Gothic Basin, Gothic Peak — Wednesday, Jul. 28, 2021

Ok, not gonna lie, I chose this hike because the last trip report said "bugs were not too bad" and I couldn't deal with any more mosquito bites this week... Turned out to be one of the most beautiful and challenging hikes I've ever done!  (Most of the challenge was in bagging Gothic Peak, the first part of the trail was manageable.)

Rolled up to the trailhead at 10:30am.. it's right off the highway, so good for all cars. There is a very very stinky pit toilet at the Barlow Point Trailhead. There were a decent number of cars, but people seemed spread between destinations... Even though Gothic Basin is a popular hike, there weren't that many people out on the trail on this beautiful Wednesday. I was pleasantly surprised. 

Last trip reporter was right about the bugs! Only a mild amount of mosquitos and biting flies, but not enough to warrant Deet-ing myself. Thank goodness...

The hike starts out pretty mild but definitely starts climbing pretty aggressively. Still, if you're just going to Gothic Basin, I think most hikers will be ok if they're used to steep trails and clambering up rocks (see pictures). Up to Gothic Basin there are patches of snow left, but most have work arounds... Like in the picture below you can see one of the more intimidating patches, but people were mostly climbing down the ravine and crossing the creek before coming back up the other side to avoid it. Overall you can get up to Foggy Lake with only minor snow interactions. 

I wasted most of my picture slots with useful pictures instead of pretty landscapes, but the minute you get above the tree line the views are BANGING all the way up to the basin. Seriously, gorgeous mountain views, and the basin itself is unreal beautiful. I totally understand why this hike is so popular. Foggy Lake is mostly melted out, but had some snow in places... It looked surreal it was so pretty. We enjoyed lunch at the lake before the masochism truly began...

After deliberating a bit we decided to try for Gothic Peak (Del Campo looked, um, way scarier). I do not recommend this to anyone except confident scramblers/peak baggers! For me, it was intimidating in spots and a significant challenge, though we did manage to summit! My Gaia track is attached below- you can see how we made three separate approaches before finding a route that didn't have sketchy snow or scary exposure. I actually think the final route we did is closer to the "correct" route. We didn't know ahead of time that we would try for the peak so we didn't download anyone's caltopo route, which, uh, might have been helpful. Anyway, the route we took was manageable to the summit block, though there was quite a bit of loose rock and a small amount of snow to navigate. When we got up to the summit block I took one look at it and was like Oh heck no. But my friend went for it and after seeing them get up to the top I decided to follow. I took a video of them climbing the summit block, which you can watch on youtube if you want. Sorry for the stupid commentary in the video… In the trail register someone wrote "I thought I was going to die!" LOL same, bro. This one was at the very limit of my comfort zone, honestly. But the views at the top were so insanely awesome, and I was happy we made it!

The way down was mostly uneventful once we cleared the worst of the sliding rocks at the top. Unfortunately while navigating one of the snow patches in the avalanche shoots further down the trail, one of my hiking poles collapsed and I had a hard fall and bashed my elbow pretty good on a rock. That’s the hardest I’ve ever hit my funny bone and it was not humerous *insert drum sting* I’m fine, no structural damage, but I could barely feel my hand and my friend had to help pull me out of where I got wedged between the snow and a rock. Lol I’m good at hiking! We were back down in the trees by the time it was dark enough for headlamps so the sketchy part was over. Saw lots of cute frogs hopping along the trail in the dark.

Didn’t get home until like midnight. Epic day!