The trailhead is easy to find, right before the Monte Cristo road crosses the first bridge. It slowly and gently ascends for the first bit, which is simply to lure you in, because this trail is steep! Given how steep it is, I expected the trail to be in worse condition with a lot more washout, but it was nice 90% of the time. In places you have to hands-n-feet scramble up a rock or two and other places have some serious roots but it is minimal. I was also carrying an overnight pack, so it made it seem steeper and harder than it really is I am sure. To my surprise there were almost NO bugs on this trip! In addition, 3 or 4 small creeks provide a cooling off on the way up. In the afternoon (after 2pm) the trail up is mainly in shade, but you risk not finding a camping site if you arrive that late on a weekend. While I was up there, I marked about 14 campsites near the lake with my GPS and I am sure I missed a few, but it was crowded enough to fill them all up and one person stayed below at the tarns I believe. This was a sunny weekend, so during the week it is surely more tame. There are several nice day trips from Foggy Lake. I recommend the saddle up near Gothic Peak. Fabulous views to the west and a nice ridgewalk. Also, scrambling around the rocks you find a huge amount of geologic diversity which is interesting in itself. Beautiful area that you pay for on the way up and down (knees!), but worth it. More photos at-> http://picasaweb.google.com/noel.hastings

I guess it was partly the name that attracted me to this hike, but no, I did not dress all in black for the occasion. The Mountain Loop Highway out of Granite Falls is closed Barlow Pass, which is also where one must park to access trails off the Monte Cristo road. The trail for Gothic Basin is one mile from the parking area, just prior to a bridge. It starts out in forest, and is relatively gentle, but soon starts to head steeply up, and does not relent much for the next 4 miles. At times, the tread is so rocky, or full of roots, that it can seem more like a scramble than a hike. However, the trail is clear and not difficult to follow, and there were some streams along the way to provide water. As the trail leaves the forest, the views open up into an other-worldly experience. Smooth granite mounds, creeks and tarns offer much to those with inclination and time to explore. Initially, I stopped at a smallish lake, which I thought was rather anti-climatic for such an otherwise grand location. However, looking further up, I was pulled to continue hiking...and found a path marked by cairns, which leads to the very lovely Foggy Lake. I was regretting that I wasn’t prepared to camp, as this area is truly gorgeous and inviting for much more exploration and appreciation. No blow-down or bugs to speak of.

After last weekend’s fantastic trips to Robin Lakes and the Enchantments, a slight change of pace for this weekend’s trip to Gothic Basin. But, no less rewarding - Gothic Basin is a beautiful place. I hit the trail by 6:30am to beat the crowds, and was largely successful (only saw a few people camped at Gothic Basin). The trail up is quite weird: moments of furious activity are followed by gentle rambles past waterfalls and streams, and then the cycle resumes... I walked up with the sun trying mightily to exert its influence over the fog that was hanging around (the fog winning for the most part). This obscured most of the views going up, however Gothic Basin seemed all the more mysterious. Gothic Basin was all brightness and shadow: the brightness from colorful heather and mottled rocks, and shadow from the fog. For me, the nicest part of Gothic Basin is the part before Foggy Puddle. Gentle rambles past lovely ponds lead to an overlook of waterfalls falling 900ft down to Weden Lake. Foggy Puddle and Foggy Lake lived up to their names: Del Campo was obscured throughout, and Gothic Peak continually played hide and seek. As luck would have it, it cleared up as I was heading down, and I was able to catch the views of Silver Peak I missed coming up.

