Gothic Basin — Sunday, Aug. 3, 2025

FOUND: bag of tent poles -- we brought them out and I can ship them to you if they are yours.  Please contact me!

Other notes -- we encountered a fair bit of poop up in the basin.  If you can't make it to one of the backcountry toliets, be prepared to carry it out.  More and more areas are requiring it now -- get use to it and have a system.  With the high use of this area, plus the rocky terrian, burrying is not a great option, plus people aren't even doing that.  I have a dog that is unfortunately good at sniffing out poop (and eating it :( , and she managed to find all sorts of piles behind rocks or barely concealed under rocks, often with accompanying TP.  Bad form, hikers!  We also picked up and carried out two bags of dog poop up in the basin.  As a hiker with a dog, I try to be a "dog ambassador" to keep other hikers happy with dog people.  Seeing plastic bags of poop on the side of the trail after a hellish grind up to a beautiful basin does not make them happy, and that's how we dog owners will end up losing access to these areas. (The bags were still there on our second day, so we grabbed them on our way out.  Since we were the only overnighters with a dog that night, clearly they had been abandoned. )  PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE-- if you aren't prepared to deal with your crap, human or dog, then stay out of the backcountry.