A great and quiet hike. I only ran into two groups of people during the full trip to Lake Big Heart and back. Some how I managed to miss lake little heart. I'm going to guess that was thanks to a snow detour of two. The snow is getting very tender. You really need to be careful after Lake Copper. The trail is in needed of some serious marking and trimming near Lake trout. Coming it wasn't a problem but going it wasn't much fun to try to decoded. This is currently designated a wilderness area so make sure you check in with the ranger station.

I wanted to take my daughter on a hike we could make as long as we wanted, and Foss Lakes seemed like a great idea. I hadn't been there in over 8 years and was looking forward to it.

The forest road to the trailhead has quite some potholes in it, so careful zigzagging is advised. The trailhead now has a very nice toilet and the trail itself starts from a different location. I used the old start and found some dozen yards in that there was a new trail being constructed parallel to the old one. Quite some work has been done and it looks really nice. Thanks to those involved.

Like the sign at the trailhead says, the bridge is out. There is a good big log that can be used to cross the river. It can be slick if wet, but otherwise should not present a problem. It is marked with tape.

The trail is in very good shape, although the new growth is trying to take over the trail again. You can tell that it doesn't get as much use as some of the trails in the I90 corridor. In two places the rocks under the trail have given out and care is required when crossing these spots. It looks like these parts of the trail can slip down the hill. Both areas are before you get to Trout Lake.

The trail beyond Trout Lake is gorgeous and steep. The roar of the waterfall is constantly with you. There are still some patches of snow close to Copper Lake, and some parts of the trail there are under water. No problem unless you are wearing sneakers. Copper Lake is almost completely ice free. We stopped here to have our lunch and found it to be the right place to turn around.

A beautiful hike.

Synopsis: West Fork Foss River: #1064 Trout, Copper and Malachite Lakes

Great TH toilet block, first 400 yards rerouted on new path, log bridge partially submerged but passable. Great brush work from Trout lake up to 3200' contour. Overall trail in great shape - dry, virtually no mud one or two old blow downs easily navigated.

Snow at 4000'; last 4 yards to Copper over mushy but compacted snow. Log jam crossing exciting due to high water level of lake, some are just floating!

Camp sites practically all melted out.

The Hike:

Wanted to make the most of the first decent weather weekend this year since March (sheesh!) and hopefully before the bugs emerged. Long time wish to overnight at Copper took me there on the morning of Friday 25th June. FS road somewhat pot holed requiring some care to avoid the big ones. Only 1 other car at TH, sign board still wrapped for winter (wrapping was gone when I returned).

Evidence of FS maintenance on what is arguably one of the finest hikes off hwy 2. Clean new toilet block and a rerouted initial path alongside old stream bed path for about 400 yards. Uneventful through to the large log bridge, which since last year has sunk on this side of river bank making the first 6' wet with some other logs hindering access to it (See pic). Water volume causing log to be splashed over some of its length making log look very slippy, but it isn't and with care is reasonably easy to navigate.

Brushy ascent through clearings up to Trout, no other soul in sight and very peaceful. Now comes the huge improvement on this "unmaintained" (that's what the TH sign says) trail. The shrubbery from Trout onwards up to the base of the Copper Lake outlet falls at about 3200' has been truly cut back opening up the entire tread and halting the gradual decline of the trailbed down the slope. New foot trails are already being created and this has greatly improved the access and the general feel-good factor of this trail.

The falls at the head of the valley are magnificent and a full volume from the snow melt and fill the steep sided valley with booming thunder. After 3200' the brush work stops (FS please, please, please continue your work in the upper stretches were shrub incursion and trail erosion will soon make this trail a real pain). As the trail levels out above the falls the area is very wet and boggy but the trail remains mostly dry. At 4000' and some 1/4 mile from Copper lake the snow line is reached and there are long stretches of compacted but soft snow to negotiate. Just watch out for those pesky rock melt outs under the snow. Getting to the lake shore at the log jam is a bit of a bash and then working out a good course through the log maze if fun, and occasionally you'll get a floater or roller, so I strongly advise hiking poles and testing everything before committing - but it's doable.

Many campsites across the log jam all of which are melted out. Uneventful but awesomely peaceful first night at Copper. My initial intention was to try for Big Heart Lake but the snow fields at the lake soon dissuaded me, but I did a foray over patchy snow fields round to Little Heart Lake.

On Saturday, the day dawned with patchy clouds and mist and I thought I should return back home, so packed up and set off but at the falls the sun broke through and promised a glorious day and nature reminded me of its presence as a hornet stung me on my ankle. So as I had supplies for 3 days I turned tail and regained the lost 200' back to the Malchite TH. (This is flashed with an orangle tag, but the TH sign is easy to miss as it is high up (about 12') on a large tree and easily missed. The trail up to Malchite was great considering it's only a boot trail and I expected much snow, but there was none until you hit the level section approaching the lake. In fact access to Malchite is much easier than Copper. However, the log jam was just too flaky for me but all the campsites were on the far side of the outlet (many floaters and rollers). So I backtracked down the outlet to a point where the river starts its tumble down the valley and there are a set of wonderfully flat and non slippy rocks that can be navigated in boots without geting your feet wet, so I made it.

There was one other party in the traditional camp site, most of which was buried in about 4' of snow. So I located a spot that I had scoped out last year and with the removal of a small amount of snow uncovered a lovely flat area with a great hanging tree right next to it (See pic).

It's difficult to say which is more beautiful Copper or Malchite, but who cares they are both stunning and I spent another gloriously peaceful day there and the weather obliged with a sizzling cobalt blue sky and high temperatures; I could almost see the snow receding under the blaze of the sun.

Sunday dawned with an overcast sky that stayed with me all the way to the car, so this was a blessing and the log crossing is much easier coming back. Oh and did my original idea work out? ie no bugs - you bet. I got hit 3 times in 3 days, so I would count that as bug free considering how bad the Foss river can get.

Go now, while the bugs are still unsure - the trail is awesome and the sights magnificent.

Decided to try out the West Fork Foss Lakes today, hoping that conditions were doable seeing as the last report for this trip was May 1 and deep snow was still lingering around.

The road up was decent. There were numerous potholes, some monsters, but they were all pretty avoidable with some creative driving. We got up no problem in my old Subaru.

The trail conditions in the first mile were pretty shabby as previous reports said, including washouts, landslides and missing bridges. Good news though: we ran across a WTA crew taking a lunch break after working hard laying down some stones as a base for a reconstructed trail. It was looking good so far!

Trout Lake was gorgeous, and the trail up to Copper Lake is almost fully snow free, but the 1/2 mile before the lake still has a week or two of melting to do before it's all gone. Some posthole hazards, so be aware! Copper Lake was absolutely stunning with the lingering snow on the mountains! The lake itself is still frozen, but that only added to the scene. We had plans to go to Malachite Lake as well, but time wasn't too allowing for us, and a small short dousing of rain helped motivate us to head out.

All in all a great day! Lots of flowers in bloom!