Pass or Dickerman, but it's also fully exposed for awhile and can be hot. Obviously not on this trip, but for small out-of-practice hikers (such as the girls), Gothic Basin can be very tough. The views are what keep you going. On this day there were none, unless you’re an rabid cloudaphile. Due to slowness, fatigue, grumpiness, whining, and general 'meh' within certain members of the party, it took us 4 hours to get to the first small lakes at the start of the Basin. This usually takes 2.5 hours. Unfortunately, this is where we stopped; We were done and some moods were tanking. The way down wasn't much better, and 3 frustrating hours later we were back at the trailhead, soaked and cranky. The rain started again as we left, but not until after a small clearing exposing a very strange bright sky blue 'cloud', and the 'moon on fire'. This is August, right? Harrumph!

So, two trips to Gothic Basin in 2 years, and we got two extremes: Totally hot and dehydrated; and totally cold and soaked. Next season, we're going when the temp is in the low 80’s and it is clear! I recommend you do the same. Gothic Basin is awesome.

Gothic Basin was lovely as ever today. Clouds drifting through the peaks created a gothic scene befitting a Alexander Dumas novel. Snow has mostly melted from the basin and the bugs have disappeared to wherever they go in late August.

But you have to pay the price to get to this piece of alpine paradise. There's well over 2000 feet of elevation gain. The upper half of the trail is all roots and rocks. In places it is more of a class II scramble, not a hike. After 100 years of neglect, the upper part of this former miners' trail is damaged beyond repair.

In contrast, the lower half of the trail was recently rebuilt and is quite decent, if steep. However, the last winter was not kind to this trail, and repairs to clogged waterbars are needed urgently. The first mile of the trail also has some blowdown, and a 100 foot section has slid into the river.

The one mile road walk from the Barlow Pass gate to the Gothic Basin trailhead has its own interesting obstacles. A section of road has collapsed into the river; a bypass trail has been provided. The steel bridge near the Gothic Basin trailhead is washed out, but this only affects people trying to get to Monte Cristo, not Gothic Basin.

The rough trail to Gothic Basin fails to deter crowds; you might want to go elsewhere on weekends.

Lovely 6 hour roundtrip to Foggy Lake. Note that you have to look for it a bit once you get up on top. The trail description isn't kidding that there is a small puddle/lake you find initially that might fool you. You have to do some light scrambling to get to the real deal. Washout down on the access road is striking, big change since I was last here in June 2006. Nice job by the FS constructing a makeshift trail around the washout. Also part of the trail itself is washed out near the beginning, but it's easy to traverse the slide. Parking lot was full by 9:45 on a Saturday but no problem parking on the side of the Mt. Loop Hwy. Ran into maybe 10 other parties during the hike.

The weather looked great for this side of the mountains, so I headed up to check out Gothic Basin. I had been there last year in October after some early snowfall and it was spectacular.

When I arrived at Barlow Pass, no other cars were around. Five other cars were there when I returned. I only say one other person the whole hike. The first mile is on the old road to Monte Cristo, and true to other reports, there is a nice detour up over the clay slide. The trail starts to the right of the log jam at the old bridge site. The river is low enough now where one could ford it to get to Monte Cristo with the water reaching about ½ calf height. I could see by wear on the logs that others crossed on the log jam or on a large log crossing the river. The root ball could be a challenge.

It seems like the elevation gain is more than 2600 feet to the basin, but I am sure that is because the first couple miles is relatively flat and then the trail takes off like a the Blue Angels heading skyward at seafair. The trail is in very good shape up until you reach the first of several long waterfalls. Then it turns to ruts and bedrock until about ½ mile past after King Kong’s shower bath. I climbed up to the base of that waterfall and was rewarded with a small rainbow at its base. There are nice views out across Weden Creek to Silvertip Peak starting about ½ way up, and it keeps getting better.

Once into the basin, I climbed up to Foggy Lake. It is still about 20% frozen. As the day went, the ice pack became noticeably smaller. There are very few trees in the basin, but the multicolored rocks, numerous tarns, waterfalls, and snow patches makes up for it.

