The views from the top were incredible as we knew they would be, but it's still amazing every time you get up there to realize how far you have climbed and what you can accomplish with a few hours of hiking.
Gothic is 12,625 feet high, which makes it higher than Crested Butte mountain and one of the higher ones in the valley. From afar (and close up!) it looks very daunting - yep that's it - that big pointy thing in the background!
We started off later than we wanted (story of our lives) and so figured we would stop at the Gas cafe on the way up to have a BLT and fried egg - yum! it definitely kept me going on the way up!
The trail head is at the Gothic campground, about 10 miles from Crested Butte past the old town of Gothic. The trail immediately started climbing on the 403 bike path. All I can say is anyone who rides their bike on that thing is a monster! Not something I am planning to accomplish anytime soon (or could accomplish for that matter - it was all I could do to walk up it!!!). Gothic is a beautiful Valley and the views were amazing from the start. Here we are with Molly.
These photos were taken just as we started to climb. Gothic road is on the right. I still can't get over how green it is up here...just gorgeous
We encountered snow not very far up, though the temperature was great throughout the hike - we didn't even need long pants or warm tops at the peak. No photos of me slithering down the banks, but here are Nick and Molly in the snow.The hike up took around 3 and a half hours. It wasn't as hard going as slogging up Whetstone, but it was still slow going for me and Molly. Mountain goat Nick never seems to get tired though!
Here are some of the views once we got off the trail and started heading up...you mean we have to go UP THERE?!!!!
Molly living large and happy to be here.
And here's Nick taking a well earned rest. You can see the slope of the mountain from the way he is sitting. Yep, I had to climb up that!
The wild flowers were starting to come out on the trail in the areas that were finally clear of snow! The Wild flower festival is going to be amazing this year...
Molly taking in her surroundings...see how green it is?...still can't get over the colours up here this year...
The view from the false summit...Yep. Got there and thought we had made it. Wrong - we still had another ridge to climb.
Finally getting somewhere - the real last haul up the the top. Can't believe I made it across that ridge - it was touch and go for a while!
Yay - made it!!!!
Views from the top
And Crested Butte mountain - funny how insignificant it looks from up here! Certainly didn't feel that way when we were skiing it this winter!
And finally back down in town with a celebratory beer (of course!) - a great way to end the day. The hike wasn't as tough as I thought it would be, all told, and I always knew we reach the summit despite the huffing a nd puffing and the feeling you were hitting a mega stairmaster at the gym! The false summit killed us and there were groans (read expletives!) all round. But we soldiered on and got there!
Looking forward to the Wild Flower festival. I think at the higher
elevations it will still be too snowy, but lower down they are in abundance with all the snow we had. The mozzies are loving it too unfortunately - time to start packing the repellent! Now I've had a taste of a good hike, I can't wait to get out there and do some back packing. Hopefully that will happen over the July 4th holiday.Happy 4th everyone!!!
And yay Spain - newly crowned European Champions!!!
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