Gothic Basin — Sunday, Jul. 6, 2003

North Cascades > Mountain Loop Highway

Weden Creek Trail 10 miles RT, 2600’ gain from the Monte Cristo gate. I have wanted to go to Gothic Basin for a year now and this three day weekend seemed like a great opportunity for a backpack. I met my new friends Roy, Bev and Mike Friday morning at the Verlot Ranger Station and we headed to Barlow Pass at about 10:30am. When we arrived the area was buzzing with activity. We heaved on our backpacks and headed down the Monte Cristo road. We walked about .8 miles then arrived at the Weden Creek trail head. The first part of the trail is smooth and flat running through a forested area, after just under a mile the trail starts to climb steeply on switchbacks up and up. Then after about two miles the trail turns into somewhat of a rock scramble but soon it leveled out and we arrived at the first of three waterfalls and easy creek crossings. The most impressive one is called King Kong’s showerbath, luckily King Kong was not in the area at the time. After the waterfalls the trail stays very rocky and starts to climb again. On our way up we heard reports of snow and cold wind conditions at the basin so we decided to set camp just before entering into the basin at a campsite, there we had a warm well deserved sleep. We woke Saturday morning to slight fog and very light rain so we waited a few hours and then headed up to Gothic Basin when the weather broke. On the last few hundred feet of the trail before the basin the snow started and continued, covering most of the area with a few rocks and hills without. There we explored for a few hours. Foggy Pond and Foggy Lake are still mostly frozen but Weden Lake which is 800 feet below is snow free. In the sun were the awesome views of Gothic Peak to the west and Del Campo to the north. Both seemly snow free. We headed back to our campsite amazed by the incredible views of the appropriately name basin to find some gifts left by an acquaintance we passed earlier. Thanks Rob. There we spent a second night with good company and great views. The bugs were a little buggy but tolerable. Sunday morning we headed back early stopping at the bridge by the trail head to take a swim in the river. It was FFFFFREEEZZING but it was nice to get the sweat and insect repellent washed off. It was a great weekend.