I climbed up the saddle to the west of the lake, and hiked along the ridge up toward Gothic Peak. The views down to Foggy Lake, and out across the valley to Silver Tip Peak and Columbia Peak behind it were spectacular. From the shoulder of Gothic Peak, I was able to see Mt. Rainier, Mt. Baker, and Glacier Peak. It was a beautiful hike, even though it is a bit strenuous.

Round trip to entrance to basin 10 miles, 2600 feet elevation gain. Round trip to just below haystacks on Gothic peak, 12 miles +-, 3400 feet elevation gain.

Gothic Basin trail is in decent shape, a few down trees here and there. Almost all the tent spots are melted out. No snow on trail. Very very buggy. Big clay slide on Monte Cristo road has an easy side trail, big enough for jeeps. Lotsa campers in the Basin. Big fun glissade down from Foggy Lake to Foggy Puddle.

Well, it turned out to be a great trip - with impressive views all around, but it was hampered by weather warmer than what they are predicted and a recent bug hatch. The trail begins as a road, with first one washout with rough path around before the real trail actually commences. The force of the river in a number of spots is impressive. I wonder if ever that road will get to be fixed? On the trail, the old VOW re-route to intersect the original trail is occasionally in need of some work: including brushing in the open meadows, a handful of trees down, and another washout through slippery clay soil which might stand a brief re-route. Intersecting the original trail, it's about in the same condition as I remember from perhaps 10 years ago - steep and rough. Once up to the first of many stream crossings, the views improve. The bigger streams are all relatively easy to cross with no extensive avalanche debris left. Further up, though, beginning around maybe 4500', snow patches start. They get bigger with smallish streams asking to melt out in the near future. On one snow patch, we just kept climbing up to intersect the ridge off of Del Campo at perhaps the 5400' level. From here, we enjoyed great views in all directions. Looking down at Foggy Lake, it is 98% frozen with just a couple of small aquamarine melt patches visible. We then contoured down into the basin, exploring around. The basin is mostly full with snow, with just rock ribs sticking out. Summer has yet to really arrive here, except for the bugs. We then caught up with the trail, and began the way down. This seems to take almost as long as the way up. A long and tiring day, but rewarding still. Much towards the bottom, we ran into many groups planning to backpack in. We gave them the sorry news that the lake was frozen and the tentsites snow-covered. Alas...

On a trail work note, the first mile of the VOW reroute would be an excellent WTA project, between the trees and brush and the one re-route needed. Just a thought...

We didn't step foot on the Gothic Basin/Weden Creek trail. Just a note to say that the mudslide that washed out the road is passable via a high trail around the slide. So you can still walk the road to access the trail-head. The mudslide is spectacular and worth the short walk in to see the brand new terrain. The bridge over the S. Fork Sauk past the trailhead is half gone as well, but there are two trees down that allow access across a fork of the river to what's left of the bridge. The carnage wrought by nature upon all things manmade is something to behold.

Oh and cheers to the steady stream of hearty souls who dragged their bikes over the horizontal trees become bridge to peddle the road to Monte Cristo. You're sure footed and strong backed, I'll give you that much. Your bravery or foolishness tottering across those trees toting your bikes I won't comment on!

Destination was Del Campo Peak via the Gothic Basin Trail. Monte Cristo Road blocked by slide in the usual area at 3/4 mile. Can take bypass up and around or walk through the slide area. Bridge out from 11/06 storm at 1 mile at the turnoff to the Gothic Basin Trail. No problem getting to trail. Trail was snow-free to the avalanche gulley at 3600'. The gulley and the two shortly thereafter were still snow-covered, but the roofs above the streams are getting thin and will probably collapse with 2 weeks. Caution required. Trail was snow-covered starting around 4000', and it's easy to get off-route. We turned NW off the trail at about 4400' and traversed 1/2 mile up onto the SE ridge of Del Campo at the north end of Foggy Lake. We could have taken the normal route into Gothic Basin, but the deep snow cover allowed this easy shortcut. Gothic Basin was still covered by snow, and Foggy Lake was still completely frozen, except for a little melt around the edges. Route up to the beginning of the summit block of Del Campo was also snow-covered, and provided great glissading on the way down. The last 300' of the summit block was mostly snow free. Ice axes recommeded for Gothic Basin hikers until at least 7/15. A fall on some of the steeper slopes could spell disaster w/o the ability to self-arrest.

