Ngie and I got up to the summit of Mount Hinman, and  also La Bohn Peak, on a 3 day / 2 night backpacking trip.

Sat 9/28-(blue track) We got a late start, as I did not start at the Necklace Valley Trailhead until 2:35 pm. Ngie had started around 1:55 pm, so I played catchup all the way to camp. I never caught ngie, as I arrived at our predetermined camp at just before 8pm. Our camp was a bit beyond Opal Lake.  

Sun 9/29-(red track) The rain we got overnight was not all rain, but had some snow mixed in, as we awoken to about 1/4" on snow on the ground. We got started at around 8:30am.  We ended up taking the direct route up to La Bohn Gap, which worked out fairly good. Once up at La Bohn Gap, we followed a trail and some cairns up the ridge. The forecast called for sunny skies, but we had a north breeze with freezing fog all the way up to the summit, and half way down. We both had on all of our layers, and were both still cold. My water bottles were actually freezing, so I had slushies to drink!! Once we got up to  around 7000ft, all the rocks had about a 1/2 inch of snow on them. Even some of the rocks had a layer of ice on them, which made things a bit tricky, and slowed our progress. Visibility was also an issue, as we were going in blind. After working our way around a high point, we found a way up to the ridge that avoided getting on the ice of the glacier. I had micro spikes on, and crossed a bit of ice, and then found some rocks to scramble to get up to the ridge. The snow and ice on these rocks on this ridge made things tricky, but I was getting good bite with the microspikes. It was mostly all fog, but you could see the sheer drop off on one side, along with the dying glacier on the north side. We went to both summits, as the are pretty close to the same height. We didn't stay long on the summit, as it was quite brisk, and we still had a long way back.

On the way back down some of the clouds had dissipated, and we started to get some views. Ngie was way out in front of me, as they wanted to get up to La Bohn Peak, as they had not been up there, and I had. Once back down at La Bohn Gap, I could see ngie climbing about 400ft ahead of me. I was going to just hang out, but with the weather getting better, I decided to summit also. It is about a 700ft ascent up to the summit. I ended up meeting ngie about 100 ft from the top as they were coming down. I dropped my pack, and scampered up to the summit, as ngie took a break. Glad I went up there, as the weather had finally cleared, and I got an excellent view!! We then hiked back to camp, arriving back at 7pm. We decided to stay another night, instead of hiking out the 9 miles in the dark, with tired legs

Mon 9/30-(blue track) We awoke to a heavy frost on our tents. Brrr it was cold. It was hard to get out of the sleeping bag. Quite brisk, and hard to do anything with bare hands. We got a later start than we intended, starting at 8am. Beautiful day, and it was nice to shed layers once we got down around 3800ft. We finished at around 12:30 pm.

Excellent trip! 24.6 miles with 8475ft gain

A beautiful autumn day, I hiked with my husky to the river where there is a camping spot. We had a little swim at the river it was very refreshing. We headed back as we wanted to check out the next trail at W Fork Foss Lakes and visit the amazing 800 year old tree. The hike was easy with little elevation. It was quiet and only bumped into a couple of other hikers. 

Finally had the opportunity to hike up to Tank Lakes this past weekend. We lucked out on the weather and crowds. With a not so ideal weather forecast and school started a couple weeks ago, we didn't see many people on the trail. In fact, I think we saw only about 10 folks. 

Day 1: TH to Emerald Lake | 8 miles

The road to the trailhead was great. There weren't many potholes and they were easy to spot and you could easily drive around them or go over them slowly. Parking wasn't an issue - there was plenty of parking. The toilet was in superb condition for a pit toilet. It was stocked with TP as well.

The Alpine Lakes Wilderness require a self-issued permit. From my understanding, these permits help the USFS determine usage of the trail. I highly recommend doing this since this is how they decide on what trails to work on. Obviously, trails that see higher traffic would get priority for trail maintenance. At least I think that's how it works but correct me if I'm wrong.

We got our permits and set out on the trail. As described, the first 5 miles of this trail was an easy hike through the forest, occasionally meeting up with the East Foss River. Elevation was minimal with some rolling hills. There was a down tree across a bridge but can easily be climbed over. There were a couple more down trees and only one seemed a little harder to get around. However, people have carved out their own path around it so it should be passable.

Plenty of campsites to take long breaks. We took an extended break before we started the ascent up to Jade Lake.

The elevation gain after the first 5 miles was no joke. I would say the gain felt more difficult due to the trail. Lots of roots and big rocks, causing a lot of high steps, which made it more exhausting.

After struggling for about 2.5 hours, we finally made it to Jade Lake. It was good to catch a break here. We saw two groups camping here. We pushed through as we had plans to camp at either Emerald or Illswoot. We ultimately picked out a campsite at Emerald Lake. There is a pit toilet nearby although it's a tiny bit of a walk when you really have to do. There was plenty of space for my friend and I and we were the only ones there. We were exhausted from the hike in so we made some dinner and went to sleep fairly early.

Day 2: Emerald Lake to Tank Lakes | ~7 miles

We decided to do a day hike up to Tank Lakes on Saturday. We took our packs with us and carried all the food with us and extra layers. The pack was obviously a lot lighter than the night before.

