Trip Reports

The best day possible for this hike. There are two wash-outs along the river, but these pose no problem on a nice day like this. There are 2 or 3 blow-downs across the trail after that, but no problem. After ""King Kong's Shower"" the trail was increasingly snow and ice-covered. At 300' elevation below the basin we ran out of discernable trail and time and turned back.

The trail to Gothic Basin is clear except for 3 short snow crossings. An ice ax wasn't necessary for the snow crossings. Ski poles worked just fine. The snow was quite soft. Foggy lake is still under a lot of snow. The bugs werent to bad at all.

A trail crew was there earlier in the week and did a lot of work on the initial part of the trail.

Our destination was Peaklet 5415. Neither ice axe nor crampons were required to the peaklet - though poles were handy. I would recommend both ice axe and crampons for climbing Gothic or Del Campo. Snow was on the route from about 4100 feet on. Companion: Amy.

The maintained trail is snow-free, but about 1/2 mile before entering the basin there is deep packed snow with holes appearing over the streams. The lakes are starting to thaw, but the first basin is full of snow. Great trip. Very few bugs. Scenery outstanding.

Chose to hike to Gothic Basin via Weden Cr Tr. Beautiful. However, it could now be a blackened charred ruin. Almost to the top is a small tent site, I was checking out the site when I smelled smoke. At the end of the boot path on the slope I found a patch of smoking heather. The surrounding dirt was very hot the rocks underneath were to hot to touch. I emptied my water bottles on it and went back to the creek. A man and his son helped me dig it up and put it out. thank you for coming up the trail right then. People, NO FIRES, means NO FIRES!!!! After reaching my car, I reported the fire at the Darrington Ranger Station.

Round trip: 8 miles Elevation gain: 2800 (1600 ft in lst 1.8 mi) Left the car at the lot and walked gated road mile to trail head just before bridge in the late afternoon. After the forest section, we were in late afternoon shade all the way up and it was still hot. No bugs! but very rocky, some of them wet or with mud pockets. Watch your footing. Bring lots of energy.

The middle third of the hike is a series of outstanding waterfalls. We only saw a couple of people hiking out. Abundant berries of diff. varieties slowed our progress. Arrived just as the sun was setting, with the moon sitting south over the ring of mountains. An absolute fairy land of beauty.

We were all by ourselves and could not believe the beauty. It was warm all night and sunrise was gorgeous with thick white clouds covering the valleys below us. The rock is so smoothe you can walk all over with bare feet. Later in the morning, misty fog drifted in and out of our world. It was fun to appear and disappear from each other as we scrambled up to peek over the west ridges.

Wish we could have stayed another night but duty called and the forecast was for rain Fri. Wouldn't want to go down all that rock in the rain. This trail is really warm in the morning until you hit forest again. Emergen C really helped when we begin to lose energy from all that leaking we were doing. (fizzy packets of flavored vitamins and electrolytes to add to your water-available at Trader Joe's) NO, I don't make any money from telling you this.

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!

Headed up the Weden
Creek trail with two nephews in tow. Lower section very busy with trail maintainence, even some blasting. We liked the walkways built over muddy sections. The trail is easy to lose just before the steep forest climb as it divides into numerous way-paths. Incredible views astounded my Oklahoman nephews as we left the trees at 3600 feet. We reached Gothic Basin in evening sun, with clouds drifting in. Began exploring, and slept as rain started. Completely fogged in next morning. Explored further, then headed uneventfully down.

We had 10 boys and
adults on this second-to-the-last 50-miler shakedown hike. We spent Friday evening camping along the riverbank on the trail to Monte Cristo. We would start the Weden Creek hike in the morning. Saturday morning arrived and the weather was terrific. We overslept so we got a late start on the trail. It must have been about 10am when we finally got going. The trail started off through a dense wooded area that had a few very deep mudholes. We had read trip reports earlier in the week, which warned of the trail construction efforts going on. The reports said to follow the little flag markers since the trail has detours around the work areas. We did follow the flags, which took us through heavy brush. I think we were blazing the new trail. We weren't alone, however, as there were several others both in front and behind us. The ascent started in this section of the trail. The gradual uphill turned quickly into relentless climbing. We were carrying full 40+ pound packs (just for the experience of it!). At the first water crossing, I lost my balance, and my foot was in the river with water gushing around the top edge of my boots. One wrong move and wet socks would be my companion on the miles ahead. Some friends grabbed my arms in attempts to help me out of my predicament, but to no avail- both feet became submerged. Oh, well. It was going to be in the 80's anyway. Each mile of the trail became steeper and steeper. We were thankful at about mile point 2, when we were able to stop at a stream to filter water, and dunk our heads. The heat of the day had arrived, and we were all hot and ready to end our journey. The last mile seemed like several. There are boulders to scale, mud to avoid, snow to cross, downed trees to crawl under, and steep gullies awaiting any wrong move. Everyone coming down the trail said that we only had about a half-hour to go. That half-hour was more like 2 hours! 2600 feet of elevation gain in 3 miles. It is spring here now, with many wildflowers in bloom. Tired and totally spent (the adults, that is), we arrived at Gothic Basin. There is still snow in the basin, and it is beautiful, but at the moment, we are too tired to appreciate anything but the arrival at our destination. There were several others camping here. We found a wonderful campsite to the left of the trail and UP (of course) a hill. The site has a 360-degree view of the Cascades all around us. The sky was clear and sunny. It was such a different perspective to be at the top of the mountains looking down at the valleys. The sunset was gorgeous! We melted snow for our dinner water, ate, and went to bed early to allow plenty of time to dream about the trip down. We got another late start the next morning. We had planned on a grab-and-go breakfast, so that worked out good. We hit the trail and began our re-entry into civilization. I'm not sure if the climbing the day before was more difficult, or the descent on this day. It was refreshing to use different muscles today, but just as tiring. The last mile of the trail, we forgot to follow the little trail flags, and we ended up at the river, which was too deep and wide to cross. We had to backtrack. All in all it was a great trip. >19980722|MT PHELPS||a|troy|128| Mount Phelps - The Alpine Lakes - We figured this would be a quick moderately challenging route, perfect for after a half day of work. The first obstacle is getting to North Fork Snoqualmie River Road. USGS and road maps are not detailed enough to locate, and even locals only have a vague idea. Go to North Bend, turn right on North Bend Road, turn left onto Bartall (sp') and you are into the woods. This road changes names several times, and becomes even more confusing at a certain Y. Contrary to what the sign says, go left up the ""Dead End-road closed 24 miles"" road into Weyerhouser land. Strange views of outskirts of Alpine Lakes follow. We followed Pilar's instructions after this point, and only made every wrong turn. Poor Bug could only go 0.3 miles up #5736, up to a bouldery stream crossing. We found the abandoned road, and what is left of the ""mine"". We even found a red piece of flagging that might mark a trail. However, all paths into the clearcut were horribly overgrown and quickly disappeared under the slash. We tried four routes along the road end, but all ended in misery and near impalement. This could still probably be done in a long day of powering up the slash until the ridge, but coming down this at night meant certain bivy. This one is probably best done in early spring (but I'll be back!).