A two day trip to an area new to me, and scrambles of Gothic and Del Campo Peaks. The trip report by Canis Lupus Feminalis who was also on this trip pretty much covers Saturdays hike into the basin and scramble of Gothic Peak. The route our leader chose, involved some not so fun, very mobile talus and some very fun slabs. Capped by a nice (if your legs are a little on the long side) rock climb to the summit.

The forecast was marginal and it sure helped hold down the crowds. In fact our group of three who decided to stay over Saturday night were joined by only one other party. A group of 4 adult leaders and an unknown number (they move to fast to get a good count) of teenage boys out to do a little scrambling in the basin. Makes you feel real old when you're reminded how much energy you once had...

The leader of our little group, who has done Del Campo many times, mentioned that the scramble was exposed, but not all that difficult. I kept looking up at the mountain across the lake from our camp Sunday morning wondering if he was talking about some other mountain. The one I saw looked plenty difficult to me.

After breakfast we loaded a few essentials and water into our packs and headed out across the outlet of Foggy Lake. Weather was overcast, but the clouds were well above summit level so we were hoping for better views than we had on Saturday.

We went around the E side of the lake, crossed the outlet of the little tarn N of Pt. 5415 and caught the boot path up the ridge in front of Del Campo. The path dumps you out on a talus field near what is now a smallish snow field, just S of the ""notch"". A rising traverse across a more stable talus field than the one on Gothic brought us to the base of the notch. We didn't enter the notch, rather we climbed the rock on the left side wall of the notch until we reached a short rib :) above and left of the top of the notch. From there it's a fairly short scramble NNW up to the summit. As b00 points out in a July WTA posting, the rock is good and not too difficult to climb if you're on the route. It is, for me at least, very exposed. A fact that's much easier to ignore on the way up when you're busy charting your course, than it is on the way down. Very airy leaving the summit for the trip back.

We didn't get the views we hoped for from the summit, but the misty rain held off for us until we got back to the talus field. A great weekend, two scrambles I've thought about trying for some time and some of the best people I know to share it with.

A little bit rainy and foggy off and on but not too bad for this time of year. Lots of Blueberries!

When we got to the pass leading into the basin we went down to the left to some campsites. We noticed that a tree down there had a little wooden sign on it that said ""3"" on it and wondered what that is about. Anyone know about this?

On a scale of 1 to 10 of the most inspiring, breathtaking, pristine hiking destinations in the Cascade Mountains, Gothic Basin rates a solid 10. The scary pinnacles of Gothic Mountain and frowning bulk of Del Campo shelter a playground of undulating ice polished rocks and delicate tarns. Deep, clear Foggy Lake slips its sparkling waters through a narrow channel to feed a series of ponds and streams below. Many beautiful campsites dot the basin and the fantastic rock forms invite even the most tired hiker to play. Silver Tip mountain spreads out to the east, but keyhole views can be had of Eldorado Glacier north and Daniel south. On a bright sunny warm day like today, it is very tempting to lose all track of time up here.

The trail up to Gothic Basin is, on the other hand, on the lower end of the scale. Beginning at Twin Bridge campgrounds about a mile up the road to Monte Cristo from Barlow Pass, the Weden Trail starts out pleasantly enough through cool woods following the valley floor. It crosses a little stream on very shaky logs - we found it safer to use the rocks. Then abruptly it marches up Lewis Peak in a series of very steep dirt switchbacks. At about 1.5 miles we encountered a series of three slot gorges with very little water in them this time of year. Then the trail gets worse. Still climbing steeply, it is chock full of rocks and has a few muddy places. A half mile later the trail crosses another slot gorge and this time it pulls out all the stops, scrambling up rocks for about 60 feet and crowded by brush. The final half mile pounds out altitude the the lip of the basin but at least is a reasonable trail.