The Hike-a-thon begins! I'm warming up with some day hikes over the next week and a half. Today, it was time to brush off the bar exam cobwebs. I finally visited Gothic Basin. My dad, a musician, says that some pieces of music are so beautiful that it hurts. Well, Gothic Basin is so beautiful that it hurts. I was literally moaning as I scrambled around the orange polished rock slopes. There was a cold breeze up there. It felt, and even smelled, like fall. Such a relief after the heat wave here and then the hot muggy weather out east where I was the past week. Natural, crisp, cool air! Is there any point in talking about trail conditions? It's the steepest bona fide trail I have ever been on, bar none. And that actually includes the new switchbacks in the woods, although I'm sure it's still much better than whatever rooty, muddy mess was there before. (i.e., they are very very steep, but smooth) It's not overgrown or brushy (despite warnings to the contrary on the trailhead sign), the stream crossings are all easy, and although believe it or not there are some snow patches in the basin, they are no problem. There are campsites melted out up there, if you're masochistic enough to take a heavy pack up that trail. I saw a couple who had done just that. Bravi! That pair and a party of five that had attempted Del Campo (a snowfield that was too steep for just poles turned them back) were the only folks I saw all day. That includes on the Monte Cristo road. No bugs! What an amazing day.

Get it while it's hot! I did the Gothic Basin trail 5 years and loved the basin. I've been telling Goober for 5 years that it was the awesomest, and with a recent trail report that said it was basically snowfree, it was time to prove it. I warned Goober that it was a brute of a trail despite the misleading specifications, and when you combine it with a hot day, it would be a butt-kicker. She didn't believe me. We started out at 7:30am on Sunday, the same time as a group of people who were headed for Del Campo did (where'd the dog go?). We're always early, but went really early to miss the heat on the way up. First 2 miles or so is flat along the Monte Cristo Road, and then until the first little stream crossing on the trail. After that, its a brutal straight-up shot up the side of the mountain, first in the forest for about 1200 vertical feet in steeply-graded non-switchbacks, and then exposed in the upper meadows for another 1200 vertical feet in rocky scrambles and steps. The creek crossings were all very easy, and each one was a welcome break of cool air. King Kong's bath was really nice. Oh, and the bugs..... everywhere, but just flies. They didn't really bite, just bothered the heck out of you while you stop to catch your breath and get your wits together from the last 200 feet of grade. But it was really, really hot. We gulped our water & Gatorade like it was going out of style. By the time we hit the basin, we were hot, tired, and sunburned. We collapsed on a rock at the little lake, took our shoes off and dipped them into the icy cold water and settled in for snack time. The basin is a geologic wonder, and it's so peaceful up there you wish you could just stay there. Peaks surround you in all directions, and the rock face is so carved and smooth from years of weathering. Feeling recharged, we got our packs together and wandered around the basin and tried to get our bearings. The map and the peaks didn't line up. This bothered us immensely, so we wandered around some more arguing about which peak was Gothic, which peak was Del Campo, and where Foggy lake was. Ultimately, we found out that we hadn't even made it to Foggy Lake, and that's why we were so confused with the mappage. (Duh.) So, we scrambled up over to Foggy Lake and collapsed there, hot and grumpy, but happy to have resolved the mystery. The lake was still partially frozen. It was 90+ degrees, and this lake was still frozen! Seems so wrong.... The snow patches you cross to get to the lake are probably already melted out by the time you read this. So... the decent... A knee jarring, sweltering, slow going, roasting, bug infested, partytime funhouse of happiness and heat exhaustion. Took us three hours to get down, and we were completely exhausted and actually getting concerned for our health before we even hit the forest. The forest, even with the scary grade, was a welcome cover from the unrelenting brightness of the sun. Finally seeing our car (which contained a cooler with ice cold beverages and A/C!) was probably the happiest moment we've had since...... maybe since we last did Three Fingers and saw our car afterwards!! On the way down, we realized that we hadn't seen that many people. On popular trails we usually pass dozens of parties of people. Not today. we saw 8 parties in total, which also included the people who went to Del Campo (crazies!) We passed the Dickerman trailhead and there was nobody there. No one was out. On one of the hottest days in the year, everyone stayed away and played it cool and smart. Not us. We went to a killer of a trail and really over did it. Not smart. Do not do this trail in excessive heat. Definately do this trail, but wait for it to be cooler. It is a tremendous hike, worth the effort, but be smarter about it than we were. We now have a new rule: No hikes in 90+ weather. Unless it is Nooksack Cirque, and we have super soakers. Splish splash, we were taking a hike......