Foss Lakes Traverse -

Started Thursday night at the Foss Lakes trail head at 7:30 pm.

Ran/hiked up to Little Big Heart Lake.  Stopped at 9:30. Bugs were AWFUL, I only had a pad/bag and mosquito net which just let the bugs bite me through the netting. It got HOT in the middle of the night when the humidity rolled through; lightning woke me up at 3:15 am and a few sprinkles. 

Got up and was on the trail by 4 am.  Sky lightened by the time I got to the overlook at Lake Angeline. Followed the off and on faint bootpath to Chetwoot Lake.  From there straight up the talus fields towards the western ridge of the Iron Cap that sits above Iron Cap Lake.  I followed the ridge to Iron Cap.  The safest way is to stay generally left of the ridge, though you must be comfortable with scrambling and with exposure. If it's too hard you're going the wrong way. 

From the summit of Iron Cap you drop down to the "left" - but basically due north and aim for the prominent clump of trees; descend down the teeny forest to traverse along the bowl to the ridge that descends from the Iron Cap Gap and pick up the trail to Tank Lakes.  I hit my head hard on a rock I didn't see; blood gusher but superficial.

The descent down the moraine is SLOW and ponderous to the valley floor and then the trail through the valley to Jade Lake, and then the slow rocky and rooty descent to the river and then the last 5 mile "flat" roller trail to the trail head.  Done at 4:30 pm.  Lots of off trail travel, and route finding and scrambling, but beautiful country.

I arrived at the TH at 1:30pm on a Friday. The lot was full. I was the only car parked on the road. When I left on Saturday at 1pm, there were at least 30 cars there!
If you’re planning to camp at Jade Lake, avoid weekends. There are only 4 sites there. I was lucky to snag the last one on Friday but based on how many people I passed on my way down on Saturday morning, it must have been a zoo. And once you do that climb with a full pack, you wouldn’t want to have to turn around.
There is a good number of sites along the river,but once you start going up, there is only one or 2 before the lake.
I didn’t go to the further lakes, there might be more options there.

Car windows broken

We arrived at the trailhead around 5 PM on Friday, July 24th.  The parking lot was full so we parked on the road along with several other cars.  I was a little worried because I saw broken car glass on the road.  I was right to be worried. We came back to find our window smashed in, the rock they used in our car, and our door handle broken.  Multiple cars had broken windows both on the road and in the parking lot. One car even had two windows broken.  We reported the incident to the sheriff. 

The bugs were terrible, the trail was overgrown in parts and it was crowded up at the top making it difficult to find a camping spot.  I would not recommend this hike.   

Friday to Sunday hike to the lakes with my son. At least 20 cars were broken into at the parking lot, including mine.
Despite that, bugs are very plentiful up at the lakes but if you camp down by the river you will be fine.
We saw a bear with the cub at mile #6. Be cautious

My wife, dog and I did a 2 night backpack with both nights at Emerald Lake. The trail is a bit overgrown in places leading up to the Foss River crossing, including a patch of stinging nettle about 1/2 mile before the crossing. Overall easy though. Once you cross the river, this hike becomes a slog up to the Necklace Valley. There is one big blowdown not far past the river crossing that requires some creativity. For our dog, I was very glad we had a harness with a handle on it so we could hand him off instead of him trying to climb over. We did see other hikers with medium size dogs and no harnesses past the blowdown though, so it's doable.

Black flies were biting when you stopped anywhere between the TH and the river crossing. Once you start ascending into the valley, it becomes mosquitos, which are everywhere. I kept the bug level one below "bugs were terrible" only because they do not bite when you are moving. We've experienced worse, but I would definitely recommend deet, head nets, sleeves and pants. Expect them to be on you at all times when camping, no matter which lake you choose.

The lakes themselves were beautiful. Although the parking lot was full when we got there, none of the lakes were too crowded, except Jade which looked to be at capacity. It's well worth it to continue past Jade, even if you're tired from the uphill.

Having backpacked many high alpine lakes, personally, I don't think the slog up to the valley is worth it just for the lakes. Others may disagree. HOWEVER, hiking past the valley and up to La Bohn Gap was incredible. Some Enchantments level shit up there. It does require a very steep scramble up a scree field and then rooty dirt / rock path. If you've never scrambled before, this is probably not the place to start, but if you have it's not too treacherous. GPS highly recommended for this, it would be easy to miss the trail from the scree field. Gaia topo was spot on. Some snow fields before the scree field and up at the gap, but not hard to cross and not high consequence, with poles. I imagine that Iron Cap Gap is similar scenery but I have not been up there.