Travel to trailhead: appreciated the paved road up to the trailhead. Parked at Barlow Pass (with privy!), since cars were already spilling out of the limited roadside parking lot onto both sides of the road.
Trail conditions: Don't be lulled by the initial easy flat gravel road. The imminent uphill section is approaching, first in a forested shaded section, then opening up with views to take your mind off the rocks. Trekking poles and hiking boots were helpful for navigating the steep rocky sections, and for extra balance during the straightforward creeklet water crossings. Fortunately, the rocks didn't seem too slippery or crumbling. Trail was quite popular, passing dozens of parties both while ascending and descending.
Navigation: Easy until Gothic Basin. Had to use GPS to reach Foggy Lake. The cairns mentioned in prior trip reports were less helpful than I anticipated.
Snow: Foggy Lake is still 70% frozen over. The trail itself up to Foggy Lake is snow free. Spotted some lingering snowfields which were easily avoided during the ascent from Gothic Lake up to Foggy Lake. Did have to cross a snowfield at Foggy Lake to get to a campsite.
Bugs: Not too bad in the initial shaded forested section, then turned annoying during the rocky ascent and in the basin itself. The only reason the bugs weren't terrible was because the temperature was cool enough to don long pants and long sleeves.
Stats: Took about 3hrs 15min to reach the basin and Gothic Lake at 4.3mi, since the overnight pack made the rocky ascent cumbersome. Took a detour to explore in the basin, and then ran into some route-finding difficulties during the 0.5mi up to Foggy Lake, so overall took another hour to reach Foggy Lake.
Camping: Ran into a smashed backcountry toilet right after reaching the basin. Spotted a handful of sites in the basin, and a few people camped at Gothic Lake. Most of these sites appeared exposed, due to the wind and lack of big trees. At Foggy Lake, took the path to the right circling around the lake, crossed a snowfield, and found 2-3 secluded campsites. The snowfield was fine in the afternoon with trekking poles, but was frozen in the AM coming back (not my favorite part).
Comments