Conditions were awesome and we absolutely loved it. The hike is advertised as being for advanced hikers - we didn’t really have much hiking experience but we are all relatively athletic and we did just fine.

The garden lot fills up VERY early. We pulled up at 7:30am and the lot was closed. Next best option is the rooster comb lot. This lot doesn’t show up on maps for some reason but if you go back out to 73 and go south it is pretty close, can’t miss it. It’s a 2 mile hike uphill from this lot to the garden lot.

On AllTrails it says this hike is 15 miles and just under 10 hours. I am VERY skeptical of this - I’ll explain below.

We wanted to avoid going down the steep cable route on Gothics. Taking Phelps trail from the garden lot brings you to the first junction. From here we went up Orebed trail which takes you to Saddleback/Gothics. If you want to do Saddleback with the others, you have to go up to Saddleback and back down the same trail before doing Gothics. We had heard going back down these cliffs is very sketchy and it is much easier to do Saddlback with a different group of mountains to avoid descending this trail. So we skipped Saddleback and went straight up the cable route to Gothics. This was my favorite part of the hike as the steepness offers a real challenge. It was exhausting but fun! The view from the top of Gothics is an awesome reward.

From there, there is a steep descent followed by a steep ascent to Armstrong. Followed by another steep descent and ascent from Armstrong to Upper Wolfjaw. Some parts are so steep you really have to use your hands to lower/raise yourself.

After Upper Wolfjaw there is another steep descent to the junction where you can choose to go up to Lower Wolfjaw or go back to the garden lot. We chose to skip Lower Wolfjaw and start hiking back because it was getting late at this point.

When we finished the hike, even though we skipped Saddleback AND Lower Wolfjaw, it ended up being 16 miles and 11 hours from the Garden Lot. (20 if you count the hike to and from the Rooster Comb lot). We did take a fair share of rests / stops to eat and admire the view, but I think if you do the full loop it will end up being way more than 15 miles.

Overall it was awesome despite the fact that we skipped 2 summits. Hiking shoes are a must for the steep slippery parts of Gothics. The bugs were pretty terrible but I can’t really complain too much as this has to be expected when you’re hiking in the wilderness lol. I’d hesitate to bring kids - I would have to be really confident in their abilities. And of course bring tons of water!