Gothic Basin — Saturday, Sep. 21, 2024

Went up this "trail" with a rag tag bunch of fellow volunteers on a WTA Backcountry 4 day stint.  The trail up is getting better every year. but there are spots that are still "are you kidding me" level. We made it up and we had two projects. I was on the lower project team working on adding some stone steps about a mile from the basin. 5 of us moving massive rocks to set in place to just get stepped on over and over again. We also added some chunk gravel in an area that was like grease just before making those first steps.  We added a few other little touches to help hikers keep off the trail edge and easy to see it with your headlamp is going up or coming down in the dark. The upper project was creating a reroute the may open up next year so more exciting things to some in 2025. The basin is STUNNING. The view of Del Campo in the evening sun was amazing. There are a lot of folks who hike and camp here and seeing all the tent lights scattered about made of a  great night time shot. The hike back down was just as demanding as the hike up but we made it out just fine.