We did a loop starting at west fork foss trailhead, traversing from chetwoot to iron cap gap and down through necklace valley. We did not summit iron cap mountain.

What a crazy beautiful and tough trip! We started Friday night at 6:15 and camped at Copper Lake. On Saturday 8/14 we made our way up to Big Heart Lake and then over Atrium Ridge to Chetwoot. Awesome views up here with the two (Big Heart and Angeline) massive alpine lakes to either side of you. However, this portion of the trail is tough. Big steps, overgrown, hard to follow, lots of up and down. It was very slow going through here. Chetwoot made for a great lunch break swim. From chetwoot we braved the boulder field up the rock face and then around and down to iron cap lake. Iron cap lake has that nice light blue hint and still has a considerable amount of snow. We didn't want to summit iron cap so we set out to just traverse around it. It was pretty easy until we missed a turn. As we were traversing around, we should have gone lower and instead we got stuck up high. If you have AllTrails and want to do this - just ignore the part that has you summitting and instead follow the part that has you going around the mountain. It is pretty accurate. We camped just east of Iron Cap Mountain on a nice rock point overlooking Otter Lake.

On Sunday, the smoke had cleared which made for amazing views and increased morale. We continued our rock hopping traverse. All trails is pretty accurate through here still. Where we strayed from all trails is that we decided to summit the ridge above iron cap gap higher than what all trails recommended. This proved to be better terrain and much better views. Lots and lots of boulder hopping between Chetwoot and Iron Cap Gap. The views looking south towards summit chief are absolutely incredible. From here you can make your way to Tank Lake which is also jaw dropping and made for an amazing swim. Can't even describe how awesome it was up there with clear skies. 

After that we began some more boulder hopping descending down towards Jade Lake. The final descent and 5 miles through the forest through necklace valley and east fork foss were tough at this point but we finally made it back to the car around 5:30 PM on Sunday. A crazy and beautiful weekend adventure! 

If you don't want to do the traverse, go for Tank Lakes and Iron Cap Gap. It's other worldly up there on a clear day!

I was out here July 4th, curious who maintainanced the trail before8/8. They harmed threatened and endangered plants on this trail to take care of the nettles. Please don’t destroy endangered plants for trail maintenance  

lupine sulpherues to be exact. 

We trekked out on Friday morning planning for a multi-night adventure. The 90° heat combined with the absurd amount of mosquitos and biting flies resulted in an abbreviation of plans. I'm grateful to backpack with humans who aren't too stubborn to exit a trip when it's not fun anymore.

Like a previous report mentioned, most of us also drank near 5 liters of water while ascending, and there are many pumpable areas along the way. Once you're into the steeper ascent, there's ~20 very sappy trees down across the trail to get up/over/around, and several ground wasp nests on trail-- one is labeled. Two party members got stung and they had to run with their heavy packs to escape the swarm. You also might consider the size of your dog before signing them up for ambling over fallen vegetation. Can you comfortably and repeatedly lift them up 3' or can they easily jump that height on their own? Our ascent took 8 hours and the descent took 5.

We spent the night at Emerald Lake and made a day trip out to Ilswoot. Ilswoot had few bugs in comparison to Emerald, but we only saw one viable, but large-sized camp spot.

Bug hacks: 1) We opted to wear both rain pants and rain jackets, in addition to thick socks and our face nets while out of the tent, even though it was 90. They can't bite through. Sweating through all clothing > a sure, itchy death by mosquitos. 2) Swimming is the only reprieve. They didn't seem to swarm as badly while out in the water. I swam in a cap and face net the second day and it was the most at ease I had felt the entire trip.

That all said, my right upper arm alone has 13 bug bites. I'm not going to count the rest. Consider saving this trip for early September.

Tank lakes is a gem, albeit a very buggy one! We did an overnight from the Necklace Valley trailhead and then pushed on to Tank. We used GPS/compass to make our way to Tank rather than following the cairn route and actually went to the northern most of the two Tank lakes. It was an extremely hot, steep & buggy day! We were the only ones there and camped on a rocky ledge. We stopped by the southern Tank lakes on the way out in the morning and the view looked incredible but definitely more crowded. On the way out we followed the cairns through the talus field and it was pretty straightforward. We did this as an overnight, which is definitely manageable, but it would have been more enjoyable to break it up into 3 days. The bugs were horrendous, we used non-deet spray and I have upwards of 50 mosquito bites. Unless you want to super deet up or are ok with being absolutely swarmed, I'd hold off until September on this one. Bugs were noticeable at the other lakes but from the talus fields on it was truly terrible. 

On a better note, we found an iPhone at Jade lake with a gray case. If it's yours, send me an email at laurenf@comcast.net and I will get it to you! 

First time hiking up to Iron Cap Gap, for a 2-day trip. Although we check the forecast a lot before we go, we missed the heat advisory issued on Friday afternoon and ended up hiking in mother-of-dragons hot temps. So I am sure this trail felt more difficult under these circumstances.

The first five miles are mellow gain of only 1000 ft, mostly along the river. Trail workers were in the middle of clearing the trail, which is overgrown with a lot of vegetation- they cleared half of the 5 mile stretch. So some areas are still bushwhack thick, but the areas they cleared are manageable and easy. Thank you, trail workers!  Amazing!

The next 3 miles and 2500 ft up to Jade lake is pretty hard. It’s bouldery, rooty, sometimes muddy, steep, and there is a 1/4 mile section of numerous, densely packed downed trees from left over avalanche debris. At one point I fell on an unstable rock and got pretty cut up.

We saw a few other parties going up and down this section and many (who were seasoned hikers) were dealing with cramping. Multiple different parties had a leader who would hike up to the lake, drop their own pack, and hike back down to help a distressed hiker in their group. It was no joke!

We continued past Jade lake, hoping to get away from bugs. We passed Opal and decided to keep going higher before setting up camp. The trail up towards Iron Cap is not clearly defined and requires route finding as there are many ways to get there through boulders and faint bootpacks. After 10.5 miles and 4200 feet on gain, we made it into the glacier moraine, found a flat rock and bivy’d there.

The next morning, we woke up and hiked up to Tank Lakes and Iron Cap Gap.  Instead of taking the ridge up high, we stayed in the shaded and snow-patched moraine, which felt easier.  the snow patches are easy to manage and nice to travel on. After gaining about 600 feet, we made it to the Gap and took a long break.  Amazing views of Snoqualmie Pass, the Chiefs, Overcoat Mountain, Bears Breast, and more. SO many great camping spots.  Tank Lakes warm enough to swim.  

We later walked towards Tall Lake and Otter Point, exploring a bit before descending back down the moraine to our stuff.We took the “high route” down which was harder than our ascent route.  I recommend staying lower.

It was very hot all day, and there is not a lot of shade near Tank Lakes and Otter Point.  The bugs were pretty bad the whole time. Backpackers we talked to also mentioned the bugs were terrible while camping at Tank Lakes.  Bring a bugnet and layers- we spray our long sleeves and pants with permethrin.  As hot as it was, we kept the long layers on until the bugs subsided- the last 5 miles to the car.  Also, pants are helpful for bushwhacking.  At one point I briefly wore shorts and got some sort of rash from a nettle or something… 

2 poles were helpful for the trail.  Trail runners with gators were good. 

We probably drank about 4-5 liters a day.  There are plenty of places to filter water.

If I could do it again, I would bring enough food to stay a few nights.  There is a lot to explore, and the approach wore us out more than we anticipated. The views at Tank Lakes are ridiculous!

Also, don’t go in 85-90 degrees lol. 

24 miles and 5500 ft gain (2 days).  

Stay safe!