We found the trail up Gothics one of the stranger sections of the traverse, simply because the first two times we'd seen it, it had been a huge snow and ice ridge. Today, we had been swallowed by 10-foot tall trees the whole way up. It was interesting to see the topsoil, which is only perhaps six inches deep on top of granite slabs. Easy to see why slides are so common on these mountains - it's basically just a network of roots clinging to nothing in particular. There was a one-foot wide strip of granite leading the whole way up the ridge.