It took my ever optomistic companion, Jon, and I 3.5 hours to the lip of Gothic Basin for about 2600 feet of altitude gain. After playing awhile among the lower ponds we climbed up to Foggy Lake, exploring some old mine digs along the way. We thought about climbing up the talus slopes of Gothic Mountain, but compared to the fun we were having in the basin, the slopes looked like too much work for not much reward. We returned back to the trailhead in just over 2.5 hours, tired and sore but still filled with the wonder of Gothic Basin.

A warm but beautiful day to climb up to Gothic Basin, our local mini-Enchantments, and try Gothic Peak. 0900 out of the car found Sno County search and rescue in full force at Barlow Pass as a group of five Mountaineers was overdue from Foggy Peak. Chopper buzzed nearby a few times on our steep climb up Weden Creek trail, and the absence of the S&R team upon our return seven hours later suggests this tale had a happy ending. We got to Foggy Lake in about 2:20 and after a few minutes snack headed up. Hiker Jim's report from late 2005 is pretty much spot on - way trails easy to find heading out from Foggy Lake toward the ridge to your left, and fairly evident (and plentiful) on the meadowy ridge above. Patches of snow here and there but no need to step in it unless you wished to. Only route recommendation I would make is to gradually bear away from the ridgeline, right (i.e., toward Foggy Lake basin and Del Campo), as you climb higher - starting perhaps 300-400' vertical below the summit the ridge starts to get a little tetchy with big dropoffs left. Doable perhaps, but the tedious but safer alternative is to round a rock spur on some loose talscree then head up to the obvious notch just below the summit, either on the gravelly stuff right next to the spur or off to the right on the bigger, but still mobile talus slope. Final little summit block seemed easier than Class 3 on this day - not exposed in any serious way - but one's perceptions change from day to day, and caution well-advised. Summit has fabulous views of...well, everything, and the weather was perfect. Another gorgeous day in the Cascades. Sick of loose gravel, I came down the big talus for variety and gloried in the amazing friction of the big slabs...at least when they are dry! Gothic Basin crowded, but thank goodness the trail is pretty steep and rugged - if this place were more accessible it would be mobbed.

The trailhead is easy to find, right before the Monte Cristo road crosses the first bridge. It slowly and gently ascends for the first bit, which is simply to lure you in, because this trail is steep! Given how steep it is, I expected the trail to be in worse condition with a lot more washout, but it was nice 90% of the time. In places you have to hands-n-feet scramble up a rock or two and other places have some serious roots but it is minimal. I was also carrying an overnight pack, so it made it seem steeper and harder than it really is I am sure. To my surprise there were almost NO bugs on this trip! In addition, 3 or 4 small creeks provide a cooling off on the way up. In the afternoon (after 2pm) the trail up is mainly in shade, but you risk not finding a camping site if you arrive that late on a weekend.

While I was up there, I marked about 14 campsites near the lake with my GPS and I am sure I missed a few, but it was crowded enough to fill them all up and one person stayed below at the tarns I believe. This was a sunny weekend, so during the week it is surely more tame.

There are several nice day trips from Foggy Lake. I recommend the saddle up near Gothic Peak. Fabulous views to the west and a nice ridgewalk. Also, scrambling around the rocks you find a huge amount of geologic diversity which is interesting in itself. Beautiful area that you pay for on the way up and down (knees!), but worth it.

More photos at-> http://picasaweb.google.com/noel.hastings

I guess it was partly the name that attracted me to this hike, but no, I did not dress all in black for the occasion. The Mountain Loop Highway out of Granite Falls is closed Barlow Pass, which is also where one must park to access trails off the Monte Cristo road.

The trail for Gothic Basin is one mile from the parking area, just prior to a bridge. It starts out in forest, and is relatively gentle, but soon starts to head steeply up, and does not relent much for the next 4 miles. At times, the tread is so rocky, or full of roots, that it can seem more like a scramble than a hike. However, the trail is clear and not difficult to follow, and there were some streams along the way to provide water. As the trail leaves the forest, the views open up into an other-worldly experience. Smooth granite mounds, creeks and tarns offer much to those with inclination and time to explore. Initially, I stopped at a smallish lake, which I thought was rather anti-climatic for such an otherwise grand location. However, looking further up, I was pulled to continue hiking...and found a path marked by cairns, which leads to the very lovely Foggy Lake. I was regretting that I wasn’t prepared to camp, as this area is truly gorgeous and inviting for much more exploration and appreciation.

