Gothic Basin — Monday, Sep. 5, 2005

North Cascades > Mountain Loop Highway

Ted, Foobee and I thought we'd use Ted's extra day off from work to get up into Gothic Basin. Foobee invited her friend, Spickett, to join us. Ted had attempted to reach the basin back in May. That turned out to be a rather wet trip since it rained most of the day. Ted claims that his backpack drank more water than he did. I'm glad I didn't go on that trip even though Ted said it was quite fun. Anyways, they didn't make it to the basin due to the rain and the snowy slopes. As usual, I rode up the trail hanging onto Ted's pack. Foobee and Spickett dragged Ted and I up the trail pulling on their leashes. Once you hit the switchbacks, be prepared for a climb. The trail is pretty durned steep all the way to the top. Except for the steepness, the trail is in pretty good shape right now. Actually, it is in much better shape than it was back in May. Near the top, we started seeing blueberries. This was quite a problem for Ted and I. Nothing seems to slow us down more than a field full of tasty blueberries. As such, we were well off of our normal pace going up. Once we topped the pass into Foggy Lake, the steep trail was so worth the effort. The rock formations up there are fantastic. We stopped and ate lunch sitting on a rock overlooking Foggy Lake. Once again, Ted forgot to bring some bear chow, so he had to listen to my empty stomach rumble. I decided to just suck it up since Ted had carried me up the hill and probably needed his sandwich to get me back down. While Ted ate, Foobee and Spickett ran around on the rocks having a grand time. After lunch, we headed up the rocks to check out Gothic Basin proper. On the way up, Foobee wasn't paying attention to where Ted and Spickett were heading. She thought she'd take a short cut straight up some rocks, but didn't quite make it. She ended up taking a pretty good fall instead and doing a face plant. She got up, shaked it off and then caught up to us. The scramble up to Gothic is much easier than it looks and really isn't any steeper than the main trail, so don't let it scare you away from the awesome view of the Basin and the lake that it contains. By the time we all got back to the truck, Foobee was done. She's getting a little old for the long and steep hikes. Spickett, on the other hand, was still bouncing around like the young pup she is. We failed to completely wear her out. I think Ted was done too after two days of trail work, a day of paddling the canoe and a day of hiking. What a way to top off a great extended weekend. I'd post some pictures, but Ted had a bad case of cranial rectal inversion and forgot the memory card for the digital camera. We won't mention all the other things he forgot on this trip...