Gothic Peak
In light of my recent bitching about the crappy film line-up, one film has been suggested multiple times. The Descent. Yes, people I know it’s got good ratings but look at what the damned film is about. It’s about a bunch of ladies on a cool outdoorsy adventure and they get killed in gory ways. Yes, excellent! Why didn’t I think of going to see that before? Hmmm…because you know…being scared shitless while hiking solo could motivate me to move a little faster on the trail. Because hours alone on a trail doesn't leave me thinking that some crazy axe murderer is lurking just behind that tree already? Yeah.
I’ve missed going out clubbing on weekends. I’ve missed it so much that I made plans to go on an easy day hike on Saturday so that I can be out that night. I figured Gothic Basin with a mere 9 miles with around 3000 feet elevation gain would be easy enough. Then Daniel bugged me about hiking and I mentioned going to Gothic Basin…and of course these crazy testosterone filled men couldn’t just “hike”…he immediately decided we needed to climb Gothic Peak (making the trip 12 miles with 4100ft gain).
The hike up to Foggy Lake despite being over 4.5 miles felt short. Overall the hike up was a little harder than I expected because the elevation gain didn’t seem that impressive for the distance, but then I realize the first 1.2 miles was completely flat, so all the elevation gain is within 3 miles which burns a little more.
We were still pumped full of energy at the lake, but we stopped for some lunch and I brought my water filter to pump some nice cold (very very cold) mountain lake water.
A few people were swimming in the water, but most of them pretty much do the same thing, they take off their shirts, dive in, scream like a little girl and quickly swim back out. Despite the blazing sun, the air is very cool up there.
After lunch we scrambled our way toward Gothic Peak. The ridge toward the peak was creepy as hell with a steep few thousand feet drop to the other side, I got a bad case of vertigo just hiking along that ridge. Then the last quarter mile toward the peak, the trail became loose gravels and boulders the size of my head. After hearing loud crashing boulder slides a few times from Daniel making his way up first, I decided I didn’t want to chance it. I’ve used up much of my luck on Mount Daniel and Mailbox Peak this year, I want to save whatever I have left for something important, like maybe a good powder day later this year. And I wanted to save some energy for going out at night.
Turns out it didn’t matter. The hike still took too long and I didn’t get home till 11 and I was honestly dead tired from hike 11.5 miles. The trip back down the trail was amazingly harder than going up…the trail somehow was a lot rougher than we remembered it. With the trail surface being extremely uneven, it was hell on the ankles and knees.
Slide of trip here.
I’ve missed going out clubbing on weekends. I’ve missed it so much that I made plans to go on an easy day hike on Saturday so that I can be out that night. I figured Gothic Basin with a mere 9 miles with around 3000 feet elevation gain would be easy enough. Then Daniel bugged me about hiking and I mentioned going to Gothic Basin…and of course these crazy testosterone filled men couldn’t just “hike”…he immediately decided we needed to climb Gothic Peak (making the trip 12 miles with 4100ft gain).
The hike up to Foggy Lake despite being over 4.5 miles felt short. Overall the hike up was a little harder than I expected because the elevation gain didn’t seem that impressive for the distance, but then I realize the first 1.2 miles was completely flat, so all the elevation gain is within 3 miles which burns a little more.We were still pumped full of energy at the lake, but we stopped for some lunch and I brought my water filter to pump some nice cold (very very cold) mountain lake water.
A few people were swimming in the water, but most of them pretty much do the same thing, they take off their shirts, dive in, scream like a little girl and quickly swim back out. Despite the blazing sun, the air is very cool up there.After lunch we scrambled our way toward Gothic Peak. The ridge toward the peak was creepy as hell with a steep few thousand feet drop to the other side, I got a bad case of vertigo just hiking along that ridge. Then the last quarter mile toward the peak, the trail became loose gravels and boulders the size of my head. After hearing loud crashing boulder slides a few times from Daniel making his way up first, I decided I didn’t want to chance it. I’ve used up much of my luck on Mount Daniel and Mailbox Peak this year, I want to save whatever I have left for something important, like maybe a good powder day later this year. And I wanted to save some energy for going out at night.Turns out it didn’t matter. The hike still took too long and I didn’t get home till 11 and I was honestly dead tired from hike 11.5 miles. The trip back down the trail was amazingly harder than going up…the trail somehow was a lot rougher than we remembered it. With the trail surface being extremely uneven, it was hell on the ankles and knees.Slide of trip here.
posted by SteakGirl at 1:35 PM
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