No blow-down or bugs to speak of.

After last weekend’s fantastic trips to Robin Lakes and the Enchantments, a slight change of pace for this weekend’s trip to Gothic Basin. But, no less rewarding - Gothic Basin is a beautiful place.

I hit the trail by 6:30am to beat the crowds, and was largely successful (only saw a few people camped at Gothic Basin). The trail up is quite weird: moments of furious activity are followed by gentle rambles past waterfalls and streams, and then the cycle resumes... I walked up with the sun trying mightily to exert its influence over the fog that was hanging around (the fog winning for the most part). This obscured most of the views going up, however Gothic Basin seemed all the more mysterious.

Gothic Basin was all brightness and shadow: the brightness from colorful heather and mottled rocks, and shadow from the fog. For me, the nicest part of Gothic Basin is the part before Foggy Puddle. Gentle rambles past lovely ponds lead to an overlook of waterfalls falling 900ft down to Weden Lake. Foggy Puddle and Foggy Lake lived up to their names: Del Campo was obscured throughout, and Gothic Peak continually played hide and seek.

As luck would have it, it cleared up as I was heading down, and I was able to catch the views of Silver Peak I missed coming up.

The Hike-a-thon begins! I'm warming up with some day hikes over the next week and a half. Today, it was time to brush off the bar exam cobwebs. I finally visited Gothic Basin.

My dad, a musician, says that some pieces of music are so beautiful that it hurts. Well, Gothic Basin is so beautiful that it hurts. I was literally moaning as I scrambled around the orange polished rock slopes.

There was a cold breeze up there. It felt, and even smelled, like fall. Such a relief after the heat wave here and then the hot muggy weather out east where I was the past week. Natural, crisp, cool air!

Is there any point in talking about trail conditions? It's the steepest bona fide trail I have ever been on, bar none. And that actually includes the new switchbacks in the woods, although I'm sure it's still much better than whatever rooty, muddy mess was there before. (i.e., they are very very steep, but smooth) It's not overgrown or brushy (despite warnings to the contrary on the trailhead sign), the stream crossings are all easy, and although believe it or not there are some snow patches in the basin, they are no problem. There are campsites melted out up there, if you're masochistic enough to take a heavy pack up that trail. I saw a couple who had done just that. Bravi! That pair and a party of five that had attempted Del Campo (a snowfield that was too steep for just poles turned them back) were the only folks I saw all day. That includes on the Monte Cristo road.

No bugs! What an amazing day.

Get it while it's hot!

I did the Gothic Basin trail 5 years and loved the basin. I've been telling Goober for 5 years that it was the awesomest, and with a recent trail report that said it was basically snowfree, it was time to prove it. I warned Goober that it was a brute of a trail despite the misleading specifications, and when you combine it with a hot day, it would be a butt-kicker. She didn't believe me.

We started out at 7:30am on Sunday, the same time as a group of people who were headed for Del Campo did (where'd the dog go?). We're always early, but went really early to miss the heat on the way up. First 2 miles or so is flat along the Monte Cristo Road, and then until the first little stream crossing on the trail. After that, its a brutal straight-up shot up the side of the mountain, first in the forest for about 1200 vertical feet in steeply-graded non-switchbacks, and then exposed in the upper meadows for another 1200 vertical feet in rocky scrambles and steps. The creek crossings were all very easy, and each one was a welcome break of cool air. King Kong's bath was really nice. Oh, and the bugs..... everywhere, but just flies. They didn't really bite, just bothered the heck out of you while you stop to catch your breath and get your wits together from the last 200 feet of grade.

