Gothic Basin — Saturday, Sep. 13, 2003

North Cascades > Mountain Loop Highway

Gothic Basin, 9.4 mile round trip, 2600’ elevation gain, cloudy, cool. Started from the gate at Barlow Pass around 8:30AM. Walked the road 1.1 miles to the trailhead just before the old bridge over the Sauk River. The trail starts off easy then climbs well maintained although very steep switchbacks through forest. Eventually reach open rocky slopes with a few creeks and traverse for sometime over a few sketchy sections of trail. We needed to use our hands and feet to climb over some rocks. I was glad it wasn’t raining out because it would make for a slippery trail. We climbed and climbed with Silvertip Peak, Monte Cristo, and Keyes Peak to our left above Glacier Basin. The clouds added to the scenery as they seemed to sever the tips of some of the higher peaks in the distance. The cool September day was inviting as we made the final ascent to the entry of Gothic Basin. This is a very rocky area with lichen, meadows, and small ponds. It was very breezy and chilly as we sat and ate lunch, so we layered some clothes on. We explored the area and looked way down on Weden Lake. There are a handful of campsites in the basin. After about two hours we decided to head down since the clouds were getting thicker by the minute and we certainly didn’t want to scramble down the trail in the rain. We would have liked to climbed up to Foggy Lake but didn’t want to take a chance with the expected rains. We said our good bye to such a neat place and made our way down. Just when we reached the car it started to drizzle, then rain. We got back just in time. It took us about 3 hours to climb to Gothic Basin. Fall is on its way. Josh Comen