Gothic Basin — Thursday, Mar. 22, 2001

North Cascades > Mountain Loop Highway

Since we have not gotten a normal snow fall this winter, you can drive the Mt. Loop Highway all the way to Barlow Pass. The old road to Monte Cristo is snow covered and packed down from snowmobles. I hike in the first mile to the Twin Bridges at the Stilly River and turned off to head up the trail to Gothic Basin. The trail is snow covered in the open areas for the section that follows the river up stream. After crossing the last large stream and then heading up hill through the old growth forest, the trail is bare for about a mile. A lot of new trail building had been done since I was last up to the basin 5 years ago. Several switch backs had been built eliminating the old, steep miners trail which was originally constructed back in 1896. This makes the trip much more enjoyable and helps save the knees on the decent. There were two large white fir trees that had blow down across the trail. About a mile and a half before the basin area, you hit snow again. Snowshoes are helpful the last mile, as the snow in soft, to keep from postholing. It was a sunny day with nice scenery all around. Lots of peaks to see. Also saw a few early season bugs flying around. I had the area to myself, as I didn't see anyone else on the Gothic Basin Trail, they must have all gone to Mt Si!