Gothic Basin in the heat, again!

Austere and other-worldly landscape of Gothic Basin

On every hike, sweaty hikers working their way up the hill will ask some variation of the question, "How far?"  to folks already on their way down. On the steep, dusty Gothic Basin trail, desperation sharpens the edge of the question.  That was especially true today, as smoke tinged the air.

Haze from Wild Fires Above Gothic Basin

As the guide points out, the old miner's trail goes up in a hurry after the first mile or so, and doesn't let up until you reach the basin.  Nearly three thousand feet of vertical over three miles on rough trail makes this hike far more difficult than the numbers indicate.  If you want to add some parkour to the endurance test of the first half of the hike, continue on to Foggy Lake.  On the way, you'll follow cairns over boulders and glacier smooth rock to slip down. When we finally reached the lake, we heard the plunges of plenty of outdoor enthusiasts looking for relief from the heat in the snow-fed water.

Filtered water from a snow-fed stream cools down hot hikers.

Here are five important notes from today's hike to Gothic Basin:  

1.  We went through a lot of water and filtered more at the lake and at the falls where it was cool and refreshing.

2.  The trail is dusty, steep, and rugged before the basin.  It is some work.

3.  At the basin, we stayed left of the tarns and rocky prominence to get to the lake, and found it to be a better route, at least in late summer.  We went back the other way, and were saddened by the sight of the damned (who stayed right of the tarns) grunting and cursing their way up a very steep, Sisyphean trace of glacial till and boulders.

4.  Be very careful with your dog.  Animal rescue was on their way up the trail as we were heading down the hill.  They were trying to reach an injured dog whose paws were singed by the hot rocks of the basin.  If you can't hold your hand against the rock for 5 seconds, your dogs pads with burn.  I was told by one of the volunteer rescuers that the rocks can reach 160 degrees.

5.  Finally, Gothic Basin is a beautiful, other worldly place to visit.  This is why so many people head to there, and sadly, why many aren't ready for the work or trail conditions.