Shortly before Gothic Basin, I came upon this hawk. Sadly, he flew off before I could get any closer.
I tried this route back in mid-May, but got turned around by deep snow at the 4000-foot level. I was postholing, and the dogs were helpless, so we had to turn around. Today I had some free time, and was torn between Del Campo and Twin Peaks. I decided against Twin Peaks, afraid that a stiff 4th class finish would be too hard for me to descend without a rope.
I got to the trailhead at Barlow Pass and got going right about 10:00. I parked a hundred feet down the road, reasoning that I wouldn’t need a trail pass (and seemed to be correct -- no ticket, anyhow.) You follow the Monte Cristo trail for about 1.2 miles until the Wedel Creek trail peels off to the right (next to an outhouse) The dogs trotted right along, and the trail was pretty easy to follow. The place I’d gotten lost back in May was cleared up, and easy to follow. It was hot and stuffy in the trees, although it was impressive to pass some very large trees. The really surprising thing was that there were no bugs up there to speak of; the odd fly, and one or two mosquitos, but really nothing at all.
I kept up a brisk pace, stopping each hour to give the dogs (especially Max) a rest. We got up to Gothic Basin in about three hours. It’s a pretty spectacular place, sort of eerie and strange, with rounded boulders all striated by glacial markings, tarns, heather and different sorts of wild flowers (pentstamons especially.) We saw half a dozen people around the big lake (Foggy Lake) which Peggy Rosenberg says is usually iced up, but which was clear and blue and quite beautiful.
So, on to the base of the climb, and up the ramp, with some pauses in the snow for the dogs. Maisie just loves the snow, smearing her face and sides in it, left and right; Max takes a much more sober approach, sitting quietly in the snow and eating it.
Up on the mountain, we came upon a couple of guys descending, who gave me some pointers on how to proceed. They said it was no more difficult than Mt. Pugh, which was heartening, since it looked pretty damned steep and intimidating from below. Eventually I had to leave both dogs behind. Max is fine, but Maisie yelped and shrieked as though someone were pulling her toenails out with a pliers.
There's a big gully that terminates in a notch between the right and left (true) summits. The two guys were descending there, and we climbed up to meet them. They told me to take a left onto an obvious ledge, and follow it over for a bit, and then from there, you can just scramble on up. I did that, and it did work, but looking at it, I expect it'd be easier to just climb up the face on the left there, and avoid the gully (which is what one of the guys said.) It certainly looked easy enough on the descent, and you'd get to avoid the scree-filled gully.
Got to the summit a few minutes after 2:00, for a four hour climb. Peggy says 7 hours, Fred says 6. I signed the (nearly new) summit book, took a couple of photos (and fouled up the self-timer; I guess I need to spend more time with the camera manual) and headed down. I guess I’d hoped that once I was out of view, Maisie would quiet down, but she didn’t; she kept up the yelping the whole time. I’d yell “Maisie!” and she’d shut up for a moment, but then resume. It did keep me moving fast, that's one thing.
So, the descent went smoothly, glissading down the snow, following the trails on the rocks back to the basin. All the people in the basin were gone by the time we got back down.
I was a bit worried about not having paid enough attention to the hike in, and being unable to find the way out to the trail, but I managed, and we hiked on down. We passed one guy sitting at the stream crossing at 4000 feet, and another guy hiking in with overnight pack very near where the trail terminates at the road. Max took the whole thing very methodically, slow and steady. At the last good stream we passed, I sat to encourage them to rest, and Maisie sat down too, but Max took a drink and just headed on down the trail.
The real surprising thing is that, the closer we got to the end of the trail, the more energetic Maisie got. She was leading the way, and bouncing around. At least she didn’t start nipping at Max. On the road out, Max was lagging 50 feet or so behind us, and Maisie, who was in front of me, kept looking back to check on him. Got back to the car around 5:20. Four hours up, 3:20 down. Pretty good time, I guess, even without the dogs, I couldn’t have gone much faster.
It used to be when I took the dogs out that it would be clear Max was having an excellent time, but I couldn't tell how Maisie felt about it. These days it's just the opposite; Max's tail is down and Maisie's is up, and she clearly has more energy than him.
Equipment notes: My lightweight Hi-Tek boots fell apart on the Boston Basin trail last month, and I ended up getting a pair of Salomon Excite trail shoes. They worked pretty well -- there's nothing like spending a lot of time with boots that don't fit (the old ones were too small) to appreciate a new pair of shoes.