Gothic Basin — Saturday, Aug. 15, 1998

North Cascades > Mountain Loop Highway

After catching a bit of the PGA championship, myself and my good pal Bob headed up the Mountain Loop Highway to Barlow Pass. We arrived at the trailhead around 4PM on Friday night and set our sights on Gothic Basin. This was my first trip to Gothic Basin, and it was Bob's first backpacking trip ever. I had read that the trail was fairly steep, but I figured the rookie could handle the heat. The trail deffinately lived up to the steep expectations but the work being done on the lower portion of the trail was really looking nice. We arrived at the Basin around 7:30. Saturday morning was very foggy. We hiked up to Foggy lake, and realized that it truly lives up to its name. We then hiked down the steep creekbed to Weden Lake. This beautiful Alpine Jem is hard to reach but was worth the effort. We encoutered countless mining remnants, and even came across an two old mine caves, one with a cart still inside. The caving was great, so was the hike. But it rained all Saturday night. All in all it was quite a magical time. If you can hang with the steep trail, Gothic Basin is a must see. Watch out for the MINER FORTY-NINER!