Saturday's forecast had rain but we only got rained on by tiny showers. We decided that we would at least hike to the junction for Tank Lakes and reassess if the rain does pick up. We were actually getting more blue skies than expected. We decided to do a short side trip to Cloudy Lake. It was shown on Gaia GPS. There wasn't an official trail but a semi clear boot path indicated that Cloudy Lake has been explored before. At times, the trail got muddy and there were some logs and boulders to hike over but nothing too challenging. 

We spent a good 30 minutes in this area and decided to push on. We got to the junction of La Bohn Gap and Tank Lakes. The trail to La Bohn Gap looked very hard and since we still wasn't sure what the weather would be later in the day, we decided to hike up to Tank Lakes. With the help fo Gaia and tons of cairns, wayfinding didn't feel too bad. Although we did opt for the trail that intersected with the La Bohn Gap trail instead of the 'official' trail suggested by Gaia. There was a talus field to cross but didn't last for very long. It was once again a good amount of uphill but this section felt significantly easier than the day before.

After about an hour or so, we made it up to Tank Lakes. It was beautiful and I can understand why this place would generally be filled with crowds. However, it did seem like there would be plenty of spots to camp. I remember someone telling me that this area is able to absorb a lot of people. I agree. However, based on how the rocks are situated, I can see it being difficult to find peace and solitude because of how the sound seem to travel in this area.

My friend and I took a long lunch break here and spent another 2 hours exploring. The clouds were moving quickly but we were able to enjoy blue skies and the occasional sunshine as well. We spotted Summit Chief, Middle Chief and Little Chief along with La Bohn Peak. We hung out for a little bit longer before deciding that it was time to head back to camp.

We opted for the 'official' trail suggested by Gaia but I highly recommend sticking with the trail that intersects with the La Bohn Gap trail. The 'official' trail felt unmaintained and it was actually hard to know if we were headed the right direction. We got 'lost' for a hot minute but eventually found our way back onto the main trail. This section felt hard because we were both exhausted. 

Day 3: Hiking back to the car

The hike out was brutal. It rained a lot on Saturday night so the roots and rocks became slippery. We were extremely slow on the first 3 miles of descent so we took a very long break at the same campsite along the river after the steep descent. The rest of the hike out was uneventful. There were tons of mushrooms to look at though!

Very happy I was able to do this hike and I definitely want to come back to this area to camp at Tank Lakes and even try to complete this hike as a loop to the West Foss trailhead. But that's for next year!

Day hiked this backpacker's route all the way up to Al Lake today. That said, I wouldn't recommend it as a day hike due to mileage. 

Al Lake, along with just about everywhere in Necklace Valley is a legit berry BONANZA right now. Peak time. 100%. Another reason to backpack this and not day hike, you will afford yourself time to pick, and also take a dip in Jade Lake. 

This entire hike is magical. I would like to return to explore beyond the valley and into the higher regions. Also, to find the way to Locket Lake. Which, I probably missed a sign at some point.

Frogs, Mice, Baby frogs, snakes, grouse, trout, people, this hike has it all. 

RT 16.9m/3970ft 

Planned for a 3-day backpacking trip to Necklace Valley with below plan:

First day: La Bohn Lakes + La Bohn Peak and camp near one of the lakes

Second day: Mount Hinman, Break camp, go up to Tanks Lakes and set-up camp near Tanks Lakes.

Third day: Otter Point and Hike out.

First day: Arrived at the parking lot around 9 AM and the lot was full as expected. The trail was a little busy but not too crowded for a labor day weekend. 

First 5 miles was really nice with a rolling terrain and minimal elevation gain in the woods. After the log bridge, there's a short boulder section which marks the significant elevation gain all the way to Jade Lake

The meadow area between Jade Lake to Emerald Lake was full with sweet and juicy huckleberries. We probably ate a handful of them.

At the end of the valley, I encouraged our group to go up the gully route to the gap (instead of the waterfall route) which was a bad idea with overnight packs. There were only a couple patches of snow, so boulder hopping was pretty tricky and time consuming.

It took us 10 hours from the TH to La Bohn Lakes and we quickly abandoned the plan to go up to La Bohn Peak as it's approaching sunset.

Second day: Went up to Hinman at around 8 AM. Saw few climbers already on the route. Several cairns marked the route and there was an obvious climbers trail through the meadow.

I went up the west ridge through the rocks to avoid the snow while the rest of the group stayed below the ridgeline, which was easier. 

Used poles, helmet and spikes for the last traverse above the glacier to the summit. The glacier looked recessed and looked more like black ice (that we avoided). The snow was soft enough that spikes were fine for that day. Brought an ice axe but ended up not using it. 

As described on many trip reports, it's unknown where the true summit is. We did go to the far end and the middle summit. The far end summit gave us the best view of Lake Rowena, Rebecca and (I think) Shovel Lake, as well a closer view of Daniel and Pea Soup Lake.

Third day: My left knee was done. The group didn't feel like going up to Tanks Lakes and even Otter Point. Left La Bohn Lakes at around 8 AM. We decided to hike out via the waterfall route back to the valley which was better than the gully route

Got rained on for a bit which made the trail more slippery and I descended super slow as the knee pain became more unbearable. Back to the TH at around 5 PM.

Stats: just less than 25 mi with a very relaxed and slow pace. I think 3 days 2 nights are still doable to bag all 3 peaks that we originally planned but we were just too slow and tired 🙂.