But it was really, really hot. We gulped our water & Gatorade like it was going out of style. By the time we hit the basin, we were hot, tired, and sunburned. We collapsed on a rock at the little lake, took our shoes off and dipped them into the icy cold water and settled in for snack time. The basin is a geologic wonder, and it's so peaceful up there you wish you could just stay there. Peaks surround you in all directions, and the rock face is so carved and smooth from years of weathering.

Feeling recharged, we got our packs together and wandered around the basin and tried to get our bearings. The map and the peaks didn't line up. This bothered us immensely, so we wandered around some more arguing about which peak was Gothic, which peak was Del Campo, and where Foggy lake was. Ultimately, we found out that we hadn't even made it to Foggy Lake, and that's why we were so confused with the mappage. (Duh.) So, we scrambled up over to Foggy Lake and collapsed there, hot and grumpy, but happy to have resolved the mystery. The lake was still partially frozen. It was 90+ degrees, and this lake was still frozen! Seems so wrong.... The snow patches you cross to get to the lake are probably already melted out by the time you read this.

So... the decent... A knee jarring, sweltering, slow going, roasting, bug infested, partytime funhouse of happiness and heat exhaustion. Took us three hours to get down, and we were completely exhausted and actually getting concerned for our health before we even hit the forest. The forest, even with the scary grade, was a welcome cover from the unrelenting brightness of the sun. Finally seeing our car (which contained a cooler with ice cold beverages and A/C!) was probably the happiest moment we've had since...... maybe since we last did Three Fingers and saw our car afterwards!!

On the way down, we realized that we hadn't seen that many people. On popular trails we usually pass dozens of parties of people. Not today. we saw 8 parties in total, which also included the people who went to Del Campo (crazies!) We passed the Dickerman trailhead and there was nobody there. No one was out. On one of the hottest days in the year, everyone stayed away and played it cool and smart. Not us. We went to a killer of a trail and really over did it. Not smart. Do not do this trail in excessive heat. Definately do this trail, but wait for it to be cooler. It is a tremendous hike, worth the effort, but be smarter about it than we were.

We now have a new rule: No hikes in 90+ weather. Unless it is Nooksack Cirque, and we have super soakers. Splish splash, we were taking a hike......

One minor blowdown on the brutally steep miner's path. The first of the three gullies is full of snow...solid as of June 23. Last two gullies clear.

As stated above, the trail is clear until just after King Kong's showerbath, where you hit several feet of snow on the way to the entrance to Gothic Basin. Ice axe needed. Watch out for stepping on collapsing snowbanks and postholing, especially on the steep parts of the trail.

The winter approach to Del Campo is open...it's between King Kong's showerbath and the last gully/waterfall before Gothic Basin.

Plenty of snow this year! Very soft in the mid-afternoon.

4 parties were on the trail today.

The trail is in pretty good shape until after the creek crossing. Then it gets a little rough. We didn’t actually make it all the way into the basin as the second snow bridge (3900 feet) had my ice axe coming up with black holes when I plunged it in to check for safe crossing. Most of our group had no ice equipment so we decided to head back down.

Steady very light drizzle but quite comfortable for a steep uphill.

On the way down we saw some bear tracks of varying sizes that weren’t there on the way up.

Nice workout, the shower at home felt GREAT.

One easily negotiated blow-down

One slipery stream crossing yeilded one wet sock.

headed up to Gothic Basin via Weden creek trial on Saturday. Arrived at Barlow pass around 8:30 and found an empty parking lot. Snow/rain mix as I repacked and put on goretex. By the time I reached the gate, the rain had disappeared and it looked like winter time, fat flakes drifting slowly down. The 1 1/2 mile walk to the trail head was dream like. I haven't seen snow that dense in a long time, I loved it! Entered the trees and took the hood off. No snow on trail for the first mile +, I began to wonder if I should stash the snowshoes. Turn a sharp corner and decided it was finally time to use them. Didn't see a track at all, it looked as if no one had been there since the first snow. The trail was in perfect shape, with the exception of two trees down, which were both easy to go under. Ate lunch under a old growth cedar in the basin. Snowing hard and very foggy, so not much of the surrounding mountain views. Fast jog back down, made it back at home for most of the second half of the 'hawks game.

Snowshoes taken and used

Trail in great shape